A new Swedish helmet, complete with airbags and fashionable enough to be a scarf, is a radical departure from familiar, bulky biking helmets on the market today.

But research shows that innovations in cycling gear could be very trendy in the near future. The inflatable Hovding Helmet, which is worn around the neck and is specifically designed for the cycling commuter, is already selling in Europe and is coming soon to North America.

Invented by two Swedish students, Hovding is covered by a removable shell that can be changed to match an outfit, and new designs will be launching all the time. Hövding is a practical accessory that's easy to carry around, it's got a great-looking, yet subtle, design – plus, it might save your life.

Sensors around the rider's neck can sense a quick or unusual movement and will trigger the helmet to inflate. The sensors read body movements 200 times per second, and when it senses danger, the Hovding helmet inflates like a hood.

There are some draw backs, however, as consumers can not repack the “air bag” once it is deployed.

The company that manufactures Hovding was recently honored at the Tribeca Film Festival, in partnership with the GE Focus Forward Film Series, which highlights innovative ideas, such as the ergonomic, practical, and subtle Hovding.

There are plenty of stats that tell us that wearing a helmet while cycling is a good idea. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2011 there were 38,000 cicyclist injuries, and 91 percent of bicyclists killed in 2009 reportedly weren't wearing helmets.

The US Department of Transportation conducted a survey in 2011 which found that the biggest area of accidents on bikes was in traffic. So even though only 5 percnet of the people surveyed were commuters, they were at the greatest risk. The Hovding helmet was designed specifically for commuters, and in test after test, the inflatable helmet rated higher in safety than traditional helmets, when it came to head injuries.

Airbag technology has been revolutionary in other sports as well, such as skiing and snowboarding, where avalanche airbags have a 90 percent survival rate when deployed in avalanches. The inventors of the Hovding helmets are already getting requests from other helmet-wearing sports, such as skate boarders, equine riders and winter riders.

If you just look at the traffic safety data from airbags in cars you can see that this company is onto something big.

It's hard to argue against innovation especially around safety.

Listen to the entire interview with Anna Haupt, inventor and co-founder of the Hovding Helmet on RadioBDC:

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The famous Mount Washington “American Inferno” race started in 1933. It was a top-to-bottom race from the peak to the valley floor. Toni Matt won the race in 1939 when he “schussed,” or skied head-on, the head wall by accident. It was a foggy spring afternoon and Matt won the 8 mile race in a record time of 6 minutes 29.2 seconds, with an estimated top speed of over 85 miles per hour.

The 2013 race showed just how tough this competition can be, with freezing temps and high winds the competitors battled it out the entire way up and down the mountain, through Tuckerman Ravine.

Years later, Matt said that when he reached the floor of the headwall, at the transition from steep to relatively flat, he felt lucky to be "nineteen, stupid, and have strong legs."

Charlie Proctor and John Carleton were the first men to ski the steep head wall in 1931. “We skied it out of necessity, simple as that," said Proctor in an interview with me back in 1992. He said he “just wanted to get home.”

Proctor and Carleton's first tracks down the steep, icy face gave birth to a New England tradition and Matt’s record breaking run not only earned him a place in skiing history, but more importantly created international folk lore that exists to this day.

Friends of Tuckerman Ravine is an organization with a mission to “seek and preserve the historic recreational use of the Tuckerman Ravine and Mount Washington.” And it is in this light they still hold the Tuckerman Inferno pentathlon each year.

The race is open both to teams of five (one of whom must be of the opposite sex) and to solo TuckerMen and TuckerWomen competitors.

The Tuckerman Inferno pentathlon consists of an 8.3 mile run, a 6 mile kayak race down the Saco River, an 18 mile bike race north through Pinkham Notch, a 3 mile run/hike up the Tuckerman Trail to Mount Washington's Tuckerman Ravine and a 1 mile ski/hike giant slalom to the floor of the ravine.

This is an amazingly hard event, as hard as it was skiing the head wall on wooden skis and leather boots back in 1931.

For the full results of this year's race, check Facebook.

Listen to the interview on the race and on activities on the Saco River on Edging the Xtreme on RadioBDC:

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Avalanches are serious business. Even a moderate one can knock down trees, destroy houses, and virtually clean out anything in its path. The misconception is that they only happen in the back country. However, last year an avalanche in France wiped out a moving chairlift with 41 people on it.

