 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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The summary
I went, I was poo-poo
She won't be missed
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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?
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| Mike Pow wrote: |
The summary
I went, I was poo-poo
She won't be missed |
Indeed. I doubt journalism would miss her either, if she were to stop doing that. How many times has that hackneyed article been trotted out over the years by a multitude of so-called journalists. Cheap writing, for which I’d guess the Guardian paid handsomely. More fool them.
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I lost her the moment she wrote "the ugliest clothes you have ever seen in your life".
After being in France, mind you.
I will send her whining article to Bogner for a harsh and well deserved response.
When the going gets tough....
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Mike Pow wrote: |
The summary
I went, I was poo-poo
She won't be missed |
Do we really care what she thinks. But if it stops others overcrowding the pistes then its a win for us
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Well, she's succeeded in "engaging" a number of knowledgeable people here, who arguably should know better, so that's a win, isn't it?
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What I don’t understand is why anyone would want to drink cocktails on a tropical beach when they could go skiing.
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Be glad there are people who don't like or don't see the point in skiing. If they didn't exist imagine how crowded the slopes would be.
I tried with sailing but in the end concluded it was the most boring moneysink available.
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An excellent article, we need more of them. Keep the queues down.
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"...I’ll hike, climb or cycle quite happily..."
I'm calling cowdoo.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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She didn't "go skiing" beginner lessons are not "skiing".
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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.
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I've read it. Some people, like her, try it and hate it or just can't do it. Don't like the cold, the boots, carrying skis and sticks etc. She's entitled to her opinion. I hated being made to play rugby at school. I've no interest in it. However. I'm glad other people like it and maybe she should think that about skiing. Skiing is probably a bit marmite for most people - you love it or hate it from early on. Err, I don't think she's a 
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Think Emma had to make rent this month, quite a lazy article.
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@albob, I much prefer that version
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Poster: A snowHead
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^^ Remember kids, don’t do drugs ^^
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Quote: |
I much prefer that version
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Yes - it's been on Snowheads before, but well worth another look!!
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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?
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I'm surprised she didn't wax more lyrically about environmental damage, climate change, carbon footprint etc and only played the class war ball.
Then again, confessing to jetting off for a beach holiday rather dilutes those avenues of attack
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| Quote: |
Cheap writing, for which I’d guess the Guardian paid handsomely. More fool them.
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If it's created similar interest amongst Guardian readers who are skiers, then it was very good value. You are all arguing that one couldn't possibly take such a vapid argument seriously (and you are right) but it's got you going, hasn't it?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I think it’s sparked more of a debate around the fact that lazy writing is now seen as acceptable and how poor modern media is.
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| Origen wrote: |
| … but it's got you going, hasn't it? |
I made one comment and moved on. Has it got me going? No, I don’t think so. On the other hand, your contribution to the thread seems to be rolling along quite nicely…
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It was an opinion piece. It wasn’t a news report or journalism. I could have written a similar piece about going on a beach holiday or visiting a modern art gallery. The guardian may or may not publish it. The arguments were entirely about how it affected her, not how it affected other people.
It appears that part of her dislike was being cold. Some of us can cope with cold. Some can cope with heat. I cannot. A more serious discussion might be - what were all those British people doing in Dubai?
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Each to their own, I could write a similar article about being bored senseless, sweating my nads off, sat on a beach 
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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.
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It was an opinion piece. I could have written a similar piece about going on a beach holiday or visiting a modern art gallery. The arguments were entirely about how it affected her, not how it affected other people.
It appears that part of her dislike was being cold. Some of us can cope with cold. Some can cope with heat. I cannot. A more serious discussion might be - what were all those British people doing in Dubai?
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People love opinion pieces - so we can rubbish the writer's opinion and substitute our own! A balanced article about beach or ski holidays wouldn't attract much interest.
That's what Snowheads is about, isn't it? And none the worse for that. @rob@rar expressed the opinion that the Guardian wasted its money on this piece, I expressed a different opinion. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I wonder if copilot could do better. I think it could
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I say without shame that I am, by nature, a creature of warmth. Give me a beach, a deckchair, and a light breeze tickling the eyebrows, and I’m as happy as a well‑fed spaniel. So quite how I found myself in a European ski resort — a place where the very air seems to have been refrigerated by a vengeful deity — remains one of life’s great mysteries.
The moment I stepped out into the open, the cold hit me with the force of an over‑enthusiastic aunt greeting a long‑lost nephew. It wrapped itself around me, burrowed into my bones, and settled there with the smug satisfaction of a tenant who knows the landlord can’t evict him. I attempted a brave smile, but my face had frozen into an expression last seen on marble busts of Roman emperors.
Then came the boots.
If ever there was an invention designed by a committee of sadists, ski boots are it. The rental chap assured me they would “feel snug.” Snug, my foot — or rather, not my foot, for I lost all sensation in the thing within minutes. The contraptions clamped my lower limbs like a pair of irate badgers and forced me to walk with the stiff, uncertain gait of a man who has recently swallowed a broom.
The financial side of the affair was no less alarming. By the time I’d paid for the boots (instruments of torture), the skis (long wooden omens of doom), the helmet (optimistic), and the lift pass (daylight robbery conducted at altitude), I realised I could have spent a week on a beach being gently basted by the sun, rather than slowly frozen like a supermarket prawn.
