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.

You only have to look around at any motorway service station to realise the mortal peril you put yourself in driving down the M1. There’s always SOMEONE you’d rather not be driving near!
Skiing is great. Like anything else you just need one person behaving like an idiot, or one bad mistake.

YABU

Most of us who do more dangerous sports are aware of the risks- who are you to decide what risks others should or should not take? Lots of people take part in dangerous sports- skiing, horse-riding, rock climbing, mountain biking, water sports - even hill walking/hiking can be very dangerous. Statistically, you are far more likely to be seriously injured or killed travelling by car or crossing the road. More people are injured or die because of accidents relating to cycling or alcohol use. Should we all just hole up in our house and never leave to be “safe”, or only take part in “safe” sports and activities.

Between the members of my immediate family, we all take part in several “dangerous” sports or activity. We enjoy it, they keep us active and fit, we have learned skills and all sorts of benefits in terms of physical and mental health. Yes, there are risks- but honestly, you minimise what you can (proper training, ensuring appropriate safety equipment and working within your skill levels etc) and carry on. Bad things happen sometimes, but we accept that. I don’t understand why you’d be so angry about what other people chose to do with their own bodies and time.

No, I don't have a chip on my shoulder about not being able to afford skiing 😂 We've got a 2 week holiday abroad booked in the summer holidays, and are also paying for DD to go on a week's holiday abroad with school in the Autumn (not skiing obviously haha). If we wanted to go skiing, we would.

This is an interesting thread. I love skiing but it is expensive if you want to go during the February half term - there probably are ways to do it more cheaply but, realistically, if you want to ski in Val d'Isère, St Anton, Zermatt etc. it won't be cheap. You need to love it to make it a worthwhile holiday. Even the lift pass will be several hundred pounds for a week.

I think it has become a much safer sport than it used to be. I remember seeing extremely long skis in the 80s - now, most people of my ability use much shorter carving skis. We also wear helmets (only for people who were doing stunts when I learned) and largely stay off the booze until we are off the mountain.

The thing that is very dangerous about skiing is the coach to and from the mountains. Those roads are often treacherous.

I couldn’t agree more! Two of my DC are currently away skiing, with their Dad, step-mother and step-siblings. DD has had two fairly bad falls in three days trying to keep up with it all and has damaged her knee and hip. It is entirely at the wish of the step family that they have all gone skiing and do so every Feb half term, because it’s ’what we do’. Pretentious T**ts.

I am not a skier and think it's dangerous but that said, each to their own. Smoking is dangerous. Hiking can be dangerous, walking alone at night is probably the most dangerous but we are adults and allowed to make our own decisions.

I'm also a firm believer in big society. I pay for the treatment of ski injuries (through taxes) and nurseries (no small
Kids) and old people care (no elderly people in one ) and much more but I also was happy that others paid in when a loved one had cancer and another hiv. I also support medical care and support for drug addicts and alcoholism and smokers because life isn't always peachy and I truly believe with all my heart that we should look out for the most vulnerable and sick and old and young members of our society and I abide by my own code
Give what you can
Get what you need

For a small proportion of Brits, perhaps, but for everyone else that skis, its just something they do because its fun and they enjoy it. The winter half term in Finland is called 'ski holiday' because that's what almost everyone does for the week, whether downhill or cross-country, for decades. People of all classes.

Sure , but you may well end up with all those disabilities from a stroke or other cause of brain injury. At least he did something he enjoyed.

So why do you have such a negative opinion about the people who enjoy a sport that you have never partaken in yourself? I'm assuming you have never been to a ski resort and are basing your opinion on stereotypes and people talking about their ski trips?

Skiing in places like Bulgaria is extremely popular and super cheap, do you think everyone who skis there is entitled and a certain type of person? Every time I have skiied, there has been a wide range of people from many different backgrounds, it is not exclusively for the upper middle-class. It is wonderful to go away both in the winter and the summer, a trip to the mountains really breaks up the dreary winter months in the UK.

I guess the trouble is we take calculated risks everyday otherwise we wouldn’t do anything.
just getting out of bed and walking downstairs is risky, driving in perhaps the most dangerous thing we all do, yet most of us do it.
skiing wouldn’t be for me but we have to all have to take risks & allow our children to too… I’m sure if we all sat and researched the risk factors involved we wouldn’t do anything though..

Question is have the kids had proper lessons and not just Dad trying to teach them?
Do they use a dry slope here?