Here in New England, New Hampshire’s Presidential Range are the most avalanche-prone mountains east of the Rockies. The website for Mount Washington states, “Since 1954 there have been 10 avalanche fatalities and many other avalanche accidents in the Presidential Range. Historical data indicate that avalanche accidents have increased in the past decade, mirroring the national trend in recreation related avalanche accidents in the United States.”

When it comes to avalanche training and information, most of it can be very technical and sometimes hard to understand, but in the last few years, there has been a trend to focus more of the information toward the growing number of recreational and advanced skiers that are venturing off into the backcountry.

Henry Schniewind has been on the forefront of this movement since the late 1980s, after he graduated from Montana State University with a degree in Snow Science.

Armed with a passion for skiing and his degree, Schniewind moved to Val D'Isere, France, where we carved out a niche for himself by creating awareness for vacationers from around the world on the dangers of avalanches.

What started out as an afternoon presentation at a popular bar in Val D'Isere has grown into a full fledged company that does presentations around the Alps and the United Kingdom. What makes Schniewind's avalanche program so different is his focus on providing useable information for the everyday skier that saves lives from the Alps to New England.

His company motto is “Ride Hard, Ride Safe." On his website, where his main theme is “Safety is Freedom," skiers and riders can find information on weather, conditions around the Alps, access his blog and watch videos all designed to keep skiers and snowboarders on vacation safe.

Schniewind is originally from Newton, Mass. and has a teenager's race at Green Mountain Valley School and at Blue Hills. Once an employee of the former Ski Market retail chain, Schniewind has been recognized as a world-wide leader in avalanche safety. He has given over 750 talks and courses in the last 20 years, including presenting at international snow science conferences. He has published many papers and articles, and is motivated by the fact that that nine out of 10 victims of avalanches trigger the avalanche themselves and their injuries could have been avoided.

In the Alps each winter there are an average of 100 deaths per year. And when you add up that figure to the deaths in North America and beyond, it's clear that avalanches present real danger. Henry’s Avalanche Talks (HAT) is an easy-to-understand voice amongst the technical and often complicated snow science information that tends to be distributed by avalanche sites and experts.

Schniewind has been a long-time friend and ski partner of mine for over 30 years and I featured him on my long-running television series Wild World of Winter.

Hear the entire RadioBDC interview with Henry Schniewind on Edging the Xtreme with Dan Egan:

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“The past is history and the future is a mystery” says Mr. Fitness, Tony Horton. “Feel good now, work out now and make it a habit.”

More from RadioBDC: Listen to Part 1 of Dan Egan's interview with Tony Horton

Horton, the founder of fitness regimen P90X, takes no excuses for delaying fitness and preaches both nutrition and activity. One of his main themes is “clean up the diet and get off the sugar, the fats, salts and chemicals, processed foods that come from boxes and bags.” If you go to www.beachbody.com and check out his orginal program, titled Power 90,you can see Horton's recipe for weight loss and nutrition.

His new program, 10 Minute Trainer,sounds too good to be true, but as he explains in the second part of the Radio BDC interview, it's just to get people started in forming good habits – so 10 minutes turns into 20 minutes, and it grows from there.

After the success of his first two books, Bring It and Crush It, he is launching his third, out this summer. There seems no end in sight for his fitness empire expansion, which includes a video game, food line, clothing line and sunglasses.

Tony Horton is a motivator and he has built his success on making getting fit both fun and effective. His approach is sometimes corny, and often over-the-top, but the bottom line is: his programs work.

So if you're looking to break free of the winter and looking towards a spring and summer of fun in the sun and feeling better about yourself, start any one of his programs and stick with it.

Just check out his web page www.tonyhortonsworld.com. You’ll be glad you did.

Listen to the part two of the Tony Horton interview on Edging the Xtreme only on RadioBDC:

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Tony Horton has risen to heights rarely found by fitness trainers. This kid from Rhode Island, who describes himself as a “high school weakling,” has created a fitness empire that has produced the top fitness program of all time.

In almost any circle, if you mention Tony Horton, P90X, or the" fitness guy on TV," people will know the program, or, more than likely, have done it themselves.

