Most Swiss skiers exceed 50km per hour

Skiers and snowboarders make their way down a piste above Grindelwald © Keystone / Anthony Anex

Three out of four Swiss skiers travel at over 50km/h, and one in five even tops out at over 70km/h, according to a study by the Swiss Accident Insurance Fund (SUVA). Speed on the slopes has increased in recent years.

“My daughter Norah was mown down by a skier. He was going much too fast,” Benoît Pythoud lost his daughter in a skiing collision. It was in March 2017 in the family resort of Les Mosses.

Norah was six years old. A teenager hit her at full speed on a beginners’ slope. “Time has passed, but it’s hard for me to forgive that teenager. He should never have taken so many risks,” Pythoud told Swiss public television RTS’s Mise au point programmeExternal link on Sunday.

“You can see that a lot of skiers go too fast. They overestimate their ability to brake,” he said.

+ Swiss slope accidents cost CHF600 million annually

SUVA agrees. The insurance company conducted a study into speed using its Slope Track application, downloaded by tens of thousands of skiers. It measured almost 400,000 descents.

According to the initial results, 75% of skiers have a top speed in excess of 50km/h. Nearly a fifth of skiers even exceed 70 km/h. There are also a significant number of skiers who regularly exceed 100km/h – as fast as a car on the motorway.

Greater sense of safety

This increase in speed on the slopes can be explained by several factors, RTS wrote. On the one hand, the slopes are ever wider and better prepared, with no bumps or unevenness. Cannon snow guarantees hard, fast and sometimes icy runs. Technical developments have also made carving skis easier and faster to handle.

On the other hand, the advent of protective helmets and high-performance bindings has meant that a number of injuries have been avoided, resulting in a greater sense of safety.

Despite these technical advances, accidents are still common in Switzerland. There are around 60,000 skiing accidents every year, a figure that has fallen slightly over time.

However, this does not mean that the risks have been reduced. In fact, the Swiss are skiing less and less. The number of days skied by the country’s inhabitants is falling year on year, but the dangers of this sliding sport remain significant. With speed, the severity of certain types of accident is even increasing.

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