SUMMIT FEVER

[LeeLau]

SUMMIT FEVER

Please read this TR first.

I'm writing this because I want to become a safer backcountry skier. An avalanche expert, Ian McCammon, wrote a very influential article on what he calls heuristic traps. The paper is here fyi - www.snowpit.com/articles/traps%20reprint.pdf. A good article on it is also here http://www.sltrib.com/portlet/articl...rticle=2476931

"Heuristic traps" is basically one way of describing a particualar mindset that a skier or backcountry traveller has when making decisions. One "heuristic trap" is the "commitment" trap. For me, "commitment traps" manifest themselves as summit fever.

I know I get summit fever. I'm a driven kind of guy in my work life and recreation. I've tried to recognize my summit fever. I've warned new partners that I tend to have a go-for-it; balls to the walls attitude. My wife and my regular partners know its there. By recognizing this weakness in my risk assessment skills I thought I'd gone a long way to getting it under control.

This last trip I did - sessioning big exposed north faces right after a storm cycle shows me that I have a long way to go. This stream of consciousness is an attempt to self-diagnose my thought process. In doing so, I hope to have a written record so I can look back and remind myself of what I perceive to be my biggest weakness. Really I don't want to become another "at least he died doing what he loved doing". I discussed all of this with Brian and got his OK to post this here.

Things I think I did well were as follows:

- My approach to all these N faces were quite safe with one exception. I was never badly exposed on the approaches and uptracks.
- I stuck to my decision to dig a pit to assess the new snow and how it was bonding.
- I involved Brian in all the decision-making
- I stayed away from S and E faces correctly identifying the presence of melt-freeze

Things I think I really didn't do too well were as follows:

- I saw the avalanche advisory that day. It highlighted some deep instabilities (surface hoar) and the fact that crown lines of between 80 - 100 cms of depth had pulled out on N faces. Despite knowing this I still elected to ski N faces.
- Despite knowing that slabs had run up to 100 cms deep in the snowpack my pit was hasty. I only tested the new 60cms of snow and only with one sample column. Looking back on this, I think that perhaps I just didn't want to know if the deep layers would go. I was trying to just get the good data
- I skied N faces and ski-cut aggresively despite knowing that if something went, it would go big and no amount of speed on my ski cut would save me from a big avalanche.
- Despite trying to involve Brian in decision-making, I am the more-experienced tourer with familiarity with the terrain. It isn't really fair to say that decisions were equal since the reality was that I was calling the shots most of the trip.
- There were 3 significant avalanches in the Whistler/Blackcomb area over the last 48 hours on this new 60cms of storm snow - 1 inbounds and 2 out of bounds. I ignored that data rationalizing that I was going 12 hours after the storm event was over.
- I also ignored the fact that it was unseasonably cold for April and that coldness would slow down stabilization of the snowpack.


To sum it up, I had big time summit fever and was so happy to find a willing touring partner that I went out and skied big faces. The consequences if an avalanche had occurred would likely have been fatal because (1) any slide would likely have been big; and (2) there were no "safe zones" to run to on any of the faces we skied.

[AltaPowderDaze]

SUMMIT FEVER

Please read this TR first. http://www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=21916

just adding the link for you, mike.

the human factors never truely get the attention they deserve until things have already gone south. it's nice to see someone bring them to light when no accidents occured.

[seatosky]

Thanks for posting this Lee. Food for thought for a less experienced backcountry skier like myself. Glad you guys had fun and didn't run into any trouble.

[shirk]

Human factors will be given much more concern in my decision making.

[upallnight]

LL:
Thank you so much for giving the post-tour analysis and sharing it. Even doing such a wrap-up with oneself is important (and often forgotten as people (like me!) are just happy to be done/home safe/sipping that beer -- but the fact that you chose to share it took courage and is of-benefit to the community going forward.

Much appreciated.

[PNWbrit]

just adding the link for you, mike.

the human factors never truely get the attention they deserve until things have already gone south. it's nice to see someone bring them to light when no accidents occured.

I remember hearing or reading somewhere recently that interviews with avalanche survivors almost always reveal that danger was evident, often obvious and almost always overlooked because of these heuristic factors.

I guess it's difficult to remove emotion from decisions that we make while doing something that is as purely emotional as skiing or climbing?

Great post Lee and very timely with the end of lift accessed skiing for many of us fast approaching.

