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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

That is utterly horrifying.

How likely do you think those sort of accidents are? Do you think the risk of something like that happening in a ski resort is much higher than the risk of accidental strangulation in other settings?

I came on this thread in agreement that skiing carries risks and interested - as a generally quite risk-averse person - to discuss how and why we balance risk as parents. However, many posters are greatly exaggerating the risk, which makes it difficult to have a meaningful discussion. Mostly people who have no real understanding or experience of skiing and no real appetite for information beyond that which appears to back up what they would like to be true.

Element of risk applies to all activities. Planes occassionally crash, people die on roads, trampoline injuries etc.
I was almost hit by a car twice last year (drivers weren't looking). Doesn't mean we can stop all the risk.

Dreadful of ordinary British people to want to be out in blue skies, in the mountains, taking some enjoyable outdoor exercise.

It's the preserve of people in Scandinavia and alpine Europe only. And the rich.

Know your place.

Absolutely but that wasn't my point! I was countering the suggestion that Brits cause most of the accidents in the Alps.

Accidents happen.

Decades ago my DGF a postman ended up in hospital with a nasty dog bite, the man in the bed next to him was a long distance truck driver with a broken leg. My Granny was taking his stuff home to wash etc

They assumed he'd been in a road accident, no he was on foot and was knocked over by a small child on a bike.

This. Plus the confidence of being somewhere no one knows you/showing off etc.

it’s the same with anything. Over confidence comes with inexperience.

I didn't say they cause accidents.
I was trying to say that it's much more risky for people who aren't brought up skiing and only go occassionally to cause accidents/die.
Could be people from Africa, could be french person who never been taught.

The Frenchman in the article was a very experienced skier and had been doing it since infancy.

Absolutely my kids ski and the worst they’ve had is bruises. Fractured a wrist on a trampoline and a shattered radius and ulna on a bike ride. You can’t mitigate all risk. I think it’s better to teach children how to make safe decisions and ensure proper instruction in the basics.

I used to work in an A&E of a very large ski slope abroad.

At that time, the biggest cause of spinal fractures were from tobogganing! Think about it, you are sliding along on a piece of plastic, no padding or suspension, bumping along the ground. If anyone hit a bump, or ice etc, the vibration goes directly up your spine!

The next most common person to injure themselves, were young (17-22), light weight females with limited skiing experience. Often skiing in a group and trying to keep up with boyfriends or better skiiers in the group.

There is often bravado, people not having lessons and thinking they are better than they really are. I started skiing at 4 and love it.

Rare incident thing applies.
I wouldn't send my kids on school ski trip, because although they do basics, they can't fully ski.
Comes down to no snow in England.
My SIL broke her wrist playing tennis 😮

It really is more aspirational than an all-inclusive to Spain, or a trip to Center Parcs - let’s be real! People aren’t telling their friends how fantastic their all-inclusive in Spain/CP was and that really should go, too. It’s bog-standard and not aspirational to most. They’re not posting pictures of Spain/CP on social media in the same way as people “show off” their pictures from the slopes. Skiing is very much the holiday/hobby du jour, maybe in future it will be seen as ordinary as your other examples but it’s not at the moment.