Lindsay Vonn’s recent crash shows the dangerous of racing down the ski slopes. While riders are increasingly donning helmets some companies are looking at how airbags could help reduce injuries. These include French-based Helite, which offers a wearable airbag system that includes accelerometers and sensors to detect when a skier is falling and automatically inflates, covering the skiers in a protective vest.
Helite hopes to have the technology deployed in time that it could actually be deployed by racers at next year’s Olympic Games. Continue reading Airbag for Olympics
The North Face has long been known for its quality outdoor products, and the company has built quite a name with its brand. However, as Skiing Business reports the company, which has seemed to stray from its core business, is launching its new Steep Series, which will only be sold in specialty stores as the brand looks to commit and reconnect with its core users. This means the new line of outdoor apparel will be in specialty retailers rather than chain stores. 
Italian helmet maker Osbe have introduced a new stylish ski helmet for those who don’t like to take their time heading down the slopes. This model features an integrated lens/helmet design that eliminates the need for goggles – hence the Osbe United moniker. It features UV-protected, anti-fog lens that even allows skiers to wear prescription glasses if needed. This one just screams speed.
This year there’s actually snow on the slopes, so you might get a little bit more excited about new ski gear coming out. Rossignol certainly is excited, it’s releasing an all new Alltrack series. The premier boot, the Alltrack Pro 130, is an all-mountain boot packed with features. 
We’ve seen inflatable airbags to help protect skiers during an avalanche but now Dainese has devised an airbag system to help protect downhill ski racers in case of a crash. The company’s new D-AIR Ski Project could even be in place by the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. This safety system features three integrated accelerometers and gyroscopes plus a GPS unit and an onboard microprocessor to detect any sudden movements.
Back in 
Last winter was a non-starter and while that meant a savings for communities in terms of snow removable, likely reduced delays in air travel and also made highways safer it wasn’t so good for the ski resorts. While it is still too early to tell if Mother Nature will return with a vengeance ski resorts aren’t taking chances. Manmade snow has been around for decades, but snow-making is reportedly going high tech.
Winter comes to Denmark, but unlike its Scandinavian neighbors the country lacks serious places to ski. But now the Northern European nation is looking to take a page from Dubai’s playbook by building an indoor ski part.
It is all too easy to think of soft fluffy snow, something that isn’t so bad to land on while skiing or snowboarding. But a new Johns Hopkins-led study, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences and the American College of Surgeons’ C. James Carrico Fellowship for the Study of Trauma and Critical Care, has founded that the use of helmets by skiers and snowboarders decreases the risk and severity of head injuries. It can also save lives.
At the SIA Snowsports Show in January we got to see an early model of the 
When heading to the slopes you need to go up before you go down, and the Aether Altitude jacket will be ready to go as high as you like. It features three-layers with Schoeller C_change fabric that dynamically adjusts water vapor permeability as the temperature changes. This means it will keep you warm even as things cool down, and should you heat up the jacket can respond according.
Recon Instruments has had various data transmitted directly to the lens of its ski goggles for a while now, but beginning soon Oakley is looking to get in the game with its Airwave goggles. These will feature a heads-up display that was developed by Recon Instruments – so we know what to expect – and users can expect integrated GPS< Bluetooth and a variety of onboard sensors.
While there is no shortage of wearable action cameras the folks at Zeal Optics have another idea – namely putting the action camera in the goggles rather than on the helmet. The company introduced goggle-cameras last season and for the 2012-13 ski season – which we hear could more than make up for the bust that was last year – wearers can record in full HD.