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

Everyone’s perception of risk is based on what they are skilled in. I’d put skiing, cycling and ice skating way down the list of risky things because I’m good at them (independently deemed good at them, I’ve represented England in the past at one of them) compared to horse riding (never done it so would be a beginner) or anything in open water as although I can swim well in a pool and im pretty confident I wouldn’t drown if I’d just gone for a swim, hurting yourself and being dumped into water seems much worse than hurting yourself and falling on to snow. Someone who was a competing kayaker would probably say ice skating was riskier.

You can’t control other people, in any activity, but you can control you. Get appropriate tuition, make sure you are fit enough before you embark on said activity, don’t drink and do things, don’t go outside your ability outside of controlled training with an instructor, keep your head on a swivel and be aware of your surroundings. Stop before you get tired. Don’t go out in really crap weather/visibility. Wear appropriate PPE (last resort!) This goes an awful long way to mitigating risks!

Think how many kids get killed on the way home from school by cars or other people. Far more than are injured skiing. Life is for living and enjoying rather than fearing everything.

We ski with our kids and teach them to control and ski within moderation. There are plenty of idiots in ski resorts going too fast and that's my biggest fear, other people hurting them, so we go to quieter safer places.

Getting ahead of the traffic is safer for cyclists and most cyclist deaths are due to bad driving. Please don't victim blame.

That's how I read it. If you talk about 1000 people skiing in one resort daily then it would be 1000 days ie 3 years ish before someone died there, but actually there will be many days of the year when nobody skis and, for a big resort, many days when >1000 people ski, so it's a bit of an awkward sum.

We are 5 people in my family and because we live near Scottish skiing, we ski approx 10 days per year, or 50 days per year for the whole family. We'd have to ski for 20,000 years before one of us got killed skiing. Now of course that's not really how it works, but puts the risk into perspective.

I agree that’s it not always a social circles thing, I know a wide variety of peeps who go skiing simply because they enjoy it ☺️ as for DD, it’s quite possible that’s she’s a moaning Minnie, and she was given the option to stay home… (there’s a huge backstory relating to why she joined them, which isn’t relevant to the skiing debate), however she’s back out on the nursery slope this afternoon - injury free, hurrah!

@Needspaceforlego most of them are drunk. I know someone who died swimming in open water after drinking all day.

My quick Google search on average 400 people drown in the UK every year.
Ok some of them will be bathroom incidents but I didn't think it would be as high as that.

I remember a stat from years ago so not sure if it's still the case, on average more people die on Ben Nevis than Mount Everist every year.

On average about a 100 cyclists die in the UK every year.

No because most people can play rugby weekly from home, they don't have to travel to the mountains to do so.
Absolutely there are whole families who play rugby every week during the season.

I suppose you'd need to compare it to cycling, boating, or beach / swimming holidays.
Although comparing to a beach holiday you have to take into account the amount of time adults in particular spend on sunbeds compared to the amount of activity time.

Lying in a sunbeds has to be 'low risk' but I'd lay a bet some poor sods pop it every year doing just that.

It's up there with the tale "Bob down the road died on the way back their holiday, is that not awful" and someone else "could have been worse, could have died on the way there, at least they got their holiday"

And that's relevant how?

I'm not the one posting that skiing is the most dangerous sport since bullriding.
But if I would I would at least have the stats to back it up and not use a tragic death for some hysterical ramblings.

Where are the injury stats for things that whole families do?
Skiing is the whole family, including children.

I've not seen whole families doing rugby holidays, have you?

It has already been said that contact sports like rugby have far higher injury rates. CTE is a thing.
If skiing is surely more dangerous than you surely have the data to back it up?

That 5 will alsonof course include middle aged men collapsing and dying from heart attacks on the slopes, hopefully not something that would effect many kids.

so 200 swiss people are killed annually in road traffic accidents vs 5 skiing ...

people's perception of risk amd statistics isnvery skewed ... by graphic footage and horrible news stories like the OP one, sure, but do you think every road accident death is reported in the news? Of course not, because they're much more common place. But I bet everyone here lets people puck their kids up from school, drive them home from parties, go on school trips etc.

When you can say your kids never get into a car, bus, coach or train, come back to me on the risk of skiing, or any other sporting activity.

What are the stats on injuries, especially injuries with long term implications. Injuries can obviously happen in most sports although surely skiing must be amongst the sport with the highest stats. I actually admire people who ski but it's not for everyone regardless of affordability. Personally I love water skiing which also has its dangers so I do understand the attraction.

I've looked up some stats for switzerland:
On average 5 people(Swiss or foreign) die each year skiing. About 3.2 million of Swiss people do go skiing. There are around 20 million foreign visitors to Switzerland every year. If only 5% of those go skiing, we are at about 4 mio skiers. Which means the chance of being one of the dead skiers is less than 0.01% or the probability of flipping a coin 20 times and always getting tails (one in a million)

Yes in France it's called the " white week" is it only the Brits who are not allowed to enjoy the snow ?

@TylwythTeg How old is she, ie is she old enough to say at the hotel / apartment?
Or maybe she's just moaning but happy when she is out on the slopes?

But if it's really not her thing, then maybe she should opt out of next year's trip.

I don't know if it's a social circles thing, DH learned to ski with scouts, me with school. Back in the days when Scottish snow was more reliable.
He has friends who ski, mainly from the Scout group, I lost touch with my school pals.

The thread is about skiing! Seeking more information is not trying to back up my apparent confirmation bias when I was literally doing a little research on the actual subject matter. Facts available on this particular topic have nothing to do with other activities other than making random irrelevant comparisons.

They’ve been booked into ski school and had dry slope lessons here for years, they’re good skiers, it’s definitely Dad going along with the wishes of the step family. DS is keen, and gets in with it, DD not so and has now thrown up this morning on top of the falls, she wants to come home but is getting pressure off the rest of the group to join in, in part because they’ve paid an awful lot of money for the trip. I get it from their perspective, I just feel sad that she’s having to be coerced into doing something today when she’d rather be tucked up in a blanket watching the world go by, when it’s (for them) as a previous poster alluded to, something they do because it’s expected in the social circles in which they mix. I love the ‘Garfield landing’, btw, hope you weren’t too badly injured!

Have you also looked a accidents on bikes, scooters, or pools?

What about e-bikes and e-scooters?
Admittedly I wouldn't let my kids near one of them with a barge pole. DH & I had a near miss with a kid on an e-scooter 15 years ago. She was going far too fast, not paying attention to the cars on the road. I don't think she knows how lucky she was.

Googling "skiing accidents" is clearly just going to back up your confirmation bias. Have you also googled swimming/cycling/road/walking/literally any other activity, accidents? All of these will return pages of hideous accidents and statistics. Presumably not because they wouldn't confirm your bias.

Completely agree. So does the person who goes abroad for summer have 'a sense of entitlement'? Ridiculous. Its a sport that people choose to do.

Having read some more of the thread I began to understand both arguments for & against their families participating in skiing. Out of interest I googled the words 'skiing accidents recently' then clicked on videos to see what goes on in the slopes,speed etc. I was horrified there was such a long list of notifications of people including children having dreadful accidents & dying on the slopes & this was recently. I had to stop scrolling. I've now gone back to thinking it's just not worth the risk especially for children.