Your Trusted Gravity Sports Engineering Expert
Our Services
At Impact Technical Consulting, we provide comprehensive insight into gravity sports injuries, focusing on equipment performance and on-hill safety. Our credible, unbiased, and evidence-based reporting and consulting services support personal injury attorneys and insurance providers at every stage of an injury case. If you've been injured and are uncertain about pursuing legal action, we're here to help you understand your options and next steps.
About Us
Impact Technical Consulting specializes in equipment performance and failure analysis, on-hill safety, and accident reconstruction. We provide technical consulting services to personal injury attorneys and insurance providers to help determine root cause and liability in gravity sports accidents.
Expertise
Our expertise draws from in-depth knowledge of skier biomechanics, sports injuries, gravity sports equipment and standards, safety protocols, materials science, stress analysis, testing, and accident reconstruction. ITC approaches each case objectively and impartially, delivering clear, credible, and honest reporting. With experience both on-hill and in the lab, ITC bridges the gap between real-world gravity sports injury scenarios and technical engineering analysis.
Continued Education
We stay updated on the latest mountain safety guidelines, equipment design, testing, and safety standards to provide informed, evidence-based guidance and expert support in gravity sports injury cases.
Commitment to Safety
ITC advocates for safe equipment and safe mountain experiences, striving to minimize future accidents.
Mission
Our mission is to ensure complex concepts are clearly understood by non-technical audiences — whether that's a judge, jury, or claims team.
Austin Bourret
Founder & Principal Engineer
Impact Technical Consulting is proudly owned and operated by Austin Bourret, a Salt Lake City-based Mechanical Engineer with 30+ years of outdoor experience. Austin combines his practical expertise with a scientific approach to provide high-quality, objective, and unbiased technical reporting when things go wrong on the hill.
Experience & Qualifications
Austin earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utah in 2018. While studying, he worked as a Research Assistant at the University of Utah Composites Lab, conducting materials testing and contributing to leading research on composite material and failure mechanics. He is an acknowledged contributor to the 2023 doctoral publication "Machine Learning Guided Design of Experiments to Accelerate Exploration of a Material Extrusion Process Parameter Space."
This position led to opportunities with a local ski company where he led prototyping and testing for a novel, composite ski boot. Since graduating, his career has spanned engineering roles in the orthopedic medical device and geotechnical coring industries.
A former nationally ranked freestyle mogul skier, Austin competed for 13 years and has coached for almost 15, giving him an expert eye for skier technique, performance and biomechanics. He is a licensed United States Ski & Snowboard Coach for the Park City Ski & Snowboard Team where he shares his passion for the sport with the next generation of skiers. Austin encourages his athletes to push themselves safely, promoting incremental progression, situational awareness, sportsmanship, and on-hill etiquette.
Austin has devoted his life to living and exploring in the mountains; resort and backcountry skiing, fly fishing, mountain biking, kayaking and rafting. These pursuits have amounted to tens-of-thousands of hours in the mountains and the shop. He's used, tuned, fit and modified a vast range of equipment and gear, giving him an intuitive mechanical understanding of how it performs and how it can fail. Austin started ITC to apply his unique background to deliver a specialized legal consulting service within the mountain sports industry. He's provided technical consulting and expert witness services in personal injury cases involving equipment performance, failure, and right-of-way collisions.
Case Studies
Below are several case studies that Impact Technical Consulting has worked on over the years.
ITC was retained to investigate the catastrophic failure of a ski boot that resulted in a significant foot injury. The client—a law firm representing the injured party—sought expert analysis to determine the root cause of the failure.
Outcome:
Through systematic analysis of the incident and equipment, we determined that a manufacturing defect led to a Mode 1 fracture, leading to a complete separation of the upper and lower boot shell. This report was used in a settlement against the ski boot manufacturer.
ITC was retained to investigate whether a binding performed correctly after a skier experienced a knee injury. A detailed review was conducted on the equipment to determine whether the binding's torque release values matched calculated values.
Outcome:
No evidence of improper adjustment or binding failure was discovered. All test results fell within an acceptable tolerance for the skier's calculated release setting, indicating the binding system functioned properly. Our investigation concluded that the injury fell within the inherent and accepted risk associate with skiing.
ITC was retained to evaluate a collision between two guests at a major ski resort. The plaintiff sustained a serious leg injury after being struck from behind by another individual.
Outcome:
We analyzed deposition transcripts, skier behavior, terrain conditions, and posted responsibility codes. By comparing the reported conduct to nationally recognized safety protocols, we determined that the uphill guest failed to yield the right-of-way and did not act with reasonable care, resulting in the accident.
Contact Us
To explore if Impact Technical Consulting is right for your case, schedule a complementary consultation. You can fill out the contact form below, call, or email us.
Phone
(385) 419-0104