But the true pièce de résistance was the lift queue. A long, serpentine mass of humanity, all of us shuffling forward with the grim determination of condemned men marching toward the gallows. Seasoned skiers glided past with the insouciance of people who have never known fear. I, meanwhile, clung to my poles like a maiden aunt gripping her smelling salts.
When I finally reached the summit — deposited there by a chairlift that creaked ominously, as though contemplating retirement — I was confronted with a sight that chilled me more than the weather: the slope. A vast, white expanse slanting downwards at an angle that suggested the mountain had taken against me personally.
My descent was not so much skiing as a series of panicked negotiations with gravity. I wobbled, I flailed, I emitted noises unbecoming of a grown adult. Children overtook me. Pensioners overtook me. A small dog, I am convinced, overtook me.
By the time I reached the bottom, battered in body and spirit, I knew the truth: I am not a winter‑sports fellow. I am a beach fellow. A horizontal fellow. A fellow whose natural habitat involves sunshine, sandals, and absolutely no boots that attempt to amputate him at the shin.
Next winter, you will find me on a beach, doing nothing with great dedication — and doing it jolly well.
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IMHO it did and you dn't even have to go skiing - or to a beach
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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.
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@johnE, a bit heavy on simile but generally I'd agree with you.
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It's The Guardian, why wouldn't the article be utter trash?
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You know it makes sense.
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I actually agree that there are many things about skiing which suck (I won't bother enumerating them, we all have our pet peeves) and I do sometimes question my own sanity for considering that I've loved a day which maybe had a single hero run to show for it, but was otherwise mediocre or worse.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| king key wrote: |
| It's The Guardian, why wouldn't the article be utter trash? |
Were you anticipating an answer to that question?
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Poster: A snowHead
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Not really, looks like I got one regardless. 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I don't get why these opinion pieces continue to exist. They serve no purpose to inform the reader. It's just off-the-cuff rambling, generally with a negative angle and without anything constructive to say.
Media really is well-and-truly fudged when this counts as actual content
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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?
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| Origen wrote: |
| People love opinion pieces … |
Not me, the ones I read rarely seem to improve my understanding of the world, and usually seem written with one purpose in mind ind, to inflame opinion. Pointless.
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I do read a lot of arts reviews and I guess it's almost impossible for those to be other than opinion pieces, it's such a subjective activity.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| albob wrote: |
| http://youtube.com/v/PBmOrWXfntY?si=l7GgJJe9Y03Mdp9n |
Love this. You have to watch it right to the end also.
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| johnE wrote: |
| What I don’t understand is why anyone would want to drink cocktails on a tropical beach when they could go skiing. |
I was ok a Greek island last summer. Had plenty of cocktails (ok, maybe 2) on the beach. You have to do something when the kids are off from school for 10 weeks. Absolutely fantastic. Looking forward to similar this summer. And also very much looking forward to a trip to Italy on Saturday for my last week in snow this season. What do they say, variety is the spice of life...?
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@Legend., Which Italian resort ?? -- looks to be a warm week....
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| Specialman wrote: |
I don't get why these opinion pieces continue to exist. They serve no purpose to inform the reader. It's just off-the-cuff rambling, generally with a negative angle and without anything constructive to say.
Media really is well-and-truly fudged when this counts as actual content |
Yep. Seems to me, she has nothing of any value to say but had a deadline to meet to get her rent paid so spouted a load of waffle. She'll probably copy and paste it for next year.
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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.
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| albob wrote: |
| @Legend., Which Italian resort ?? -- looks to be a warm week.... |
Val Gardena. I’ve not seen the weather for the week after next. Spring skiing has pros and cons!
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I finally read the article because there’re so many comments! So thanks for the free advertisement for the Guardian.
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You pay thousands for the privilege of spending a week queueing in the cold, slightly terrified, while someone in a fluorescent jacket shouts at you in French.
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Only “slightly”? I think I still remember my first ski day. I was beyond terrified!
But, I’m now convinced, having spent all these decades skiing and hanging out with other people who ski, the “slightly terrified” state is EXACTLY what makes skiing attractive for many! People love the “excitement” which came from being slightly terrified! The so called “rush of speed” is indeed a result of that “slightly terrified” state of mind.
As such, I believe that “opinion” piece is done on purpose. It captures what makes people willing to put up with all the TRUE negative to…go skiing!
| KSH wrote: |
| I actually agree that there are many things about skiing which suck (I won't bother enumerating them, we all have our pet peeves) and I do sometimes question my own sanity for considering that I've loved a day which maybe had a single hero run to show for it, but was otherwise mediocre or worse. |
I’ve been questioning my own sanity for the entire multi-decade duration I’ve been skiing. I’ve considered quitting skiing, and indeed “quit” once, only to return with renewed enthusiasm. So much so I no longer consider “quitting” any more, only a temporary pause, if I really don’t feel like it. I now know I will always go back to it, in whatever capacity that suits my changing life style.
That said, with age and experience, I now am better able to predict how much I will enjoy the day/week of skiing, and planned accordingly. My ski holiday can be a full on “attack” on the snowy mountain, an experience of a foreign culture (or food, or whatever) with some skiing involved, or anything in between.
It isn’t just the skiing, is it? The “single hero run” is just the excuse to finance (mentally) the holiday in its entirety, is it not?
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FAQ
