Brittany Howelko was one of the first people I met in Jasper.

While having a drink at the Whistle Stop pub I overheard her say to another customer that she, too, was from Manitoba. When she came over to my table we talked a bit about our Prairie home and how we had both decided to leave the province because it’s just too darn flat for a skier like me or a snowboarder like her.

It was just a brief conversation but it stuck in my mind. She seemed like a genuinely nice person with a real passion for the mountains. I was shocked this week to hear what happened to her.

You can read the details in Nicole Veerman’s story on page 5, but basically Brittany, 23, suffered a head injury while snowboarding at Marmot Basin on Nov. 14, just a few days after the resort opened. She seemed fine at first and even joked about her fall. Shortly afterwards she was unconscious and being flown to a hospital in Edmonton where, as of press time, she remained in a coma.

The story is disturbingly similar to that of Will Schooler, a 20-year-old skier from Edmonton who struck his head last month while riding a rail in his new home of Nelson, B.C. Schooler seemed fine after the fall, too, and even continued to ride the rail a few more times.

The next day his friends found him unconscious in his bedroom. He was flown to a hospital in Kelowna, but there was nothing doctors could do. He died the day before his 21st birthday.

These types of injuries are a frightening reminder of how fragile our bodies are, in particular our brains. I’m not as young as Brittany or Will anymore, but I still have a pretty youthful sense of indestructibility. Incidents like this certainly make me stop and think.

I still don’t wear a helmet when I ski. I have no idea why. Many of my friends now do. I guess I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Well, I will now. And if you ski or snowboard or take part in any other high-speed sports that put you at risk of a head injury, you probably should too. That is, if you haven’t already.

I have certainly noticed a rapidly growing proportion of skiers and snowboarders wearing helmets in the last few years. Sales figures seem to back that up. A British website dedicated to the mountain resort industry, natives.co.uk, reports that worldwide helmet sales have increased by 200 per cent in the last two years.

Helmets are also mandatory for kids and teenagers at a growing number of resorts. This began to happen shortly after the high-profile death of Natasha Richardson (the wife of actor Liam Neeson) after her injury at Mont Tremblant, Que., in 2009. She, too, seemed fine immediately after falling and hitting her head but died in hospital a short while later.

Legislation introduced this week in Nova Scotia, in fact, would make helmets mandatory across that entire province. A bill put forward on Tuesday would require all skiers and snowboarders to wear helmets or face fines of $250.

I’m not sure heavy-handed government intervention is the best way to get more people to wear helmets, however, especially seeing how the ski and snowboard community seems to be naturally moving in this direction on its own.

I see helmets now where avalanche gear used to be. Five or 10 years ago, it was much more common to see skiers and snowboarders venturing out into backcountry terrain without shovels, probes and beacons. These days, you would be embarrassed if your fellow backcountry riders spotted you out without that basic gear.

It took a series of tragic accidents for the community to get to that point, however. And while avalanche deaths still continue to occur, they are not as common as they used to be just a few years ago, especially considering how many more people are now venturing out into the backcountry.

So, if there’s one positive that we can take from Brittany’s injury, it’s that it will certainly lead to more people wearing helmets in the future. Her story was the kick in the pants I needed, and I imagine many other Jasper skiers and snowboarders will finally get around to it, too. The “Helmets for Hope” event planned for Dec. 17 at the Whistle Stop is a perfect way to encourage this, while also raising some money to support Brittany and her loved ones at this difficult time.

My thoughts are with Brittany now, too, as they will be in the future, each time I strap on my new helmet.

DISCLAIMER: The Last Word is an opinion column, it is meant to provoke thought and debate. As such, any opinions written here are the writer’s own and do not reflect the viewpoint of any other Fitzhugh staff member or the directors of the Jasper Media Group Inc.