So fed up of stories like this every single year. Stupid bloody Skiing.

My point is it’s no more ‘aspirational’ than an all-inclusive package holiday in Spain or renting a nice cottage in Cornwall or going to Center Parcs.
All holidays require a certain level of affordability that’s a given.

I love skiing as you can gather from my username but I also respect the mountains and I'm never out of control.
My DS1 skis and is taught speed control, how to read the slope and also to watch for other people - he's just turned 6 and does all of the above.

Death by skiing accident is much much lower then car accident.

The two biggest dangers on a slope are skiers who should be in lessons but don't take them and people that go really fast in built up or blue/green runs. We teach our son to watch for both.

Also bizarre people saying skiing isn't part of the UK actually in Scotland its a sport with council run dry slopes, 5 ski resorts and multiple ski clubs.

Like any sport in the outdoors be it hill walking, paddle boarding etc it needs the right level of understanding of the surroundings, conditions etc.

I agree that no one should be able to decide who is or isn’t deserving of NHS treatment, that’s the point I was trying to make in replying to the poster stating that those taking part in high risk sports should be made to pay.

I’m aware that obesity is a complex issue, but there will always be an element of avoidability in it as well. There are so many examples of ‘self inflicted’ injuries and diseases. Long distance runners that end up with damaged joints, sunbathers that get melanoma, vaccine refusers… the list is endless. All of these will be judged by some people, as we see from this thread, but it wouldn’t be ethical to refuse anyone treatment imo.

Quite a few deaths in the Alps have been caused by non-Brits. Like the French local man who killed a British child by skiing into her in Flaine a few years ago.

British girl ski death: Man charged with manslaughter after five-year-old dies following ski slope collision in French Alps | World News | Sky News

Because it's fun? If you hate skiing, I get why you'd feel like it's pointless - but what's not to love about sliding down a hill at speed? It feels amazing.

My son smashes himself up on a regular basis playing football. Currently has a fractured wrist. He's an excellent player and loves it, but you fall over a lot and there's a fair amount of (accidental) contact. You can't wrap people up in cotton wool.

I'm not denying that skiing is risky but using that example of the 23 year old that fell of a cliff as justification that skiing is risky is unfair. He wasn't even skiing at the time, he'd been drinking and had taken his skis off. I'd argue that drinking at the top of a mountain and then trying to get down any other way than taking a gondola down is the dangerous bit in that example.

You have to separate countries where skiing is a normal part of growing up vs Brits who go on holiday and try to ski down a mountain with no prep/lessons.
I grew up in latter, don't know anyone who had any serious injury. Also don't know anyone who doesn't ski.

I’m not British and not from Scotland, I live in London where I’ve been a few years so can only base my opinion on southern England city dwellers who consider skiing a big part of their life, which is curious to me. If you grew up in Scotland around snow that makes sense. Skiing largely originated in Scandinavia because of our landscapes so that’s why it is a part of our life I guess, unlike say London.

I find MN has a really odd attitude when it comes to risk - it's not something I ever see in real life.

I've been skiing since I was three and have never done more than bruise my bum. I felt more terrified commuting to work last week when a car came round a blind bend on the wrong side of the road and missed me by inches.

True, but as others have said there are still playground and garden toys that are more dangerous. My DD is a snowboarder. Does mogulled black-runs and has just come back from a trip with her dad covered in bruises (and filled with esteem as she boarded all 3 valleys, all the black and red runs)… but both she and my BFFs daughter broke bones on trampolines in our gardens. The day my DD hobbled into casualty, the reception nurse rolled her eyes and said ‘it’s the first day of the summer holiday and you are the 4th trampoline accident today’… BFF’s son has broken his foot, arm and collar bone playing football in the last 2 years and my DH has broken fingers several times and a collar bone playing cricket.

And I say this as someone who tried skiing, twice, injured her knee dismounting a button lift the first time and fking hated it. Worst thing is being the only beginner amongst a group of competent and experienced skiers as you spend the whole week alone all day in group lessons and being bored to tears in the evening with their war stories.

Odd take - it certainly is part of our landscape (both natural and cultural), especially if you live in Scotland. And if you knew about the history of skiing you would know that it was largely the British that introduced it to the Alps (see Roland Huntford's 'Two Planks and A Passion - The Dramatic History of Skiing'). Just because you're Scandinavian, doesn't mean you have a monopoly on skiing.

We need to let our children do risky things. I'd rather take mine out skiing than have them sat in their rooms getting groomed over the Internet. This is why we now have a nation of overweight, unfit children who have MH problems and are lacking resilience.

