Michael Schumacher’s Skiing Accident in Méribel, December 2013

On 29 December 2013, seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher fell while skiing with his 14-year-old son Mick in Méribel, in the French Alps. He struck his head on a rock just off a marked piste, was flown to the university hospital in Grenoble with severe head injuries, and spent the following months in an induced coma. The accident, five days before his 45th birthday, made headlines around the world and put ski helmets and off-piste terrain in the spotlight.

What happened in Méribel on 29 December 2013

Schumacher was on a family holiday in the Trois Vallées, skiing with his son. About 8 metres off-piste, between a red and a blue run, one of his skis hit a rock sticking out of the snow. He fell and struck his head on a rock.

The investigation led by Albertville prosecutor Patrick Quincy reported on 8 January 2014 that Schumacher was about 8 metres off the edge of the piste when he struck the rock. Investigators reconstructed the fall from the GoPro camera mounted on his helmet, whose footage Quincy called "perfectly clear". They found that he had slowed down as he started a turn, that speed was not an important factor, and that his skis were in perfect condition. The inquiry was closed the following month with no legal action.

He was wearing a helmet, which split on impact.

Grenoble, Lausanne and the long recovery

Rescuers flew him by helicopter to the University Hospital of Grenoble. Surgeons operated twice in the first days to remove blood clots, although some lay too deep to reach, and doctors kept him in an induced coma to reduce swelling of the brain.

The key dates since then:

• 16 June 2014: his manager Sabine Kehm announced that he was out of the coma and had left Grenoble for Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) in Switzerland "to continue his long phase of rehabilitation".
• 9 September 2014: 254 days after the fall, his manager announced that he had moved home to Gland, Switzerland, where his rehabilitation continues with his wife Corinna and their family.

The family asked from the start that his rehabilitation take place away from the public eye, and they have kept his condition private ever since.

Méribel and the Trois Vallées

Méribel sits in the commune of Les Allues in Savoie, in the Tarentaise valley near Moûtiers. The ski area climbs from about 1,450 m to 2,952 m. Peter Lindsay first visited the valley in 1936, the first lift opened in 1938, and the Burgin-Saulire gondola linked Méribel to Courchevel in 1950.

Today the resort lies at the heart of Les Trois Vallées, a linked ski area with about 180 lifts and more than 600 km of marked runs. It also connects Courchevel, La Tania, Les Menuires, Saint-Martin-de-Belleville, Val Thorens and Orelle. Méribel hosted the women's alpine events and the ice hockey at the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics. In February 2023 it shared the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships with Courchevel, with the women's speed and technical races held on the Roc de Fer slope.

Michael Schumacher on the track and on skis

Born on 3 January 1969 in Hürth, Germany, Schumacher won the world drivers' championship seven times: in 1994 and 1995 with Benetton and five years in a row from 2000 to 2004 with Ferrari. He took 91 Grand Prix victories, 72 of them for Ferrari. He retired at the end of 2006, returned with Mercedes from 2010 to 2012, and drove his last race at the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Skiing was part of his life long before the accident. During his Ferrari years he skied at the team's annual pre-season winter break in Madonna di Campiglio, in the Italian Dolomites, which ended with a giant slalom race; in 2001 he was fastest of the Ferrari drivers, ahead of Rubens Barrichello and Luca Badoer. The photographs on this page come from those earlier years.

Helmets and head injuries on the slopes

The Schumacher accident is often cited in the case for ski helmets. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise wearing a helmet made for the specific sport, fitted correctly and worn every time, because it lowers the risk of serious head and brain injury, although no helmet can prevent every concussion. Off-piste and early-season snow add another hazard: rocks barely covered by a thin snowpack, exactly what caught Schumacher's ski.

Call ski patrol or emergency services straight away after any hard blow to the head. The NHS lists warning signs that need urgent care, including difficulty staying awake, a seizure, new weakness, and problems with speech, understanding, balance or walking.

Related reading

• Juneau the Dog and the Rescue of Skier Leonard Somers
• Aymar Navarro’s Avalanche Incident in the Spanish Pyrenees
• East Vail Avalanche Rescue: The December 22, 2013 Footage
• Ski helmets and brain injuries
• What it is like to go off the world's largest ski jump

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