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Managing risk in ski resorts: Environmental factors affecting actual and estimated speed on signposted groomed slopes in a cohort of adult recreational alpine skiers
BACKGROUND: Certain weather conditions are clearly harmful, increasing the risk of injury of winter sports participants substantially. The objective of this study was to investigate actual speeds of skiers on signposted groomed slopes and to measure their skill to accurately estimate them with regar...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8375985/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34411188 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256349 |
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author | Carus, Luis Castillo, Isabel |
author_facet | Carus, Luis Castillo, Isabel |
author_sort | Carus, Luis |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Certain weather conditions are clearly harmful, increasing the risk of injury of winter sports participants substantially. The objective of this study was to investigate actual speeds of skiers on signposted groomed slopes and to measure their skill to accurately estimate them with regard to environmental conditions such as visibility, sky cover, snow quality, wind and temperature. METHODS: The data were obtained from a sample of 421 adult recreational skiers taking ski courses. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to explore the relationship between actual and estimated speed for all participants. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to measure the effect of environmental conditions on both the skiers’ actual speeds and their errors of estimation. Values of 0.05 or less were considered to indicate statistical significance. RESULTS: The Pearson correlation coefficient between estimated and actual speed was 0.90 (P < 0.001). Skiers underestimated their actual speed on average by 13.06 km/h or 24.1%. Visibility, quality of snow and wind speed were shown to significantly affect both actual maximum speed and estimated speed. Good visibility, grippy snow and calm wind were associated with both the highest actual maximum speed and the lowest ability to estimate it. CONCLUSION: Certain environmental conditions are associated with the actual speed at which skiers travel and with their ability to estimate it. Visibility, quality of snow and wind speed seem to influence both actual speed and the ability to estimate it while sky cover and temperature do not. A reinforced understanding of skiing speed on signposted groomed slopes is useful to gain insight into crashes and the mechanisms of resulting injuries, to evaluate means of protection and to devise successful prevention policies in ski resorts. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8375985 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-83759852021-08-20 Managing risk in ski resorts: Environmental factors affecting actual and estimated speed on signposted groomed slopes in a cohort of adult recreational alpine skiers Carus, Luis Castillo, Isabel PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Certain weather conditions are clearly harmful, increasing the risk of injury of winter sports participants substantially. The objective of this study was to investigate actual speeds of skiers on signposted groomed slopes and to measure their skill to accurately estimate them with regard to environmental conditions such as visibility, sky cover, snow quality, wind and temperature. METHODS: The data were obtained from a sample of 421 adult recreational skiers taking ski courses. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to explore the relationship between actual and estimated speed for all participants. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to measure the effect of environmental conditions on both the skiers’ actual speeds and their errors of estimation. Values of 0.05 or less were considered to indicate statistical significance. RESULTS: The Pearson correlation coefficient between estimated and actual speed was 0.90 (P < 0.001). Skiers underestimated their actual speed on average by 13.06 km/h or 24.1%. Visibility, quality of snow and wind speed were shown to significantly affect both actual maximum speed and estimated speed. Good visibility, grippy snow and calm wind were associated with both the highest actual maximum speed and the lowest ability to estimate it. CONCLUSION: Certain environmental conditions are associated with the actual speed at which skiers travel and with their ability to estimate it. Visibility, quality of snow and wind speed seem to influence both actual speed and the ability to estimate it while sky cover and temperature do not. A reinforced understanding of skiing speed on signposted groomed slopes is useful to gain insight into crashes and the mechanisms of resulting injuries, to evaluate means of protection and to devise successful prevention policies in ski resorts. Public Library of Science 2021-08-19 /pmc/articles/PMC8375985/ /pubmed/34411188 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256349 Text en © 2021 Carus, Castillo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Carus, Luis Castillo, Isabel Managing risk in ski resorts: Environmental factors affecting actual and estimated speed on signposted groomed slopes in a cohort of adult recreational alpine skiers |
title | Managing risk in ski resorts: Environmental factors affecting actual and estimated speed on signposted groomed slopes in a cohort of adult recreational alpine skiers |
title_full | Managing risk in ski resorts: Environmental factors affecting actual and estimated speed on signposted groomed slopes in a cohort of adult recreational alpine skiers |
title_fullStr | Managing risk in ski resorts: Environmental factors affecting actual and estimated speed on signposted groomed slopes in a cohort of adult recreational alpine skiers |
title_full_unstemmed | Managing risk in ski resorts: Environmental factors affecting actual and estimated speed on signposted groomed slopes in a cohort of adult recreational alpine skiers |
title_short | Managing risk in ski resorts: Environmental factors affecting actual and estimated speed on signposted groomed slopes in a cohort of adult recreational alpine skiers |
title_sort | managing risk in ski resorts: environmental factors affecting actual and estimated speed on signposted groomed slopes in a cohort of adult recreational alpine skiers |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8375985/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34411188 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256349 |
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