Snowboarding

Is snowboarding safe?

As safe as skiing for the risk of death, and slightly worse for injuries early on. The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) recorded 50 skier and snowboarder deaths in 61.6 million visits to US ski areas in 2024/25, 0.81 per million, and 0.60 per million the season before. Snowboarders accounted for 13 of the 50 deaths, which NSAA says closely reflects their share of people on the slopes. So a day of resort snowboarding carries about 0.6 to 0.8 micromortsMicromortA one-in-a-million chance of death. It lets you compare the risk of very different activities on one scale.More in the glossary, about the same as a day of ordinary life and about the same as driving 100 miles in the US.

The trade-off comes in the first week: snowboard beginners fall constantly, and they fall forwards and backwards onto their hands.

How snowboarders get hurt

Snowboarders and skiers break different things. With both feet fixed to one board, a snowboarder cannot step out of a fall, and the natural reaction is to put out a hand. Wrist sprains and fractures are the signature injury, along with shoulder, collarbone and tailbone injuries. Skiers, whose skis can twist the leg, more often tear knee ligaments.

A 2015 meta-analysis of 55 studies by Hume and colleagues found the factors that most raised injury risk:

Risk factor	Odds of injury
Beginner snowboarder	2.7 times higher
Poor visibility	2.7 times higher
Rented equipment	2.6 times higher

Experienced riders get hurt differently: the same review found they are more likely to be injured on jumps, while beginners are hurt mainly by ordinary falls. NSAA reported no deaths in US terrain parks in 2024/25.

What kills snowboarders at resorts

The pattern matches skiing. Of the 50 US resort deaths in 2024/25, nearly half were collisions with trees, 46 were men and most happened on intermediate runs. About 10% were snow immersion deaths, mostly in tree wells: deep pockets of loose snow around trees that can trap a rider head first. Getting out of deep snow with a board strapped to both feet is hard without help.

The NSAA count excludes heart attacks and anything outside the resort boundary, so it is a measure of trauma on the pistes only.

Helmets and the head

Helmet use is now the norm. NSAA puts it at 91% of all riders and 96% of under-18s, and 16% of those killed in 2024/25 were not wearing one. A 2010 meta-analysis of 12 studies by Russell and colleagues found that skiers and snowboarders wearing a helmet had about a third lower odds of a head injury, and no higher risk of neck injury, which had been a worry. A helmet helps most in the low-speed falls and collisions that make up most accidents. At the speed of a tree collision it protects the head but not the chest or abdomen, so speed is still the main thing you control.

Leaving the resort

Many snowboarders ride side-country and backcountry terrain, often on splitboards. The risk changes completely there. Colorado's avalanche centre recorded 126 people caught in avalanches in 2024/25 and 3 killed, below the 10-year average of 6. Outside the ropes there is no patrol, and a buried rider can suffocate within minutes, so rescue depends on partners carrying a transceiver, shovel and probe.

How to snowboard more safely

1. Wear wrist guards, especially in your first season. A 2007 review found they cut wrist injuries by about three-quarters.
2. Wear a helmet. Helmets reduce head injuries by about a third with no rise in neck injuries.
3. Take lessons in your first days. Learning to fall and to stop on an edge cuts the number of hard falls.
4. Use gear that fits. Rented equipment and poorly adjusted bindings are linked to more injuries.
5. Slow down near trees and in flat light. Poor visibility nearly triples injury odds.
6. Ride the trees with a partner on powder days and stay in sight of each other.
7. Build up to jumps on small features, and check the landing before you hit anything.
8. Going out of bounds? Read the avalanche forecast, carry a transceiver, shovel and probe, and take an avalanche course first.

How we scored it

Fatality risk (87) reflects under 1 micromortMicromortA one-in-a-million chance of death. It lets you compare the risk of very different activities on one scale.More in the glossary per resort day, the same as skiing. Injury risk (58) is the weak point, driven by frequent wrist and upper-body injuries in beginners. Controllability (72) is good because wrist guards, helmets and lessons work, and resort patrols keep help close (84). See skiing for the shared NSAA data and mountaineering for what changes when you leave the lifts behind.