Crans Montana - a question.

A snowHead

If you guys were there when that terrible tragedy happened....would you?

a) Ski the following day and the rest of your trip.
b) Pack up and go home.
c) Something else...(suggest away)

A snowHead

d) I would ignore hypothetical questions on the Internet Cool

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Go skiing.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Probably not the next day

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Quite possibly plenty of people would have been skiing the next day before knowing what had happened.

Can't say what I'd do without being there at the time. I suspect I'd go skiing but not Apres.

It sounds crass but there are tragedies occurring around the world every single day and people don't stop their lives for them, should proximity make a difference? If so, how close does one need to be for that to be the case? The next town over? Next valley? Same country?

You'll need to Register first of course.

Go with decisions of the resort. If they closed stuff as a mark of respect or for other reasons eg affected staff, accept that as so very understandable.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

I can remember quite well skiing in France at the time of the Bataclan and Charlie Hebdo incidents, most lift stations had some sort of sign or banner up and the mood was sombre on the slopes.

Opening the lifts in Crans the following day was probably the right thing to do, a resort/village full of people on holiday hanging around, needing fed etc operationally would probably be more of a headache for authories than them spread around some mountains with the infrastructure there to support them.

After all it is free

@alasdair.graham, That was my thought too when someone voiced their surprise that the resort was still open.

Keep people away from the town which still had at that point had an ongoing incident. Plus it gives people an outlet - like going for a walk to clear your head kind of thing.

I would have carried on skiing, though I can understand people who wouldn't. Quite a few years ago on a winter mountaineering trip we had an incident where a good friend died. Some people wanted to go home, but most of us were happier carrying on, amongst people who understood, rather than randoms at home where you would have to justify everything.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

@RobinS, your comment about a friend made me think about a conversation I've had with my dad. We compete in some minor club motrosport and have had the morbid discussion about "if the worst were to happen", both of us would want the event to carry on providing officials/volunteers were happy to.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

It’s our locality.

We did not ski but felt that it was irrelevant whether we skied or not. What was important was that we and friends (psychologists) had offered help to the Commune, our heads were full of concern, and we did not intrude on people’s grief.

If we had skied or toured we would not have been jolly people to be with. Sombre.

I’ve lost people in the mountains before and we’ve never seen stopping being out on the hill being a sign of respect. All of us agree - get out into the wild and contemplate on the person or people. Best place for it. And that’s what the Grom and my partner said when they were stopped on the hill two days’ ago and interviewed by a German journalist….

snow reports

My late brother in law went on a paragliding holiday in North Africa, having done a fair bit in the UK and loved it. A couple of the WAGS joined the group, but not my sister.

There was an awful freak accident and one of the chaps hit his head on a rock, on a ridge flight, and died. The local authorities were not on to it as they would have been here and the whole thing was awful, especially as his wife was on the trip.

None of them carried on flying on that holiday and my BiL gave it up altogether.

It's hard to know how you'd feel in a situation like the Crans Montana fire, when nobody you knew personally was involved. It might knock me out emotionally, having it so close - I think I might just want to escape, to go straight home. But that's just an emotional reaction, I wouldn't see it as a moral issue one way or another, or somehow "disrespectful" (I really dislike and distrust that word, it is so widely misused on social meeja) to carry on with the holiday.

One of my daughter’s netball friends was out in crans Montana over new year. She said they were woken by an explosion when it happened Crying or Very sad

I don’t know if they continued skiing but talking to her mum on Sunday at a netball fixture she was clearly still very distraught by the whole thing. She couldn’t really speak about it.

You know it makes sense.

I've never liked crowded, noisy places (the advent of wine bars, which were generally less crowded than pubs, was a godsend for me, especially since I do like wine, but don't like beer) so I would never enter a busy indoor bar the next day, or probably ever again. But I agree about being out on the hill with friends.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Imagine a fantasy scenario where some folk die at a ski resort in a slide. It happens all the time. The other people there probably behave more carefully for a while, but they mostly won't cease skiing because of it. If you were a lucky survivor of the incident, you might well want to take some time to grieve, and may have a reasonable fear of snow, but most people don't come into that category.

In this case, people drinking in basement bars with children and fireworks present might want to... take a few days away from that environment, but I see no real connexion with skiing. Skiing isn't what caused this.

(d) It's a poor question.

A snowHead

I was there. I skied.

