The etiology of ski injuries: an eight year study of the skier and his equipment.

Detailed ski injury statistics have been maintained at Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, since the opening of the area as a major ski resort in 1966. These statistics were examined to uncover some of the major contributory factors involved in ski accidents. The characteristics that set this study aside from other such reports are the inclusion of both an adequately sized normal control population and the longitudinal collection of comparable data from a relatively stable skiing population over an eight year period, to reveal trends in the number and type of accidents.