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Night skiing - safety

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Just got back to our hotel after a dreadful experience night skiing. I won’t name the resort because otherwise we have been very happy and I doubt their setup is any different to most other resorts.

We (wife, me, kids x2) decided to night ski and then sledge. The conditions are currently superb and the lack of other folk on the slopes promised a great experience. This was ruined by a couple of out of control idiots on sledges who didn’t take the dedicated sledging run and instead hurtled down at breakneck speed missing my at the time stationery 7 year old by only a metre. I normally err on the side of understatement but I’m convinced she would have been lucky to survive a full on collision.

In hindsight I’m more than annoyed at myself that we even took them out tonight. The availability of alcohol and the culture of alcohol around skiing means that instances like this are to some extent inevitable. We caught up with one of the idiots (after he had crashed a couple of hundred metres further down) and he’d have been well over the drink drive limit. Risk is clearly present during skiing but there is an onus on resorts to minimise risk and for me night skiing just isn’t safe and I wouldn’t take children night skiing again.

To top it off as my wife waited to speak to someone at the ticket office there was a fight between two blokes who got agitated with wait for tickets to the night show (again alcohol a factor).
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
I was somewhat taken aback in the US taking the bus to the gondola seeing a poster promoting that the full base lodge bar was open from 9am for hair of the dog. Skiing definitely has an alcohol issue for an activity that requires motor skills and cognitive ability.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
@Tirol, You have my sympathies. I do not understand why drunken idiots have to ruin things.

Personally I think that alcohol belongs to apres-ski and not during ski
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 You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
Rabbie wrote:
@Tirol, You have my sympathies. I do not understand why drunken idiots have to ruin things.

Personally I think that alcohol belongs to apres-ski and not during ski


Unfortunately some après bar require skiing back afterwards - Moose in StAnton for example
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@eblunt, Fair point in those circumstances but don't be an idiot afterwards until you've finished skiing.

Being an old pedant Apres means after to me Very Happy Very Happy
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 You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
@eblunt, one of the highlights of EOSB for me, is sitting on the ridge next to the piste that takes the Folie Douce back down to VT itself. You can sit up there and just watch the utter carnage of several hundred mullered brits crashing into each other after a skinful in the Folie closing party, especially as half of the probably can't ski for toffee when they're sober, and the snow is slushy and shagged by that point in the day. It's the spectator sport for terrible people.
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 JeffJeff
JeffJeff
Guest
Idiots will be idiots. One of the funniest things I've seen was a guy stagger out of a pub and spend ten minutes trying to unchain his bike from the railing before falling over backwards, taking the pub a frame sign out and landing on top of it with his bike on top of him. Only to get up, fix it all and do it again five minutes later. Some people will never know their limits or the point at which normal activities become a bad idea.

Were you well lit at least? (no pun intended)

For the kids I would definitely recommend looking at UV Paqlite (not sure if I can link to them here or not but I've only seen one site selling them in the UK) who make a glow in the dark orb that can be worn around the neck or on a bag and intermittently pulses a torch light to charge it. Can also be set to auto using a light sensor so it comes on automatically at night. Green light is the most visible at night over distance, it's unlikely to be mistaken for anything else and it isn't going to dazzle anyone. You could just leave it on to sort itself out without worrying about short battery life or remembering to turn it on. Not sure how it fares in cold temperatures yet but it is waterproof enough at least so I definitely plan on trying it out.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
@JeffJeff, hmmm...I recall with some embarrassment that when a youth and had alchohol-reduced judgement, I would emerge from a hostelry and demonstrate my climbing prowess by scaling the nearest lamppost. I now look at said lampposts and wonder how on earth I did it. But I did, almost every Friday.
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 You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
@valais2, are you the guy who does that naked every New Years Eve in Verbier's Place Centrale?
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
@rungsp, ...grief no...that would really lower the tone. My being-very-silly days are over (although I am not sure my kids would agree).
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 JeffJeff
JeffJeff
Guest
@valais2 Don't get me wrong I've done my share of stupid things. One time we found a big flag from some event or other than had been held in the fields near us and for whatever reason decided that it needed to be flying from the highest point we could find. Since the old abandoned ski slope (sounds like a Scooby Doo location) clearly wasn't high enough I climbed as high as possible in the tallest tree growing out of it. By all accounts whilst drunk on a windy night this was not a good idea and my mate whimped out... however like yourself I was only putting myself at risk doing it.

I'll happily take such stupid risks myself when drunk when they don't endanger anyone but me. It does take far less alchohol to impair my judgement than it does my motor skills and balance it seems.
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Does night skiing affect insurance?
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
@JeffJeff, ....hmmm....just realised that we do quite a bit of night tobogganing - we walk up from Aminona on the piste through the woods (also functions as a snowmobile track, an ex-toboggan run, walking path and piste) up to the Cafe De La Cure (about 2km up from the car park), have dinner, then toboggan back. Years ago we realised that we needed headtorches, and rear lights. These are LEDs which we clip onto the kids' helmets. We thought it through right from the beginning - you need to see and be seen. If a kid was to plummet off the side of the track (i) I want to be able to see it happening; (ii) I want some indication of where someone has gone. And we want to avoid any accidents and collisions in the first place. Even quite late at night, there are people walking in the dark, snowmobiles coming and going. So far, all good, all safe. But I have heard of horrific tobogganing accidents over the years.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Hurdy wrote:
Does night skiing affect insurance?


Ive asked the question and there is no definitive answer really.

The problem with insurance - well mine anyway (which is from MPI so presumably the same as a lot of snowheads) is it just states that you must not take any 'unnecessary risks'. Which I think is just about as dubious as it gets. Is it just a buy out line? When the insurance company don't want to pay - they'll just accuse you of taking an unnecessary risk?

I mean, frankly, clamping a pair of wooden planks to your feet and throwing yourself off the side of a mountain for leisure purposes only is a pretty unnecessary risk, isn't it?

So I've always been slightly concerned with night skiing that it might be the kind of increased-risk activity that might open up the opportunity for them to play the 'unnecessary risk' card more than usual. However as long as it's lift-served and officially sanctioned by the resort operator, I don't see any reason why it would be any different to day skiing.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
I'm sure that there will be some new policy wordings coming out....
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Go to Lapland in Jan/Feb - you can pretty much night ski all day and the sledges are pulled along for you by presumably-sober dogs and reindeer Laughing Seriously, a lovely experience to do snow sports there, mostly under lights in those months.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@Hurdy, doubt it.
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