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.

This is a revealing mindset.

People who already have security in their life, the affluent types who can afford to go skiing etc, are very often risk seekers. They'll find it exhilarating.

People who worry about how they're going to put food on the table or heat their house are far more likely to be risk averse.

So you're right, risk is an inherent part of living, but that comes in very different forms.

Oh do give your head a wobble. Plenty of normal people ski. You are making assumptions that aren't valid.

I agree. Children die every week in regular old car accidents and though it doesn't happen often, I can still remember how haunted my medic friends were when they were called to the scene of a horse accident. The rider slipped, and their foot was caught in the stirrups. It spooked the horse, so it took off with the rider still attached. Suffice to say it was a horrible tradegy and it was that person's horse, so not even a riding lesson. Just out having fun. Skiing is dangerous, but any sport or fun can be dangerous. Amusement parks, sledding, biking, trail running, rock climbing, baseball, all have tragedies yearly.

My dd went skiing with the school. It wasn’t something I’d ever been interested in and certainly not something I could afford to pay for both of us to go. I took her to lessons beforehand and she got up to blue/red slopes by the end of the week. She really enjoyed it.

I really think we should encourage our children (within limits) to live bigger lives. Get off the sofa and into the real world. She has also been to Sicily for a geography trip and went up Mt Etna (and it’s a little bit active at the moment) and is going on an outdoor activities holiday to Snowdonia this summer. Life is full of risks, most of them are smaller than we fear them to be.

not many people ski. Far more people drive, and if they don’t drive they’re still pedestrians. There are far more accidents on roads than there are skiing. Plus, you don’t ski all year round.

Every sport has its risks, that’s one of the reasons people do it (for the andrenaline or the buzz of the endorphins) but you can’t wrap everyone in cotton wool.

Actually, I also want to try skiing, but after seeing many people around me getting into accidents, I don’t dare to go.

My DH enjoys skiing but I am not keen as in my social group I know of one snowboarder that was paralysed from the neck down and they were pretty young when it happend. I also have one friend who broke their arm and another who injured their back and was out of action for about 9 months! I am not interested anyway and neither are my Teens.

I appreciate what you are arguing - i E broadening horizons but sport is not the only way to do this.

It’s hard to explain but it’s not all about risk and speed for a lot of skiers - I’m a quite risk adverse person so I always take lots of refresher lessons and stick mainly to the easier slopes but the joyful feeling that goes through your whole body when you glide down a mountain.

It’s like happiness and serenity and a whoosh of pleasure all wrapped up in one feeling.

This.

Loads of activities, jobs and hobbies can be dangerous. Life becomes very boring and oppressive if risk is removed in the name of "safety".

People can also die or be harmed doing very normal things. It would be very annoying to limit your life experiences and avoid all things "dangerous" then die crossing the road or by falling off a step ladder!

Exactly. This thread is ridiculous quite frankly and scaremongering.

You can't go through life shielding your kids from all risk.

If I think back over the last 12 months, mine have:
Been on a plane
Been on a jetski
Been open water swimming (out of their depth) more times than I can remember, both UK and abroad
Been trampolining
Climbed up and down cliff faces...the kinds with 'paths', but steep and scrambling/much care needed to avoid a very nasty fall
One dc has been skiing
Another one (17) went to a 3 day festival with no supervision
Been on themepark rides
Cycled miles on roads

Probably loads more. Every one of those activities regularly (although some infrequently) causes death.

For all those who are 'OMG I could never let my dc ski' just think about everything they actually do. You're not a superior parent for not skiing due to the risk. You likely let your kids take risks every day.

We are Scottish and my son skies every week, sometimes more, on a dry slope. Then they fo abroad for extra training. So it is part of life for some Brits, and Scotland is not far from anywhere in the UK really...

Isn't Rugby a popular sport at most British schools?
I grew up skiing but the thought of a bunch of schoolchildren ploughing into each other on a muddy field doesn't seem that much safer to me. Brain injuries are a well known factor in rugby.

I'm 70 and have been skiing for 63 years. I'm an expert skier and I've never injured myself. I plan on continuing as long as I am physically able. It's one of the main reasons why I work out vigorously for an hour or more most days. For me, it's the most wonderful sport there is. There is nothing like it and I love it so much. YMMV, and that's okay.

Dear friends of ours lost their young child in a skiing accident. They'd had a few years of lessons and were on 'safe' slopes. The family is shattered. The guilt the parents feel. One has completely spiralled.

As with any sport that involves risk, it's important to be properly equipped (helmet, warm and waterproof clothing) and to be aware of your limitations and lack of experience. There are basic safety measures to follow: Never ski off-piste unless accompanied by an experienced guide, take lessons until you're skilled enough to handle tougher slopes and conditions by yourself, stay hydrated and never ski when you're tired or injured.

This argument doesn’t work unless you also want to start charging smokers, drug users and obese people for using NHS services - in fact, anyone who lives a less than virtuous life. Tbh, given how expensive skiing is, these people are probably net tax contributors anyway which can’t be said for most drug users and yet we still help them because that’s literally the whole point of a national health service.

What an absurd and elitist view. Firstly, as PP has mentioned, some Brits are brought up near ski resorts and do this from a young age. Secondly, saying that if you haven’t done something every weekend from age 3 then you should never try it would rule out 99% of activities for 99% of people. What a boring world that would be.

Well, the only safe sport is "channel surfing" and too many parents have let their children become pros at it.

It used to be tiddlywinks was considered a safe sport until the thumb injuries from over-use and bending them to tiddly those winks started becoming a problem.

I can ski and love it. It’s a real mental break when I ski and I just completely get in the zone and it’s so fun. But I will no longer risk it having had a hip replacement. I live abroad in a ski region and everyone skis here and it’s normal for your very young children to start but I just haven’t been able to bring myself to get my children enrolled in lessons. Michael Schumacher is the one I always think of that stops me. I’ve known seriously capable skiers that have been skiing since 3yrs old to get injured or had near misses with avalanches (there’s a fantastic show on Disney plus with Jimmy Chin about this exact thing and it’s harrowing how even professionals have been killed or seriously harmed skiing and snowboarding). It just has to be a no for me now.

I don't think this is true. I grew up poor with lots of other poor kids. (I first went skiing on a funded place with school. I was in a single parent family and in receipt of free school meals back in the early '80s.)

We all took risks all the time. Less to lose in many ways.

Rich people paying money to go skiing aren't any more risk taking than poor people in the boxing gyms in London. Or the kids playing chicken on the dual carriageway.

Incidentally I can think of around 10 young people who died in car accidents in my rural community when I was young myself - skiing deaths = none.

Surely helmets would cut down the risk of the worst accidents. I barely see anyone on the slopes apart from a few older people without helmets on these days.

If you mean through vat then so are skiers.