To not understand the snobbery around skiing?

[Cappuccinowithonesugarplease]

An actual conversation I overheard:

"Virtually anyone can afford to go skiing these days"

Do people really still think like this in 2024? It just seems so classist....

Good can you hear yourself!
Going on three extravagant holidays a year IS well off.

Indeed. Ski hire for 4 people is costing us nearly that on its own, that’s direct with the sports shop in the resort. And lift passes are twice that. I think there’s been an miscalculation somewhere…..

@CautiousLurker Frankly, any opportunity to bash people who have a bit of extra cash in their pockets, however they chose to spend it, seems to be a national past time.
TBF isn't this post more about people who think ski-ing is normal and anyone can afford it? I don't think anyone cares about anyone else being well off and choosing to spend their money in that way. It's just about acknowledging that's an option for you, but not one open to the vast vast majority of people, even those able to afford foreign (and maybe even AL) holidays.

I have friends who are obsessed with Disney as a family, they go every year without fail but afford it because they skimp on everything else. Most people who want to do Something that badly will make it work. Unless you are destitute of course.

It's less about the sport but the "vibe" and apres ski. As someone who hates skiing and cannot ski, I personally find ski culture so fucking tedious because you are pressured to send your kids to ski camp from nursery age. Most friends of ours do this starting from age 3. We tried it with DD and she could barely balance on the skis and started crying from the cold after 10mins. Then it's all about ensuring your child learns how to ski perfectly by their teens, during which they'll inevitably go through a snowboarding phase which requires more equipment and more risk.

And finally, the goal for adulthood is that they love skiing and make friends with other people who grew up exactly the same way so they can have annual ski holidays that involve sport during the day and copious drinking every evening. After 18, it's never about just skiing (which would be naff if anyone admitted it). It's mostly about partying on a mountain and meeting other people from wealthy backgrounds so everyone can indulge in their elitism together.

There's also a huge unspoken element of race involved. Virtually all families who take skiing very seriously are white/caucasian. Lots of people from ethnic backgrounds may be able to afford to ski but it's just not a sport that's heavily emphasised in their culture or holiday traditions. So ski resorts are also extremely homogeneous, and 95% of everyone there are white. In contrast to other luxury holidays (yachting, tropical locations, urban centres etc), it's the one place where there is virtually no ethnic diversity.

@TheCoolOliveBalonz ha ha! That is me. I was on the fringes of a group at university who went skiing each year and they invited me. I weighed that up with the Classics Society trip to Rome I had also been invited to - TBH they probably cost the same and I had to work the whole holidays to afford either trip. But Rome I KNEW I would enjoy (being a massive history geek and very in to my food). Whereas I was a bit nervous or both skiing and the type of people who went seeing as I had never been before.

Obviously some better off students went on both trips with no hesitation.

Not if they are having to borrow money to do it!

This is very true! Very well put

No, you shouldn't have to apologise for it, but that's not how I read the thread.
I saw it as
OP - Why do people think skiing is for the middle/upper classes
Lots of people - because it's expensive.
Lots of other people - oh it's not really expensive, it's no more expensive than going to Disney/the Med in ummer. Completely missing the point that a)they're comparing to holidays that lots of people can't afford anyway, and that even less people can afford two holidays. So it is expensive* *which is why people think it's mostly well off people who do it.
I also grew up fairly poor and now have a very comfortable lifestyle. I sail. People think that's "posh" and it certainly can be very posh - there are yacht clubs who wouldn't let me in for sure! But I spend less on sailing than many of my colleagues do on skiing. Or wine come to that. And we rarely do much else with our holidays except sail. Ita matter of priorities. We choose to spend a lot of our disposable income on our boat. Nothing wrong with that and I don't apologise for it either. But I do acknowledge that being able to do that is a privilege that a large percentage of the population don't have. It's not as expensive as people probably think it is, but it is expensive. Same with skiing.

I think people who only have 1 holiday per year - which is skiing- are in a minority

Almost everyone I know who goes skiing , has (at least) 1 or 2 other holidays, some of them have multiple ski breaks as well as other holidays.

And the people proclaiming that they are doing quite budget ski holidays because they and kids can already ski, and already have kit are slightly missing the point. You don't need any lessons, or skills, or special clothes to go on an AI holiday - or Disney - since that's been brought into the discussion. So starting from nothing I think skiing would be expensive. (Adding flights then Disney very likely would be more) And ski lessons are a) not widely available depending on where you live, and b) a lot more expensive than eg swimming, dance, football, gymnastics, scouts or other kids activities.

Just thinking about the families in my close circle, one of them went to turkey this year but it's the first time her 15 and 11 year olds had ever been on holiday. Other than that no one else has been on more than a caravan holiday since before COVID

Given my username, I feel almost obliged to comment on this thread!

Yes, I do think that there has historically been a social class litmus test element to skiing. I am well spoken (but not from a wealthy background) and spent my university years and early twenties being asked two questions at almost every social occasion:

‘Where did you go to school?’
‘Do you ski?’

