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 ski in Scotland mostly. Believe me that's not about keeping up with the Tarquin's and Jocastas. 😂

And I ski with braces on my knees because I slipped and injured my knees and had to have them operated on. I didn't do that skiing though. I did it playing TENNIS.

Ask Michael Schumacher? incredible he had a long and successful career in a very dangerous sport, then went skiing.

Friends of mine have just returned from a skiing trip, c/w a multiple leg fracture, they are supposed to be going on a cycling holiday to Spain next month.

Lower limp injuries seem to be very common with people who ski occasionally.

@GargoylesofBeelzebub I live in Scotland and work in a legal office - yes it is

@Abra1t I work in a law office. Are the people that go skiing the partners and senior lawyers or the secretaries and print room operatives?

I don’t work in law firms so how would I know? Why did you tag me?

It’s the same everywhere in life. Replace skier / boarder with ‘road user’ and recognise that you take your life in your hands every time you leave home - especially if you do so on foot or a bicycle.

I hate skiing and I dislike that most people only do it to be able to say that they go skiing. There were so many children coming back to school with skiing injuries after the holidays every year. Awful.
These are the same people who purposefully buy large 4x4s and must own a Labrador. Desperate to appear part of a particular social class and prepared to climb like wisteria.

You understand I was taking about myself right? I ski for the love of it.

And I bet the folk in your office don't actually ski in Scotland but go abroad.

This is a bit odd. Lots of people have come on here to say how much they enjoy skiing (including me). Are they all putting it on?

One of the things that I enjoy about skiing is that the family all do it together (also what I love about sailing). It’s a real source of pleasure to be able to get up into the French mountains and ski.

If you hate skiing then you definitely shouldn’t go.

I ski because I love it - my idea of heaven is up the top of a mountain covered in snow ( the mountain not me ! ) with the sun shining - so peaceful

@JarvisIsland heh, I would never guess you were a cyclist with that username! 😉Ride on!

Scuba divers have perished on dive boats recently in Egypt, Kirsty MacColl was killed by a reckless boat driver while surfacing from a dive. I know some who died of the bends. I’ve 500+ dives in my log book but never came close to harm even diving with sharks.

I’ve had my fair share of tumbles horse riding and broke my arm once, friend had same injury falling down a step.

I'm curious how mountain biking or more widely off road biking compares to road cycling for accidents and injuries.
But I can't find anything possibly not searching into the best places.

I love all the poeple on here who have never tried skiing saying what everyone who does go skiing's motivations are - to do something they have never trie and know nothing about :)

Smoking an drinking alcohol are by far the riskiest activities anyone in this country can do, followed by driving.

I go scuba diving and skiing, scuba diving is way riskier than skiing and I feel much more aware of danger doing that than skiing - thats why you have to be 12+ to scuba dive, but children can ski. I would never drive a motorbike and wouldn't let any of my children on one. Risk perception is very skewed here.

The reason the print room guys aren't going skiing is probably because it's expensive. Same as horse-riding. That doesn't make it a class issue. There are plenty of rich working class people and manual labourers. I know a plumber and builder who have been coining it in over the past few years and have recently started skiing, despite having no history or exposure as kids/teens. The Jocasta Tarquin thing is ludicrous, and chippy MN at it's finest.

To feel fulfilled?

The sanctimony is off the charts with this jump to conclusions.

This is BASE jumping levels of unfounded conclusions.

OR they enjoy it?

This is such a bizarre point of view. You hate it so those that love it only love it to look fancy? Lol

What mountains did you ski on?

IME as someone involved in both, MTBing is much worse for single-vehicle accidents (ie no-one else involved). Road cycling much worse for multiple-vehicle accidents - where the other vehicle is usually a motor vehicle, although bike-on-bike accidents are also very common in racing. Overall road cycling more dangerous than MTB because of motor vehicles (two pro cyclists killed while training so far this year, Sarah Piffer and Muriel Furrer) whereas in the MTB world I can only think of Scott Huntley.

Turns out drunk drivers are more dangerous than trees and rocks.

Muriel Furrer died in the world junior championship road race in Switzerland, last year....., she went over the edge of the road but was left there for at least an hour, vital time in which she could have survived.

She wasn't a professional & just 18 years old, she should never have died, the UCI didn't provide the marshalling required.

Pro cyclists spend upwards of 30 hours a week riding on the roads, so their exposure to danger is far far higher than someone who just rides to work or on a Sunday morning.

A rider my daughter raced with, was Josephine Gilbert, run over by a lorry driver who shouldn't have been anywhere nr a lorry, he was banned due to being almost blind.... as usual a pitiful sentence, 2 years inside i think he served.

Yes cycling is becoming increasingly dangerous.

@jasflowers both of those are tragic.

I 100% support drivers having mandatory eye tests in the UK.
It's beyond ridiculous that someone can pass their test at 17 and still be driving at 90 without any checks on their ability to drive or how aware they are.
I think sight tests would at least be a starting point

someone i know just broke their hip on a skiing trip - shes out for 6 months.

I disagree that skiing is to blame.
The report may have been misleading, since it mentioned that they were on a Red run, but no information was provided regarding the proficiency of the child or his parents on tackling a Red run on their own (no mention of a ski instructor or guide).
We put our kids into ski school, and did our skiing in the morning while they were there, returning to the blue and green slopes in the afternoon to help them practice. We were seasoned skiers, but always respected the terrain, so planned how to ski safely together as a family
As they became more proficient, we tackled a couple of Red runs with them, but only after explaining the rules to be followed (We stop if it gets steep, then Dad goes first a little way and stops, one DC skis to him and stop, before the other DC skis to Dad and Stops, followed by me, then I go first, then stop Etc.)
Allowing a child to go fast without learning to stop first, again and again, until you are sure that they are capable of stopping, and also, crucially, regulating their speed is a clear case of the ski group not understanding the dangers of this dangerous sport…

I absolutely bloody love skiing. I can't imagine many people spend thousands of pounds and a week of annual leave just to keep up with someone else, or look a certain way. It is the one holiday that has my teenager counting down the days and bouncing with excitement like a small child, and gets us all out in the mountains enjoying fresh air and exercise.

Yes there is a risk, but while we were away skiing last week one of DS' football team badly broke his arm just by falling over awkwardly while training. Another football player in a different age group had to be airlifted to hospital due to a head injury.

You can't completely avoid risk, you can only choose whether the risk is worth the reward, which for us it definitely is. I have no issue if other people don't fancy it. We all like different things. I am aware how lucky we are to be able to afford to ski, although we do it about as cheaply as possible.

@Abra1t why did I tag you?! Because you replied to my comment and then I replied to your reply?!

Where are you?! This is a very odd view of the world.

British families do not gather up their kids and head to the mountains for half term, spending hours travelling and thousands of pounds plus getting sore muscles and risking death and injuries, just to say they have been skiing.
What a load of nonsense you speak.

Some alternative views are...

• the 4x4 is fun to drive, gives them a better view of the road and fits all their kids, dogs, crap and mud in
• Labradors are great family dogs and born half trained so fit easily into a busy family life
• they love the freedom of the mountains, the peace, the fact their kids get off their tech long enough to let their eyes view the horizon and actually have a conversation with others whilst getting loads of fresh air and exercise.

If you hate skiing you definitely should not try it.

Yeah, we mostly ski Glenshee. Weirdly enough have never met a Tarquin or Jocasta up there. Plenty of lovely normal down to earth kids and parents who like us work in the public sector as teachers, nurses, doctors, school support staff, etc... but that doesn't quite suit the narrative does it? Or maybe it's just all going down at Glencoe, I don't know.