I'd had breakfast and knew nothing about it at that point and it wasn't mentioned by hotel staff. I read about it on here just as I was about to go out. I'd had an early night and was planning to be out early take advantage of quiet NY-day slopes so looking at news wasn't a priority.

At that point the story was of an explosion and 10 severe injuries/deaths.

A snowHead

@Origen, that’s quite different isn’t it. I’d want to take some time to contemplate whether paragliding was a sensible thing ever to do again. (Personally I’m not convinced and I wasn’t even there.)

But the deaths of some strangers in a non-skiing incident?

If there’s an avalanche in resort and strangers die would people stop skiing? How would they even know, it’s seldom reported? People die in cars on the way to resort, nobody knows.

If you’re not into high-risk off piste (and possibly even if you are) then possibly the single thing you can do to best improve your chances of living through a ski holiday is to take the train from GVA rather than a taxi.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@SnoodyMcFlude, my opinion also...

Can't say from here but i think also i would go skiing but definitely not Apres.

Strangely skiing is the only thing that keeps my mind completely empty...
However i can not imagine the pain for the parents who lost their kids in this incident...

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Go skiing. If there was a crash and fatalities on the M60 today it wouldn't stop me driving there tomorrow.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Depends how I felt at the time but my instinct would have been to go skiing for a number of reasons:
Staying in the chalet/hotel all day helps nobody. Roaming the streets is even worse.
The resort needs people to carry on and have a good time as best they can. Their tourist numbers are likely to suffer for a while and the town need supporting.
If my family/friends had been hurt in the disaster I might not want to see people partying and having a wild time but I really wouldn't want others not to enjoy their holidays as best they could

You'll need to Register first of course.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

@dazman, and what would you have done?

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

snow reports

I'd go skiing. What else would I do, mope around resort mourning the loss of some complete strangers? It's a tragedy but rather too much of post Diana mawkishness has been inserting ourselves in the narratives of others.

I think it was a perfectly legitimate and quite interesting question. There have been suggestions that the resort might have beenosed "as a mark of respect" - which is also a legitimate suggestion but if I'd been there, and involved, and maybe waiting for news of a casualty, I don't think having loads of people milling around would have felt particularly "respectful". I'd want them all to sod off.

As people have pointed out, folk die in road accidents every day, and we carry on driving. But if I'd had a member of my family killed in a crash that might make me feel differently about driving, at least for a bit. That's an emotional, not a rational or ethical response - and I don't know if anyone of can be sure how we'd feel in a situation we'd not encountered before.

You know it makes sense.

A few years ago, we had just arrived in Courchevel and on our first night we were woken up to a lot of activity in the early hours. A large old Chalet down the road from us was on fire, and we'd woken up to helicopters taking people to the hospital.

We skiied the next day but hadn't realised that 23 seasonaires had perished in the fire. I'm not sure it would have stopped us skiing had we'd known but it was really shocking news to hear so many hadn't made it out.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

@adithorp, This is relevant....if it wasn't noticeable in the village and you were unaware well then carry on regardless.

@Origen, Obviously @adithorp, says it wasn't mentioned when they were there this is different BUT if it got the coverage it got over here...I wouldn't be comfortable continuing my holiday knowing you may be clumping past someone who's hanging on for dear life waiting on information.

@Dave of the Marmottes, I'm talking about how would we behave if a tragedy like that happened right on the doorstep of your hotel/B&B etc....not a f**king road in Paris when you live in Chester.

A snowHead

@dazman, slightly odd question.

Anyway, I'd go skiing.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

You'll need to Register first of course.

@dazman, in all likelihood you regularly pass someone who has recently experienced loss, received bad news or is generally just grappling with life. There will be members of this forum that are currently in that boat.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@Jo225, I think he does feel a moral superiority. Why else would he feel the need to swear at @Dave of the Marmottes?

After all it is free

I thought the original question was OK. It seemed to be asking for a gut reaction and was neither requesting nor implying some sort of moral thesis. What's wrong with that?

It is really difficult to say for definite what I would have done. I most likely think I would have sussed out the vibe and gone with that. For instance, if I was in a reasonably sized hotel and I was the only person down at breakfast in salopettes, I wouldn’t just carry on with my plan to ski regardless.
“Read the room” would be my answer.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Help!!

Crans Montana - a question.

snowHeads Forum Index >>> The Piste