at wondering why parents ...

I was wondering too...

I'm sure we all did at the time, confusedbeetle. Why resurrect this thread now?

Oh please, feel for them in their grief

Our UK newspaper said the mother was skiing with the boy and also a daughter. The daughter fell, the mother stopped to help her and the boy carried on. They surmise he went off-piste because he liked skiing amongst trees, lost his way, took off his skis and fell over a cliff.

Our UK newspaper said the mother was skiing with the boy and also a daughter. The daughter fell, the mother stopped to help her and the boy carried on. They surmise he went off-piste because he liked skiing amongst trees, lost his way, took off his skis and fell over a cliff.

Our UK newspaper said the mother was skiing with the boy and also a daughter. The daughter fell, the mother stopped to help her and the boy carried on. They surmise he went off-piste because he liked skiing amongst trees, lost his way, took off his skis and fell over a cliff.

LIke granjura I heard it a European news not BBC. They said he had asked to go down on his own and the parents said he could. He took his skis off later and then fell down from a rocky edge.

I definitely never heard of his mother attending another child. that sounds like a repeat of the accident which Michael Schumacher had, he was supposed to be attending another person so went off track.
Skiing is big business and PR will do anything to put the blame on the person rather than the fact that skiing can be dangerous.

Poor parents. Whatever the reason their grief remains the same.

A series of unexpected occurrences that led to this tragedy - as with most accidents, there is no way of knowing that this will happen, and the freak circumstances may never happen again. How sad for the family.

Totally agree, jing.

I think that a lot of people who ski regularly are trying to make sense of how it could happen.
Not a wise thread to start, but I can see why she did, she can't undo it so it is best if we all just leave it.

There is a time to make a "valid point". That's all.

Granjura was making a very valid point.
We don't know exactly what happened but the important thing about it is that you can never let a 7 yr ski alone on a piste where you can't see them. I have been to that resort several times and have a good idea of the route he probably took. I went on my own with my 2 sons when they were about 13 and 11yrs, the elder one was a competent skier but I couldn't let him go off alone.
It was a tragic accident, no point in making the parents feel any worse than they already do but I think that granjura is getting a hard time. I am sure that we have all lost children- I had the instance ,like the one already mentioned, when my child got on an underground train and it set off before the rest of us got on- very scary - luckily someone pulled the communication cord.
The one lesson is that you have to respect the mountains, whatever you happen to be doing in them, and not let children go off alone.

Totally agree with you AshTree.

We are all very willing to concede that the family made a mistake, one they will have to live with for the rest of their lives.
I wish people could also concede that perhaps granjura made a mistake with her OP. She has explained that she was basing it on the only news she'd heard at that point, the initial reports that the child was allowed to ski alone.
We're all desperately upset by this tragic accident, Granjura included. No need to keep criticising.

To make such critical remarks before being aware of the facts certainly isn't showing much sympathy granjura. There are very few people who can honestly say thst they have never made a mistake - unless you are one if them I would think it better to say nothing until all the facts are made public.

My feeling is that even if they were misguided or careless in some way, I can't see any purpose in focusing on the the parents' actions. As others have suggested, who amongst us can, hand on heart, say they have never lost concentration or made a mistake and potentially put their children's safety at risk? And, even if there was no carelessness involved, the "if only I had/hadn'ts ....." will go over and over in these poor peoples' minds, probably for the rest of their lives.

If we are upset about the tragic death of this little boy, who we didn't even know, imagine how devastated his family must feel.

Regardless of what the real facts are, it only takes a split second to have an accident, a child from my village was killed in a skiing accident 2 years ago, hitting a tree.

Perhaps as a 7 year old he overestimated his abilities, no one could have foreseen the awful outcome.

And my first thoughts were along the same lines as granjura, as initial reports stated just that, and now the picture's clearer.

I'm not a skier so perhaps that gave me a different impression.

Poor little boy. Poor family.

Dreadful original post. Shameful.

Why rush in with criticism in circumstances like this anyway?

Sorry pogs, but several others did.

Just spent the last half hour reading around this tragic event- and I have to say, none of it makes sense. I am a trained ski course organiser and ski instructor, and have been skiing for over 60 years- and have taken several 100s of UK school children and my family skiing over the years. I just cannot fathom what could have happened. Blue slopes are very very clearly marked, and it is impossible to lose one's way in good weather. Best wait until the end of the investigation but we will probably never know.

He was with both parents, so if mum stopped to help his sister- the father should have been with him.

Granjura



I didn't state or mention you didn't have sympathy for them!!!

Pogs, if that is the case, then that puts a totally different light on this. If the sister fell and mum went to help and little one carried on ahead- then that is indeed a tragedy. And whatever happened, of course my heart goes to them- in fact even more so if they made a catastrophic error of judgement, as they will have to, indeed, live with it forever. Where on earth did I say I didn't feel total sympathy for them??? I said 'what on earth where they thinking about' if indeed, and that is the only news I'd heard, they allowed a 7 year old to go ahead and ski on his own. As said, we are all very experienced skiiers in the family, and my GS is just a little older and a great little skier, but we would never ever allow him to ski on his own. Becoming separated due to unforeseen circumstances is a totally different kettle of fish, and yes, could happen to anyone. We always have 1 adult at the front and 1 experienced adults at the back to ensure all are safe, always.

But I am also wondering how the child got into the wild- pistes these days are bashed and very well marked by poles, and even if he got out momentarily by a few feet, it would have been obvious how to get back to the slope?

My heart does indeed go to those poor parents. We have all lost children momentarily by accident- and it is terrifying. I suppose many of you are not experienced skiers and find it difficult to imagine. Would you allow a 7 year old to swim at sea on his own, or to go shopping on Oxford Street without you?

As said, if sister had an accident and he continued on his own- it is a very different case altogether.

To be fair to granjura I had also noted that it was initially widely reported he had asked his parents if he could go down on his own. If that was the case and we may never know, despite his obvious skills in skiing. He was seven years old and still a child.

His ability to make decisions about what to do once he was lost cannot have been mature enough to get out of the situation safely.

His parent's spokesperson said he was "out going and adventurous" but he was just seven, far too young to go out like that unsupervised in a potentially dangerous place. Those poor parents have to live with that.

Like most parents we had a number of heart-stopping moments when one or both of our children went missing momentarily. Our son, aged 4, on Paignton beach - so crowded, impossible for us to spot him or for him to spot us. After what seemed like forever, we saw him being guided back by a young woman who'd seen him wandering alone.
Another time, on a trip back from London, we were all on the escalator at Paddington underground station, when we heard our train approaching. He ran, faster than I could with his little sister, and he jumped on the train just as the doors closed, and left us on the platform. He was about 5. I don't have to describe the sheer terror I was feeling. Thank Heavens for the sensible fellow on the train who saw everything and pulled the emergency handle before the train moved off.

It was widely reported that he had asked to ski back on his own, which is probably where granjura got her information from. Whether that is true or not remains to be seen.

Having lost DS in France when he was 3 I know the heart-stopping feeling of being unable to find your child. We found him again after 20 minutes thank God.

I doubt that the parents will ever 'come to terms ' with it.