First week of August and I am still spending my evenings entering last season's injury data into my computer! Its definitely the least glamorous part of research and IMHO its the time when i really earn all my free skiing and trips abroad! Last season was a great one in Scotland which equates to more skier days, more injuries and so a longer period of data entry. Its really quite a bug bear of mine as it takes a lot of time to do. It does have its upsides though, as you read through all the injury scenarios that have occurred the previous season. Some of them from CairnGorm I remember well, whereas with others from different ski areas i can only imagine the scene. Thankfully, I haven't come across any real horrors yet (like a catastrophic spinal injury). Once all the data is entered, then the real fun of data analysis starts. To be honest, the only thing that varies from season to season in general are the absolute numbers - the %'s tend to stay largely the same. That said, in some specific areas the numbers are starting to get big enough to be more meaningful - injuries from snow park jumps for one. I hope to post some of these analyses on www.ski-injury.com in due course. Others will be presented at ISSS 2009 next year.
BTW, the Ski Patrol will be featuring in a new fly-on-the-wall series "Highland Emergency" due to start on Channel 5 in the UK tomorrow (Tuesday, Aug 5th) at 19.30. Keep an eye out for it!
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