Okay, lots of comments directed to me directly, it would take too long to quote and reply to each individually so I'll just address a few of them here:
Firstly, I am no inverted snob, there is no jealously or chippiness on my part and I can well afford to take any sort of holiday I choose and frequently do. I'm not going to outline this in explicit terms for you, you'll just have to take my word for it.
Secondly, yes I have been skiing, once. Didn't love it. DH quite likes it but not enough to insist we went as a family, and not enough to make a point of going without me.
Two of my children went with the school, (one skied, one snowboarded) they had fun but didn't get bitten by the bug. I loved the apres ski, the fresh air, the scenery, the food, the sitting in the sunshine in my padded gear and sunglasses with a hot chocolate or a gluwein in my hand. Didn't care for the skiing.
I completely agree with the poster who said it's 90% effort and faff and hanging around for 10% enjoyment. I didn't give it long enough to get good and perhaps when you are good it's much more rewarding, but even so, still 90% effort and faff. I think sailing looks the same if I'm honest. Anything where you spend more time and effort preparing to do the activity then packing up from the activity than the actual time spent doing it isn't worth it for me. Even the ski lifts seemed dangerous to me, as I recall. I am naturally quite risk averse and not an adrenaline junkie but I accept that others get their kicks and their most exhilerating life moments that way. I get mine from completely different things. Horses for courses.
Of course I let my children drive cars (well if they are old enough to drive a car they are old enough to make that decision irrespective of what I think anyway.) And of course I realise that there is risk every time we get in a car or a plane, or play football or anything else other than sitting at home doing nothing, which eventually carries its own very different sort of risk.
But there are lots of straw man arguments and false equivalences on this thread. The reason skiiing was not including in the top ten most dangerous activites in Britain is probably because only a small minority of Brits get to go skiing, compared to skate boarding or horse riding or playing rugby or whatever. If you looked at the figures for the Swiss or the Austrians it might show a very different picture.
When you took the number of people who downhill ski each year and the number of hours they spent doing it (very different in risk from cross country skiing I imagine) then broke it down into the number of injuries requiring medical treatment and fatalities and the number of hours per person spent doing it, I imagine the risk is significantly higher than for most other things that have been cited on this thread. Perhaps not worse than horseriding or rock climbing, or parkour, but still pretty risky. Just taking this thread alone, the number of people who have said they know someone personally who has died or been critically injured or left disabled from skiing is quite alarming. It would be interesting to know what the anecdotes would be like if I'd started a similar thread about horse riding or football or rugby.
People are saying that inexperienced skiiers are the risk to themselves or others. I am not sure that is always true. A very sensible skiier who doesn't push themselves too far too soon can still get wiped out or pushed off the slope into dangerous off piste territory in a moment of panic, by a very experienced but reckless adrenaline junkie who thinks he's invincible and loves the kudos of being the fastest one on the slope. This is akin to wreckless driving or aggressive tailgating in a very fast car. When an accident happens it's very often not the wreckless dick waver who pays the price. I have no idea how good a skier this poor lad was but it seems he hit a dip which then propelled him at very high speed and he lost control. Perhaps in a moment of panic people might just forget what they've been taught about how to slow down and come to a stop.
Several people have mentioned the 'Daily Mail' mentality and the 'Daily Mail narrative.' There is no DM mentality or narrative here. It's factual reporting of a true story, not a scaremongering opinion piece. It's been reported in other papers including the Telegraph. Someone even said it was a 'sensationalist DM headline' which I find pretty offensive. Someone's child has died by losing control on a ski slope. The facts haven't been ramped up for effect. Please tell me where the 'sensationalist' angle is there?
I realise life is for living and nothing is risk free, and I acknowledge the benefits of exercise, fresh air, blah blah. But I get this feeling in the pit of my stomach every ski season when there is inevitably a story like this about a British person dying or suffering catastrophic injuries. It's the same every time the London Marathon comes around and I brace myself because there is almost always at least one fun-runner every year who has pushed themselves too far because of the pressure to finish. They don't want to let their friends and family down, there's a sense of pride and ego attached and they've raised money for charity so they feel obliged to carry on until they collapse from a heart attack a couple of miles from the end, or shortly after finishing. And they often die.
They ignored all the warning signs thinking 'I'm running 26 miles, of course my chest hurts, I feel nauseous and I am breathless. I must just push on through or everyone will think I am a flaky loser.'
To the person who waxed lyrical about the freedom and the exihilaration, 'just me and the mountain' you are exactly the kind I was talking about when people 'wanging on about how amazing it is.' It's like a cult religion or something to you. But the thing is, it isn't just you and the mountain, is it? It's you and potentially a couple of hundred other people at any one time and any of you could lose control at any moment and be the reason someone else goes home on a stretcher, or worse, in a coffin.
Lastly, to those who have children going skiing with school shortly, please don't be too alarmed. If they are complete beginners they will be closely supervised and many will not make it off the nursery slopes. They'll be made to wear helmets and they almost certainly won't be skiing on the same runs as the big dick wavers, so the worst they are likely to suffer if an accident happens is a broken wrist or a bruised bum. Just tell them to be sensible, listen carefully to their instructors, don't be reckless but do enjoy themselves.