What can go wrong?
There are many good reasons not to take dogs on the slopes - especially if you have your own four-legged friend's welfare at heart!
- Danger of falling for downhill skiers.
Free-ranging dogs are an unexpected and usually incalculable obstacle on the slopes. Collisions and falls due to wild evasive manoeuvres are inevitable. - Dog leashes usually don't make it any better.
Long dog leashes are of course taboo on a slope - keyword "trip wire". However, handling a short leash needs a lot of practice. Especially when skiing downhill, your own sharp ski edges can come dangerously close to the dog's legs. - Dog can get scared.
Loud, fast and close to the dog carving downhill can easily lead to a reflexive defensive reaction of the dog... - People can get scared.
Not everyone loves dogs. Many people are afraid and therefore have particularly little understanding for "piste dogs". This inevitably leads to conflicts. - High stress on dog's joints.
Thanks to skis or snowboards, you can glide down into the valley without damaging your joints. The opposite is true for your four-legged companion: he has to literally "gallop" downhill in the fall line in order not to lose his connection - and that over many hundreds of metres in altitude!