Someone mentioned falking off a slide earlier in the thread. I doubt that could happen now because all play parks have been ripped out and replaced with ones that look like they were made for toddlers. So none of the local kids use it and instead have built some rope swing in the woods.

No, not lots of the population. It’s a small proportion of British people.

And if they have a serious injury abroad their insurance company will ensure that they are repatriated asap to save on medical bills.

Over a third of Brits would love to go skiing but don’t. About 10% of Brits ski.

The average income of people who go on skiing holidays in the UK is estimated to be above the national average. Half of those who ski earn over £50k.

Seems pretty aspirational.

Current level of wealth and class are separate things. Working class people can be millionaires.

You don’t even have to be skiing to be killed at a ski resort. This was utterly horrifying.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-41917258

I think we are looking at risk the wrong way. The (small) risk from skiing is a dramatic and easy to be scornful about. Also easy to be snooty about, as it’s expensive. If you look at people who are skiers, they tend to be fit, slim, active types, so have reduced risks in other areas of life. People take risks all the time: being fat; making unnecessary short car journeys; drinking alcohol; smoking; vaping; eating processed meat; swimming in the sea; heading the ball in football; playing rugby. The list is endless. Personally, I feel appalled at the number of British children who are overweight. That’s a bigger failure of parental responsibility than taking them skiing. But I accept that a personal prejudice of mine.

I think what's changed in recent years is many people,. particularly I found " stag do like" groups of men, who are skiing way outside their ability level and with no respect for basic safety rules.

Control comes with lessons and practice some people want to skip those boring bits.

The level of risks varies hugely dependent on ability level and which slopes you pick.

At its best though it is an incredible,. exhilarating sport with the most incredible views and a fabulously international community

I was waiting for tests a few years ago and one of the possible outcomes was Motor Neurone Disease. As that played on my mind I remembered what a fabulous life full of adventure I had had, and in amongst those amazing memories were so many skiing trips. We all die one way or another. My children live with severe allergies, the mere act of eating food can kill them. I would never stop them skiing. When they did a sailing course the only time I worried about them was at meal times. Life is for living, not cowering away afraid of dying.

(But I wish the fuckwits would take some more lessons /know their limits)

10% of the UK population is around 6 million - I would class that as 'lots', wouldn't you?

Life would be so dull if it was restricted to photography, reading and painting. All a bit Victorian gentle maiden sounding, harking back to an era where people died regularly from getting a cold.

That’s a great anecdote 😂. Literally, pride comes before a fall.

…the reasoning here doesn’t add up at all.

People who worry about how they're going to put food on the table or heat their house are far more likely to be risk averse.

I’d like to see some evidence of that.

It would be just as convincing to say that people who live tough lives are likely to be less risk averse because they have less to lose, or they have more reason to chase excitement, or they are more aware that life is arbitrary, or…..I could go on suggesting correlations, just as you have.

My experience of a tough life would suggest to me that my suggestions are more probable than yours, but you’d disagree, I imagine. Which would suggest that it’s nothing to do with tough life, but personality type.

Speaking of which, I’ve never been in the least tempted by a skiing holiday, because I know that, regardless of whether or not I enjoyed it, on Monday evening I’d be thinking, “Wait - I’m supposed to do that same thing every day?”

Goodness this thread!!

I take it nobody ever does anything risky because they enjoy it then?

I absolutely love skiing as does my husband and DC. I love the speed, the rhythm, the beautiful mountains. I know lots of people who ski and (touch lots of wood) none has ever had a serious accident. Some broken wrists and ACL tears yes. But no more than the injuries from football or tennis. As for cycling or horse riding… plenty of scope for catastrophe there.

Basic safety rules: have plenty of lessons (don’t ever think you can just “follow your mates”), stay within your comfort zone in terms of speed and piste level, wear a helmet, stay on piste unless you’re with someone who knows the mountain. And watch out for idiots who don’t follow these rules (thankfully not too many).

Lots of lovely reverse snobbery on this thread too.

I think they have pretty much banned slides like that. All the slides locally now are built over hills so there isn’t the massive drop off the side. Tend to be much shorter though than back in my day.

I've only ever tried skiing once, on a school trip, on a dry slope, when I was about 12.
The deputy head teacher came with us and he was the only one who had been skiing before. Whilst we were all being instructed in how to side step up the slope in our skis, the deputy head went up on the ski lift to the top of the slope to ski back down. Half way down the slope he must have got his ski caught in the matting, took a tumble and came the rest of the way down the slope going head over heels. He lay motionless in front of the class at the bottom of the slope. We all stood there, aghast not sure if he was alive or seriously injured. Eventually he got up, and apart from significant bruising to his body and pride, he was OK.
It was enough to put me off skiing for life.