The Wyoming Department of Employment has cited Jackson Hole Mountain Resort for failing to protect ski patroller Kathryn Miller with a helmet when she died in a fall last winter.

Miller died of head injuries after falling in Spacewalk Couloir, a steep rock-sided chute at the resort’s Rendezvous Mountain permit area in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. The resort does not require its patrollers or other ski workers to wear helmets.

Following an investigation into her death by the state occupational safety and health branch of the employment department, the agency cited the company for “not ensuring the use of head protection to help prevent or reduce the severity of head injuries.” The citation could be precedent-setting on a topic – helmet use – that has caught the attention of ski areas nationwide, if not internationally.

The resort, however, will appeal the citation, arguing there were no policies in place at any ski area in the United States at the time that required ski patrols to wear protective headgear.

“We’ve requested a meeting with [Wyoming] Department of Employment to appeal this decision because of that reasoning,” said Anna Olson, the Mountain Resort’s brand director.

The department of employment issued the citation following a routine investigation of a workplace death. Miller fell on March 19 while on duty and checking out ski conditions with another patroller at the out-of-bounds run.

Olson would not detail the fine levied with the citation saying the case is ongoing.

J.D. Danni, Occupational Safety and Heath Administration program manager in Cheyenne, said his agency would not release the report of the investigation of Miller’s death while the case was pending.

“This is still an open case file,” he said.

The resort told the News&Guide following the accident that Miller was not wearing a helmet. Company policy is to encourage employees to investigate the potential benefits of helmets, officials said at the time.

At the preliminary appeals meeting with the state agency, the Mountain Resort will argue that no ski resorts in the country required employees to wear helmets at the time of Miller’s death and no ski resorts in the country are known to have provided helmets to employees.

Those in the ski industry support the resort’s position.

“At the time when Kathryn Miller had her accident, of the 400-plus ski areas in the United States, zero of them required employees to wear helmets and zero required them of their employees,” said Dave Byrd, director of education and risk with the National Ski Area Association.

There have been changes in the months since Miller’s death, however. In April, Vail Resorts announced it would make helmets mandatory for all employees skiing or riding on the job beginning with the 2009-10 winter season.

The policy will be put in place at all five of the company’s resorts: Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Heavenly.

The policy also requires children ages 12 and under, who participate in a group lesson, to wear a helmet.

The resort began discussing the implementation of this policy years ago said John Garnsey, co-president of Vail Resorts’ Mountain Division and chief operating officer of Beaver Creek Resort.

“The safety of our employees and guests is a top priority, and we believe the time has come for us to take our commitment to safety to the next level,” Garnsey said in a telephone interview from Colorado. “Our employees will set the example next year for all who enjoy skiing and riding our slopes.”

Olson would not say whether Jackson Hole favors requiring employees to wear helmets while skiing at work. It is, however, conducting an internal review and could alter policy, she said.

“We continue to encourage our staff and guests to educate themselves on the use of helmets,” Olson said. Both the Mountain Resort and the National Ski Patrol point skiers and snowboarders to a National Ski Areas Association helmet safety fact sheet available at www.nsaa.org.

That group cautions that studies show helmets helping most in preventing only minor injuries. The organization pointed to a 2008 study by J. Shealy, R. Johnson and C. Ettlinger titled “Do Helmets Reduce Fatalities or merely Alter the Patterns of Death?”

It said a review of helmet efficacy in ski accidents concludes that “the salutary effect [of helmet usage] was limited to the less serious head injuries, such as scalp lacerations and mild concussions.” It noted “no significant effect ... for the more serious head injuries such as concussions more severe than mild, closed head injury, skull fracture and death due to head injury.”

According to a study released by the National Ski Areas Association in June, 48 percent of skiers and boarders use helmets, up from 43 percent the year before. The association promotes the use of helmets, although the effectiveness of the head gear is a frequent topic for debate.

The Mountain Resort, meanwhile, promoted helmet use during Safety Week last year by offering a 20 percent discount on helmets at Teton Village.

The use of helmets continues to be a contentious subject in the ski industry, brought to the front pages following the death of actress Natasha Richardson on March 18 after a fall on a beginners’ slope at Mount Tremblant, Quebec. She was not wearing a helmet.

“It is a hot topic for a variety of reasons” Byrd said. “Like Natasha Richardson’s death. When you have a celebrity death, it raises the consciousness. Three to four months after Vail embarked on their new policy, there has been a lot of discussion, obviously.”

One of the biggest roadblocks many resorts may have in providing helmets to employees is cost, Byrd said. After all, providing a $70 helmet to all employees is a hefty price tag.

However, the overall sense in the industry is that many resorts will eventually follow Vail’s lead.

“Vail in a number of ways is out in front in the industry on a lot of topics, and they pride themselves on that,” Byrd said. “To be the first ski resort to provide helmets to employee is a big deal. I will not be surprised to see other ski areas spill over to follow Vail’s lead.

Helmets are not widely used among local expert skiers at Jackson Hole, however, where a live-and-let-live attitude prevails among hard-core downhillers. And it isn’t common to see ski patrollers or other employees wearing helmets either.