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.

I've never really given this any thought before, but I do kind of agree with you @ExcessiveNumberOfNinjas It is really dangerous. Yet some people think it's some kind of badge of honour, and makes them middle class and a better person if they go skiing every year - with no real actual experience or training in it.

I've known a number of people get injured by it as well. Some with life changing injuries ... Unless you're growing up in Scandinavia (as one poster said,) or somewhere where the snow is on the ground/in the mountains, for half the year - and you are a seasoned skier from when you started walking, you really shouldn't be doing it. It is really dangerous if you have little experience. Even if you have experience it's rather dangerous!

Skiing is a lot of fun and these accidents whilst awful are hardly frequent. I love skiing but not done it for years, initially due to cost when my kids were young and now my knees couldn’t cope with it

You wouldn't catch me going skiing for this reason and I wouldn't be happy for my child to either.

The thing is, the kind of people who go on skiing holidays are privileged, and far more likely to have a sense of entitlement and think this kind of thing couldn't possibly ever happen to them.

Which one of thise do we allow children to do without checks that they are competent, or have competent supervision?
If you read news across the Internet, there's loads of sking accidents. A 23 year old has just fell off a mountain in the French Alps.

Skiing is not especially dangerous for beginners, they're usually travelling fairly slowly.
But excessive speed, crowded slopes and people who are not as competent as they think they are make for potentially deadly conditions, especially when skiers collide.

It’s a risky activity, as well as being extremely costly. And perhaps some people are blasé about the risks.

But lots of activities are equally risky. Cycling shouldn’t be, but is because of traffic. Lots of people die or are maimed in RTAs. Every summer, there are deaths from swimming in the sea, tides and boating accidents. And so on…

The key is minimising risk.

Oh get over yourself. Loads of people ski from all social classes. Big old chip on your shoulder there.

I'm Scottish. I live an hours drive from a ski resort. I've been skiing since I was a child.

Probably because he was skiing off piste. Beginners are very closely supervised. Especially children in a ski school.

This ^^
Sitting on your bum all day is terrible for your health.

Nothing wrong with skiing but like any dangerous sport you have to learn to do it properly, so I semi-agree with the OP.

Ski lifts are also dangerous. My sibling nearly got their hand cut off.

Natasha Richardson died from a head injury by skiing

I think that's an unnecessary interjection of classism.

Just because skiing isn't the obvious holiday choice for many doesn't mean it can't be done cheaply.

There are lots of overconfident people driving cars, going swimming, hiking in (formerly) Snowdonia and the Lake District, etc.

Because nothing on earth compares to the feeling of freedom and exhilaration as you ski down a slope. Because I love being in the mountains and outdoors for the vast majority of the week. Because I have never felt more alive than when I'm skiing.

But then I also scuba dive, wild swim, rock climb, hike mountains and used to horse ride and motorcycle, so clearly we just have very different views about what brings joy and what is important in life.

And I've been skiing since I was 7 (40s now), and I have never been injured beyond a bruise. In fact, to counter all the horror stories here, my school friends and my adult friends all did and do ski a lot and I know virtually no-one who has had any skiing injuries, none at all as a child and only one person who took it up as an adult.

So maybe consider that your samples (especially if you go by sensationalist headlines) are a bit skewed compared to the thousands of people who go skiing each year, have a great time and return home completely uninjured but much happier.

Maybe get upset about the number of people injured in traffic accidents - it's much higher.

I would also be (genuinely) interested to know this.

I come from a skiing, horsey, motor sports type family and skiing is regarded as fairly low risk out of those (in terms of death/life changing injury), but I don't know how true that actually is.

I worry far more about the DC cycling on country roads, driving once they hit that age, general road safety and drowning in open water - but I don't have any statistics to back that up! Motor sports definitely worry me and I am very relieved my DC does not compete at a high enough level to encounter serious risk. Horse-related injuries can be awful and I'm relieved none of mine compete. Another DC used to be into gymnastics and that was also fairly terrifying!

I guess perception of risk is strongly skewed by what you know and I'm always double thinking my decisions and attitudes towards risk. It's so hard.

I feel absolutely sick for that poor boy and his family. It would be difficult to hit a tree as a result of losing control on a red run where we ski and I just can't picture how it would have happened. Unfortunately collisions with other skiers are always a possibility. However it happened it is just awful.

Bob is very very rarely a healthy 12-30 year old male, which must be the demographic for ski injuries. If boys were suddenly slipping and dying falling out of the tub at the rate they are having ski accidents it certainly would be news.

Have you ever been skiing OP?

We take a much bigger risk with our children every time we put them in a car. This has made the news because it is a rare event.

I take your point, but most of that group already pay extra in taxes.

I cycled to work every day for 12 years and did have one accident, including a bump.on the head. That was the activity that frightened me and made me take out income protection insurance. However, it also meant I was significantly fitter and stronger than I've been since.

Yes skiing is a risk, but being invited to ski with a friend this year has inspired me to get fit(ter) again and I've lost 10% of my bodyweight which has eliminated a few niggling health problems. Ultimately life is a balance and I accept the risk (and pay the insurance costs).

Depends if you were born 'on the slopes' so to say, or not. Definitely not for the Brits. My friend is Swiss, a village dweller and she has been skiing from the age of 3, she can't imagine her life without it. It is a way of life for her, not a show-off thing like it is for the Brits. She says that if you don't ski every week-end from pre-school age, you just can't ski, you don't have the skills, end of.

You don’t let children ski recklessly and beyond their ability any more than you would put them in a car and drive recklessly.

Accidents can happen in any sport and they can be devastating. Skiing isn’t uniquely dangerous.

Natasha Richardson wasn't wearing a helmet. The poor 23 year old had been to a party (so possibly alcohol involved?) and was making his way home by skis alone. Not really good examples.

We're just been for halfterm. A week of really great exercise in absolutely beautiful surroundings, with good food and DC practising their language skills was definitely worth the statistically low risks for us. DC had lessons with an experienced instructor, low speeds on gradual slopes, no trees in sight (similar to pp, even on the red runs at the resort we went to there were no trees it would've been possible to hit, no that DC were on the reds). DH and I are experienced skiers, but we don't push ourselves out of our comfort zone, stop when getting tired, obey the slope etiquette. I can't see how it's more dangerous than so many other sports.

Just my opinion and observation, but like so many things that were once the preserve of the super wealthy/posh, skiing holidays have become “aspirational” and something people want to brag about/show off on social media. It doesn’t interest me in the slightest and I agree about the dangers.

People put kids on ponies from tiny tots all the time (and children do die in horse riding accidents) and I could point you at loads of kids on bikes who are taking big risks, just come watch them exit my local secondary school at 3:45. Wheelies in the street, playing chicken with cars, cycling no-handed… many youngsters enjoy dangerous stuff and I’d take a ski holiday with calculated and mitigated risks over the adrenaline highs they might otherwise be chasing.

The whole reason ski injuries and deaths make the Daily Mail is it’s a fairly unusual occurrence. “Person dies from illness related to doing nothing more physically active or dangerous than sitting on the couch” doesn’t quite get the same clicks.

You can live a life where you do nothing with additional risk at all. I wouldn't want to.

I grew up skiing (living near mountains, not posh!) and loved it. I've also ridden horses, gone off-roading, scuba-dived, bungee-jumped and travelled in places most people don't go. It has made my life really joyful.

Other people are happy living next door to their mum and going for a week to Centre Parks every year. That makes them happy.

Each to their own.