But sometimes falls just happen. I pulled a muscle a couple of years ago, on a simple fall where I landed like Garfield.
But I've also done similar falling of a kerb that didn't notice.

Trouble is all the lessons in the world won't prevent you being involved in an accident with an over enthusiastic Frenchman barrelling down the slope (something that has just happened to a friend of mine who has returned from a ski trip with a knee injury). Tho of course lessons are a sensible mitigation.

Can I ask, what constitutes 1 skier day? Is it literally 1 person skiing for a day?

If so - then, for arguments sake, 1k people on the slopes in one resort on a given day = 1k skier days. 1 million skier days would be hit pretty quickly considering how many skiers there would be across the world every day?

Like, what would that be, a death every couple of days? At least one per week?

The likelihood of it being you may be small, but the likelihood if someone dying is high?

Having read some more of the thread I began to understand both arguments for & against their families participating in skiing. Out of interest I googled the words 'skiing accidents recently' then clicked on videos to see what goes on in the slopes,speed etc. I was horrified there was such a long list of notifications of people including children having dreadful accidents & dying on the slopes & this was recently. I had to stop scrolling. I've now gone back to thinking it's just not worth the risk especially for children.

Completely agree. So does the person who goes abroad for summer have 'a sense of entitlement'? Ridiculous. Its a sport that people choose to do.

Googling "skiing accidents" is clearly just going to back up your confirmation bias. Have you also googled swimming/cycling/road/walking/literally any other activity, accidents? All of these will return pages of hideous accidents and statistics. Presumably not because they wouldn't confirm your bias.

Have you also looked a accidents on bikes, scooters, or pools?

What about e-bikes and e-scooters?
Admittedly I wouldn't let my kids near one of them with a barge pole. DH & I had a near miss with a kid on an e-scooter 15 years ago. She was going far too fast, not paying attention to the cars on the road. I don't think she knows how lucky she was.

They’ve been booked into ski school and had dry slope lessons here for years, they’re good skiers, it’s definitely Dad going along with the wishes of the step family. DS is keen, and gets in with it, DD not so and has now thrown up this morning on top of the falls, she wants to come home but is getting pressure off the rest of the group to join in, in part because they’ve paid an awful lot of money for the trip. I get it from their perspective, I just feel sad that she’s having to be coerced into doing something today when she’d rather be tucked up in a blanket watching the world go by, when it’s (for them) as a previous poster alluded to, something they do because it’s expected in the social circles in which they mix. I love the ‘Garfield landing’, btw, hope you weren’t too badly injured!

The thread is about skiing! Seeking more information is not trying to back up my apparent confirmation bias when I was literally doing a little research on the actual subject matter. Facts available on this particular topic have nothing to do with other activities other than making random irrelevant comparisons.

@TylwythTeg How old is she, ie is she old enough to say at the hotel / apartment?
Or maybe she's just moaning but happy when she is out on the slopes?

But if it's really not her thing, then maybe she should opt out of next year's trip.

I don't know if it's a social circles thing, DH learned to ski with scouts, me with school. Back in the days when Scottish snow was more reliable.
He has friends who ski, mainly from the Scout group, I lost touch with my school pals.

Yes in France it's called the " white week" is it only the Brits who are not allowed to enjoy the snow ?

I've looked up some stats for switzerland:
On average 5 people(Swiss or foreign) die each year skiing. About 3.2 million of Swiss people do go skiing. There are around 20 million foreign visitors to Switzerland every year. If only 5% of those go skiing, we are at about 4 mio skiers. Which means the chance of being one of the dead skiers is less than 0.01% or the probability of flipping a coin 20 times and always getting tails (one in a million)

What are the stats on injuries, especially injuries with long term implications. Injuries can obviously happen in most sports although surely skiing must be amongst the sport with the highest stats. I actually admire people who ski but it's not for everyone regardless of affordability. Personally I love water skiing which also has its dangers so I do understand the attraction.

so 200 swiss people are killed annually in road traffic accidents vs 5 skiing ...

people's perception of risk amd statistics isnvery skewed ... by graphic footage and horrible news stories like the OP one, sure, but do you think every road accident death is reported in the news? Of course not, because they're much more common place. But I bet everyone here lets people puck their kids up from school, drive them home from parties, go on school trips etc.

When you can say your kids never get into a car, bus, coach or train, come back to me on the risk of skiing, or any other sporting activity.

That 5 will alsonof course include middle aged men collapsing and dying from heart attacks on the slopes, hopefully not something that would effect many kids.