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

[ExcessiveNumberOfNinjas]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14427223/British-schoolboy-14-killed-skiing-accident-northern-Italy.html

This poor lad, only 14 years old, crashes headlong into a tree at speed and dies of chest injuries right in front of his parents.

What's so fucking great about skiing? Every year without fail there are stories like this and I'm sick of them. I know someone who became permanently disabled and slightly brain damaged after a skiing accident in his 20s.

As parents we don't encourage our kids to get into cars and drive them at speed round a race track with very little training every half term in February do we? We don't stick them on the backs of race horses and slap their arses and watch them go over hurdles. We don't encourage them to dive off high cliffs into the sea below and hope that they manage to miss the rocks as they land. So why do we continually let them hurl down mountainsides at god knows how many miles an hour, hoping that they manage not to collide with a tree or hit their heads on a rock?

I don't get it. I never will. However 'fun' it might be it can't possibly be worth the stupid level of risk.

to be fair it is bloody marvellous - whizzing down a slope, maybe doing a bit of a slalom, and then the chair lift back to the top. It is thrilling. Really gets the endorphins racing.

So glad I'm reading this after my daughter is back from her school ski trip. We have never skied as a family, not really fancied it but she had an amazing time and thankfully not one of the kids had any injuries.

I can think of nothing worse!

@Goldenbear, if your excessive posting on mumsnet is anything to go by, you clearly do not see the link.

I think it's a very aspirational thing for Brits. It marks entry into the middle class for some. We've had weird looks at parties where p[eople have expressed incredulity taht we don't ski! It just hasn't happened though. We do other outdoorsy things.

I have tried it - lived somewhere where cross country skiing was the thing to do, and got quite good at that. But haven't felt the urge in the last 30 years since!
And yet I have so many friends who ski and have never been injured.
It's not taht I don't enjoy a bit of adrenaline. I love a zip line. But skiing seems like a faff more than anything else.

I think that’s down to the individual though. My kids put in a lot of time at the dry slope doing ski camps before they went abroad. Possibly because he’s paid their instructor over there said lots of nice things about their ability and mainly took them on the red runs. They felt quite safe and it was within their ability levels. They did have people out on the slopes, one guy bashed into someone else on a red as should of been on blues and they confiscated his ski pass.

This. I think some people when they hear “off piste” assume you are going full Glen Plake which is very different from the reality which for most people is never out of sight of a groomed piste.

Sorry, I wasn’t making myself clear, people without an instructor.

Yeah, I've come close to dying in the sea in Devon three times (once as an adult). Worst I've ever done skiing is twist my knee.

And yet I don't personally know any doctors who don't ski, whereas most doctors I know will not allow their children to have a garden trampoline. Perhaps there's also an element of classism in that!

Off piste is not outside the rules. All the resorts I know actively advertise their off piste offerings. Some resorts used to put their most popular off piste routes on the piste maps - although I haven't seen this for years (and for good reason I think!)

Of course it is possible to ski off piste irresponsibility and to ski on piste outside your ability level. Ski patrol are pretty good at enforcing the rules, but their effectiveness can vary from resort to resort.

Being young and male is a risk factor as is being under the influence of alcohol. This is true of many activities sadly. You can identify the average age of male puberty in a country by the spike in the accident rate.

Not ‘lots’. About 10% of UK population ski. 4% ride horses.

The average cost of a ski holiday exceeds £1k per person. Most families can’t afford that. Over 40% of people can’t afford a summer holiday.

There are all sorts of ill-informed claims on this thread. People don’t seem to understand probability or statistics. Like the fella on Question Time who thought £80k was an average salary lol.

Conversely, just because you know someone who’s been killed or maimed in an accident, it doesn’t mean it’s likely to happen to you. And if you don’t participate in a riskier sport, it doesn’t mean you’re ignorant, obese, unfit or read the Daily Fail.

Typo. Should have said 3400 children were killed/injured in car accidents in the UK in 2022 alone 🤦🏽‍♀️

1Skiing has not been an ‘aspirational’ holiday since the 1980s. People from a huge variety of backgrounds and income levels go on skiing holidays now.
2 Most skiers are well aware of the risk and take out winter sports insurance before they go.
3 ‘Off piste’ is not intrinsically dangerous. It’s an accepted part of the sport . Ski resorts have avalanche warnings ( flashing lights by the lift) if conditions are not advisable for off piste

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.

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.

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.

…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?”

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

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.

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

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)

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.

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

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.

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