Christopher Thompson, 25, had stopped to wait for Sandra Thompson, 59, as they tackled a blue run together in the popular resort of Kitzbuhel in Austria’s Tyrol region.
He was standing just 30 metres away when he saw his "competent" mother catch her heel edge in the hard-packed snow and topple backwards at very low speed.
Mr Thompson unbuckled his own board and raced back up the slope to find her lying unconscious, an inquest heard.
He caught the attention of a passing slope worker, who called for an air ambulance to take her to a neurological intensive care unit at Innsbruck University Hospital.
Mrs Thompson, a former teacher from Chandler's Ford, Hants, was on holiday with her husband David, 58, a solicitor, her sons James, 30, and Christopher, and their girlfriends Meagan and Julie when the accident happened on February 6 last year.She had been snowboarding six times previously and was wearing a helmet, but the inquest heard it could not have saved her.
The whole family kept a vigil at her bedside for two days, but medics were unable to operate and the decision was made to turn off her life support machine after scans showed she was brain dead.
A post mortem examination revealed she had suffered swelling and a blood clot on the brain, known as a subdural haematoma, as a result of trauma to the head.
The type of fall she had was one that boarders of all levels of experience would suffer regularly, Christopher told Winchester Coroner's Court.
Most snowboarders do not put out their hands to break their fall for fear they will break their wrist or arm, and therefore often hit their head instead, he added.
Mrs Thompson’s husband said: "We're struggling to understand how it happened because it was an innocuous little fall, which makes it so hard to comprehend.
"She was always there for myself and the boys. The house feels so empty without her."
Verdict: accidental death.
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