More: Listen to Part Two of Dan Egan's interview with Tony Horton

The P90X regimen appeals to people for many reasons. Tony explains, “Its fun, fast-moving, and you don’t need fancy equipment or a gym. But more importantly, it works.”

The results do speak for themselves. After doing the P90X program, I have to admit that as hard as it was, the hour work outs went by quickly. The mix of Horton’s simple slapstick humor and encouragement keeps your mind off of the task at hand, and before you know it, you have done some crazy move on one leg with your arms touching the ground and reaching for the sky.

Add to that the Beach Body website, where there are resources like coaches, an online directory of exercises, fitness products and a community of friends that are helping you stay true to eating right, working out and having fun. And this mass access to fitness has taken away the mystery of staying fit and looking good.

Tony says he works out 22 days a month and that most people can achieve 18-22 days a month and should not be discouraged by the amount of time of each work out. He preaches routine and has a gospel of remaining young and beating back the hands of time through a mix of yoga, nutrition, balance and core strength.

His products range from the “10 minute work out” to the new P90X2.

The fact that amazes me is I have known Horton from his humble beginnings when he first started coming to my ski camps out west and in South America. And to watch him build his fitness following has been inspiring. I have witnessed people driving over nine hours just to shake his hand and thank him for changing and transforming their lives. His programs have not only been inspirational, but his commitment to helping people change their paradigm about themselves and the world around them is the underlining power of his success.

We caught up with Tony Horton just as he returned from a heli skiing trip in Canada for a special Edging the Xreme Radio BDC two-part series on fitness.

Listen to part one of our interview, as Tony talks about his early days, his books and more, and check out Tony's site.

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Chris Davenport, a New England native who ski raced his early years in the Mount Washington Valley, has gone on to be one of the most regonized skiers and mountaineers in recent times. His ambition and passion has led him to ski from the South Pole to the biggest peaks in Europe and beyond.

His exploits include skiing all 54 mountain peaks over 14,000 feet elevation in Colorado within one year, and skiing the biggest peaks in Europe including the Eger, Mount Blanc, the Matterhorn and the Monte Rosa.

He has skied in countless Warren Miller films, including a segment on Mount Washington, and is a two-time Big Mountain World Freeride Champion. Davenport's business exploits are equally as impressive, as he has his own clothing line with Spider Clothing Company, his own ski line with the Kastle Ski Company and he is a sponsored Red Bull athlete.

As an X Games bronze medalist and television announcer, Davenport spoke to Edging the Xtreme, sharing his insights on the future of the X Games in light of the recent death of an athlete this past winter. Davenport also spoke of pursuing his career as a professional mountaineer, knowing the full reality of lost friends and the pressure of having a family waiting for him back home.

Davenport attended Holderness Prep School in New Hampshire, to which he credits his focus for peak performance and setting and reaching personal goals.

Every summer, Davenport runs a ski camp in Portillo Chile in mid-August. So if you are looking to escape the hot summer sun, you can book a trip with him and his film star friends to one of the most beautiful ski resorts in the world.

Listen to the entire Chris Davenport Interview with Dan Egan on Radio BDC.

Doug Lewis competed in two Olympics and won a bronze medal at the World Championships in Bormio Italy back in 1985.

Today, he is a television sports analyst for Universal Sports Network.

There are few people on the planet as passionate for ski racing as Doug Lewis, and he was nice enough to give Edging the Xtreme an up-close-and-personal interview about Ted Ligety’s gold medals in both the Super Combined and the Super Giant Slalom at the World Championships this week in Austria.

Also, here's a bonus with some insight to the Lindsey Vonn crash and her surgery this week in Vail Colorado.

The World Ski Championships have started in Austria and after just one day, I have good news and bad news.

The good news first: Julia Mancoso, who won silver in the 2011 World Championships in Garmish Gemany, captured the bronze medal in Austria. Julia always steps it up for big events, and this is her fifth career World Championships Medal.

And Ted Ligety won gold in the Super G.

The bad news: Lindsey Vonn blew her knee out and had to be airlifted off the mountain. This is a devastating blow to the best Women Skier in in US Ski Team history, especially with the Olympics just a year away.

