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“What were they thinking?!”

In hindsight, in the comfort of a classroom or bar, it's usually easy to see why an avalanche accident occurred. Perhaps the party chose to ski or ride a dangerously wind-loaded slope, enter a terrain trap during high avalanche danger, or continue climbing despite signs of recent avalanching. Working backward from a tragic outcome, the danger seems obvious to us and we wonder why anyone would take chances under such dangerous conditions. The easy answer is that the party must have been incompetent, arrogant, or just plain foolish. These answers help us feel better about ourselves since, after all, we wouldn't act like that. But they don't lead us to a better understanding of how we might be fooled some day into making the same mistakes.



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To really understand human factors, we need to go back in the accident timeline. We need to imagine ourselves standing at the top of the slope, trying to decide if it is safe to ski or ride. Perhaps we've seen the signs of danger, but we also know that we have skied the slope manytimes before without incident. Or perhaps we know that another party is powering up behind us intent on skiing the same slope. Or perhaps we've waited all year for this vacation so we could highmark slopes just like this one.

Such knowledge tends to blur our judgment and tempt us into believing that it's OK to take a chance on this slope today. These influences operate in the shadowy edges of our subconscious, and we are often oblivious to their effects on our behaviour.

Victims tend to make critical decisions based on human

desires and assumptions rather than upon the integration of key

pieces of physical data.

Fortunately, there are predictable patterns in how these unconscious influences affect our decisions. It turns out that these same patterns appear whenever we face physical hazards such as driving, unsafe sex, taking drugs and, yes, dealing with avalanches.



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human factors

What are common human factors?

In a recent analysis of avalanche accidents in the United States, consistent patterns emerged in the decision making of avalanche victims. Here are six of the most common:

FamiliarityParties traveling in familiar terrain made significantly riskier decisions than parties traveling in unfamiliar terrain. This effect was especially pronounced for parties with substantial experience and training.

OPTIONSOPTIONS

Most avalanche accidents occurred on slopes that were

familiar to the victims.



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AcceptanceAccident parties that included females made riskier decisions than parties of all males. The effect was most pronounced in parties with little avalanche training. It is notable that these were precisely the parties in which women were least likely to participate.

ConsistencyParties that were highly committed to a goal - a summit, ski slope or an objective in deteriorating weather - made riskier decisions than parties just out for a day of skiing, climbing or sledding. This effect was most pronounced in parties of four or more.

ExpertsAccident parties often contained a de facto leader - someone who was more experienced, older, or who had better skills. Remarkably, when this leader had poor avalanche skills, novice groups were more likely to follow their leader into dangerous situations than when novice groups made decisions by consensus.

Tracks/ScarcityParties took more risks when they were racing a closing window of opportunity, such as competing with another group for first tracks.



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Social FacilitationWhen skilled parties met other people in the backcountry, they were more likely to take risks than parties that were less skilled. This effect, known as social facilitation, was most pronounced in groups with the highest levels of training.

These results are preliminary, but they mirror patterns that have been observed in other areas of risk taking and human behavior. It appears that when certain psychological cues are present, people find it difficult to heed more objective cues about avalanche hazard. The important lesson here is that these psychological cues have very little to do with avalanche conditions and a lot to do with our unconscious assumptions, biases, and habits.

Good communication within your party is essential to recognizing changing avalanche conditions.



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solution

What Can We Do About Human Factors?

Human factors are part of being human. They are essential for efficiently navigating the complexities of everyday life. Try as we might, we can't simply talk ourselves out of relying on them, but we may be able to recognize when we are most prone to their negative influences and stop a bad decision in its tracks.

By being aware of human factors and our proneness to them, we can at least account for them in our decision making and risk assessment. The next two modules are designed to help you with assessing risk in avalanche terrain and making appropriate decisions based on your judgment and the sense you develop for snow and avalanches over time through practice and through the application of your knowledge..



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Risk Acceptance

Avalanche factors

Weather

●Attitude●Gender●Tracks●Show off

Ignorance TerrainCommunication

●Radiation●Temperature●Humidity●Precipitation●Wind

●Steepness●Traps●Above/ belove●Ground structure●Trees, rocks

●Group size●Leader style●Hearding●Group composition

●Good feeling●Sport skills●City thinking●Familiarity●Social Facilitation●Culture●Believe●Peak fever

Snow pack

●Weak layers●Slab layers●Moisture●Grain size●Grain type●Temperature gradients

HUMAN FACTORS

familiarity acceptance consistency experts scarcitysocial

facilitation

•Example 1

•Example 2

•Example 3

•Example 1 •Example 1

•Example 2

•Example 3

•Example 4

•Example 1

•Example 2

•Example 3

•Example 1

•Example 2

•Example 1

•Example 2

•Example 3

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