[soul_skier]

I too have a hubristic attutide when skiing, and need to physicall tell myself that its better to survive and fail than succeed and die

[leroy jenkins]

I think this applies to much more than avy danger. We (well I for one) spend so much time trying to overcome our fears and sack up to push our limits. When the time comes when you are "feeling it" and you feel like going for something, it is not always ideal conditions. Of course your freinds never tell you they don't think something is a good idea because they don't want to freak you out and break your concentration. When you spend so much time trying to think of how something is possible and not what can go wrong, sometimes you lose sight of the fact that you need to think about what can go wrong.

[Lexi-Bell]

In Jill Fredston's book Snowstruck, there is an entire chapter devoted to this behavior. It's amazing that a very significant percentage of body recoveries she's performed after an avalanche were people who had taken her avalanche courses and were expererienced bc travelers.

I'm sure we've all put the blinders on to objective risk assesment when there was a killer line/peak/etc. we wanted.

[ski_rick]

Great post Lee, I don't think many of us even think to take the time after a trip to debrief and think back on our decision making. As you show, a lot can be learned.

[tarkman1]

Lee...Good post and discussion points.

Does anyone ever get the feeling that sometimes we do the ski cuts, dig the pits, and assess the route, snow, and terrain are more of a rationalization for what we have in mind rather than a objective assessment towards a Go/No-Go?

[bbirtle]

I feel that "Psychological commitment" ranks up there as one of the biggest subjective dangers on any ski or climbing trip. During 90% of the times I nearly shat myself on a mountain it was because I had chosen to push to the summit or stick to the line dispite conditions I knew were way too dangerous.

I think there are four things you can do to prevent this:

1.] Actively question your mindset with every important decision, especially when warning bells are ringing. "How is the (avoidable) end goal influencing this decision?"

2.] Do as much pre-trip research as possible and think hard about whether it is really something you want to ENGAGE in, knowing you are the type of person that HATES turning back from a goal. Knowledge (about the route, conditions, about your partners, your abilities) will help you make the correct "No Go" call before you even start.

3.] Try to change your mindset from "I MUST to make that summit!" to "it's just a friggin mountain is it really worth death and injury?" But in practice, this is quite difficult...

4.] Factor "psychological traps" into your route planning decisions. Do you pass over a col, such that if you don't make that col the skiing is crap and the trip ruined? Is there a clear summit point? Does the dangerous part start 95% of the way to the finish? Do you descend a slope that would be very tiring to climb back up again? Plan even more carefully at these "trap points" - the best way is to plan a few alternative nearby objectives that would still make your inner child happy.

A lot of times I decide on "no go" before leaving the house even in cases when there's a fairly possible chance for a great day (weather to break, conditions to be maybe OK) because I know myself and how hard it is to turn around when you're 90% there!

[LeeLau]

Bumpage here again

[skiingnow]

hmmmmmmmmmm

[Crystal_Mt_Dreamin]

Interesting to read this from 4 years ago after reading your experiences a week or so in the other thread.

[passholer]

LL thanx for posting,bumping that,having been caught this year i did a lot of thinking about what i may have done wrong.well i blame me and powder fever

this needs a sticky

[powder11]

I think folks who are super goal oriented tend to suffer the most from Summit Fever. Backing away from a goal/challenge is not something they typically do, so it becomes a personal values issue and something some people are willing to risk death over. Most people don't or are not willing to see that in themselves, so good on ya Lee.

The other one to watch out for is the Superman effect which is when people who are armed with significant backcountry skiing education and experience start to play the odds with risk management to figure out how to safely execute a dangerous situation rather than just avoid it all together. I recently dodged a bullet with a ski cut that triggered a fairly large slide and it was kind of a wake up call for my own decision making, because even though I felt the immense power of moving snow dragging me down and saw how an entire slope can fail in an instant, my ability to safely ski out of it also created a false sense of "management" when it comes risk assessment.

Keeping a level head while engaging in an activity that requires life or death decision making, yet provides a massive dopamine release on the brain is a challenge to say the least. It's like asking a crack head whether they want another hit of crack or a ride to rehab. I think there has to be an acceptance of deadly risk or simply don't play the game.

[Meanfruit]

Interesting to read this from 4 years ago after reading your experiences a week or so in the other thread.

Ha, just thinking the same thing.