I suspect that my frank and honest answers confused many people who were assuming that I was ‘one of them’!

Given that the ski-chalet holiday experience was originally modelled on the English country house weekend and, in the eighties, there was a virtual conveyor belt taking nice-but-not-too-bright-girls from boarding school, to Leith’s cookery school, to a season as a chalet host, to a marriage with one of the ‘right background’ guests, I think it is naive to think of it as having anything other than upper middle class origins. Doesn’t skiing feature in the Sloane Ranger Handbook for god’s sake? ;)

There is a rather funny BBC documentary on YouTube about the early days of skiing holidays. It seems to intentionally draw a comic comparison between the ‘to the manor born’ plummy-voiced confident skiers and working-class Rita, Bill, Bob and Sue (not real names) taking a package holiday and then mucking it up in magnificent style the first time they get on a ski lift.

My DH and I learned to ski in our early thirties and have been numerous times. He is an expert skier, our DC is good and I have reached a point where I can ski most blue or red slopes but don’t think further improvement is very likely!

The internet has democratised skiing to a certain extent. But it is expensive and I still think it’s something that you need to invest a lot of time and money in before you get to the point where it is truly enjoyable as a family holiday.

It's something to brag about.

Oh I'm going skiing in February.

If you think about it, going down snowy hills on two sticks is a bit ridiculous (and not safe a lot of the time - there are a lot of accidents)

Thanks @stargirl1701 - we're only a few hours from Glencoe area so it's something we've been considering for a holiday - maybe if we go knowing we may not ski then it could be worth it!

Oh it’s a ludicrous pastime! It made sense if you lived in a mountainous area before cars being widely available and needed to get from A-B quickly, but as a sport it is pretty daft.

But, like most things, I don’t think the people who can easily afford it will brag about it. I would never mention it unless someone specifically asks me if we are going away - why would I?

Definitely a holiday for rich people.

1. so much ad-ons : equipement, kids classes, passes, super expensive food, etc. People quoting lower prices have their equipment already / don’t need kids classes anymore.

2. it is never the main holiday of the year, more of an ad-on. So being able to spend 5-10k on an ad-on holiday is not the same as being able to spend that on your main holiday.

3. I agree about the generational wealth point made above. Most skiers I know have learned as
   children.

It also depends what country you're in. Several European countries have skiing in their school curriculum. Every child has to learn how - a bit like riding a bike!

I went in ski-ing in my 20s about three times as a fairly cheap package holiday thing- still more expensive than a sunny holiday though.

Three times was enough to know that:

• I don't like the cold weather and ice and snow
• I don't really like ski-ing
• I come back feeling like I need another holiday

If we'd had the money then we might have taken the kids ski-ing, I probably would do staying inside with a hot chocolate and a book, but it is a lot for a family and I'd rather have a nice sunny holiday.

Threads like this are like a portal into the world of ignorance. How can anyone truly imagine that a ski holiday is within reach of "anybody"? Or indeed, that taking a holiday is something that most people have experienced. It makes me want to weep for humanity. There are so, so many people who are unhoused or in unsuitable housing, who don't have enough to eat, who don't have enough clothes - the prospect of a holiday for people enduring poverty is as likely as a unicorn landing on the doorstep. Please can we just try to think beyond our tiny little lives and be a little more tactful. Even read, watch and listen.

Yeah, my children have to learn how to ski as part of PE lessons, but its cross-country (but they do practice a bit of slalom on the hill near the school). My son started learning in nursery, and was in his first ski race at 4 years old (was terrible at it )

Yes true but it's not right to hate those that can afford such luxuries. A lot of people born with a silver spoon and not by choice, they know no different.
I do think it's sad though that regular folk are priced out of so many nice things like holidays these days. It's because of money snd the elite that many are now priced out of something that should be relatively accessible.

But sure the UK has always been like that.

The rich amd the poor.

The rich will complain about the quality of their skiing holiday.

The poor barely have enough food.

Where is the hate?

It's because of money that many are now priced out of something that should be relatively accessible.

This is a weird comment. How is skiing "relatively accessible"? The UK doesn't have the weather for it, so anyone wanting to ski will always have to travel to do it.

People would save all year for their summer holiday. People that go skiing would go as well as their summer holiday. There is a lot of snobbery around skiing still.

In most of the UK, skiing is a class thing because its a signal of your background and not your present wealth.

DH and I are well off. We can afford multiple holidays a year with our two kids. We could afford half term skiing and a pretty good summer break. But neither of us grew up with serious money (I went abroad three times with my parents before 18, I think - all self-catering apartments in the med, when that was pretty cheap). Neither of us learned to ski as children- no family holidays or school ski trips. So we can't ski - and I don't really want to drop £££ on a new skill I probably won't be good at, rather than on a holiday I'll enjoy. So we don't ski. So our kids don't ski. And thus the cycle reproduces itself.