Ski helmets in America...

I've already been wearing a helmet for seven winter seasons. Today, I can't go skiing without one. When I speak to my French friends, they often equate wearing one with high-speed and reckless skiing.

I don't share that view and instead, see many advantages to wearing one, but I could also add that I didn't start wearing one for necessarily the good reasons.

When I began, during the 2010-11 season, it was to stick my GoPro video camera on it, but I soon discovered that it kept my head warm, no matter how cold the weather was and that it was a convenient receptacle for my goggles, my gloves and balaclava so I never forgot one of these important components on my way to ski.

True, safety wasn't on my list. Since that time, helmets have made huge gains in popularity among snow sport practitioners.

On Monday, as I was riding the chairlift in Park City, I conducted two very informal but telling surveys. I simply counted the folks that wore helmet vs. hats who were skiing below me (it was too cold to ski without any headgear).

Out of two counts, my observations yielded a solid 90% wearing hard-hats!