Brianmcn wrote:Yes Tony most folk do like to have a social life, but that gives you the right to ski while seriously under the influence of alcohol...?
I think not, have you ever tried having a social life without getting pissed up and taking the chance of killing or seriously injuring another person, who might just be a child who happens to have the bad luck to be in the path of an alcoholic skier, if you accept you would be over the limit to drive why is it then acceptable to ski in the same state..?
as for the others on this forum who think along the lines of it's ok to drink and ski then you all need to have a reality check!!
Wo steady on. Where did I say anything about ME getting "pissed up"? Quite the opposite in fact, I actually said (if you read it correctly) that I have never had more than 2 pints over lunch, and in fact thats probably more likely to be a pint of shandy at the most.
I'm actually in the camp for saying you SHOULDN'T ski while under the influence, but I think theres a lot of us who like to stop at the last hut and have a couple of drinks before skiing the last run off, carefully, and when its pretty deserted to be fair.
As for alcoholic skiing - I think you need to visit the big famous apres resorts like St Anton, Val d'Isere,
Verbier,
Ischgl, Solden, Meribel, Saalbach etc where there are well known drinking huts up the mountain and start your own individual campaign for not drinking and skiing. See how you get on with the local workers and tourist board alike. However, I do agree that drinking for the sake of drinking and skiing don't mix, and in fact in
Mayrhofen I have witnessed many many German, Scandinavian and Dutch men skiing after a long long liquid lunch.
In fact, our friends at WTSS often write about their (in my opinion unnecessarily) long lunches and alcoholic accompaniments.
There is a grey area, as it is not an offence to drink under the influence, although we all have a duty of care and safety to everyone else, and therefore need to think about what we are drinking up there.
And what I meant about it being social - many people like myself ski with a group, and its part of the social side of skiing to stop and have a beer late in the day, probably a coffee in the morning, although I know a few ladies in particular who like a couple of gluhweins at the 10.30 morning stop and who in fact claim they ski far better once they've had them!!!!
Each to his own, but as always, I think its wise to avoid excess, or to bang on to people about doing it to excess when in fact they don't, if you get me Brian?