The US Disabled Ski team is also off to the World Championships in Spain and Tyler Walker is ranked number one in the world,

You can read and listen to the entire Tyler Walker interview here.

This is the spot from RadioBDC on this week's news:

Tyler Walker had his legs amputated when he was four years old. He was born with lumbar sacral agenesis, a birth defect that meant he was born without most of his spine.

“My parents had my legs amputated, which was a good decision, because my legs were just flopping around underneath me," Walker said in an interview from his home in Aspen, where he now lives and trains with the US Disabled Ski Team. "Since I can get out and walk around on my hands so easily, I’m glad they did.”

Originally from Franconia, NH Walker is a two-time Paralympian and a multi-time X-Games Gold Medalist. He has a lot to be proud of; this year at the International Paralympic Skiing NorAm Cup, he won five out of six events.

The first time I met Tyler was back in the late 1990’s when I was hiking over to ski the backside of Cannon Mountain. There he was, with a friend who was pushing and pulling him in his mono ski up and over the top of the mountain to ski some new snow on the backside of Cannon. I’ve been a fan ever since.

Chris Devlin-Young, whom Walker met at the Disabled Ski Programs at both Loon and Waterville Valley ski areas, is known as a fearless athlete who recently skied the famed Corbet's Coulior in Jackson Hole.

Devlin-Young, who is also from New Hampshire, a World Champion and four-time Paralympian, has become a coach, mentor and friend to Walker. Together they are aiming for the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia.

“I like to ski the most challenging part of any mountain," said the 26-year-old Walker. A 10-year veteran of the US Disabled Ski Team, he's is heading over to Spain to the World Championships next week.

Listen to my entire interview with Tyler, and follow his progress at the “Worlds” and on the road to the Paralympics in Sochi Russia in 2014, here at Edging the Xtreme on Radio BDC.

Dominance in sports is an amazing accomplishment, and Shawn White winning his sixth gold medal in the Men’s Super Pipe is monumental.

Sliver went to Japanese Ayumu Hirano, who at just 14 years old, came within just seven points of beating White, who is almost twice his age.

Hirano, when asked why he's so good at a press conference, answered simply, “I don’t know.” For ESPN, it was a perfect ending to another X Games full of non-stop action, high-flying stunts, acrobatics, and crashes.

And ESPN knows why the X Games are so good; it's because people are watching.

In 2012 total attendance in Aspen reached 108,000 and this year, the number is expected to be higher. On Saturday night alone ESPN was reporting 47,000-plus sports enthusiasts in the stands. This year the event hosted over 200 athletes competing in 16 disciplines.

Between ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, action sports have a huge platform and with a record number of people watching, advertisers are happy, fans are thrilled and the X Games will roll on.

For the athletes competing on the biggest stage in action sports, there is very little room for error. They're gambling it all, and, let's face it: these events are dangerous.

In the Men’s Ski SuperPipe, the announcer said noted that every athlete competing in the event has had a major surgery in the last 14 months. In the Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe, two of the television announcers were athletes with injuries: Kevin Pierce has a permanent brain injury and, the other, Gretchen Bleiler, is suffering from a fractured eye socket from a crash during training on a trampoline.

In Snowmobile X, two brothers were injured in different races but on the same jump. Celeb Moore has brain complications and his brother Colten separated his pelvis.

Also, in Snowmobiling, an Australian competitor attempted a backflip Sunday night in the best trick competition and his sled took off into the viewing area. A Colorado man was injured, but not before throwing his 11-year-old son out of the way of the unmanned sled. That's just the tip of the iceberg for injuries, further down on the list are spines, knees and concussions.

However, with a world-wide television audience the X Games have changed the culture of sports forever. There are X Game events this year in Spain, France, Brazil, Germany along with the two in this country (taking place in Aspen and LA).They have transformed sports, changed the direction of the Olympics and produced some of best know athletes in the world today.

Shawn White’s sixth gold medal will make him one of the most sought-after athletes leading up to and during the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia next year. Meanwhile, coming up behind him is an entirely new generation of skiers, snowboarders, snowmobilers and others, led by young talented athletes like Ayumu Hirano, who have better training, coaching and who are willing to risk it all for the fame and fortune of the likes of Shawn White and others.