Tunnel Creek - the TAKE AWAY

Yeah, great point, Jim.
A lifetime or two ago someone in workgroup I was working with said "One person is seldom smarter than 'The Group'", and, of course he was spot on. I have recalled and used this quote many times over the years since then. I think the value of a ski posse freely collaborating on a ski tour is an elegant example of that quote in action.

I think the problem is that larger groups tend to have a leadership role, making decisions more of a "one person" thing. And with a larger group your increasing your chances of having that "one person" being a bad decision maker.

Also people as a group are able to accomplish goals and solve problems that they never would by themselves, but avalanches aren't problems to be solved they are facts to be avoided. I think if a open group focuses on avoiding danger they are golden, but far to often the group problem solving can be focused how to ski that sick line on a considerable or high day.

Those are my thoughts. Feel free to pick it apart or add to it.

The article below always sticks in the back of my mind as the ultimate case of breaking with groupthink
www.peterhillary.com/article-everest-is-mighty-we-are-fragile/

Thanks!

That what we do is dangerous. There is no doubt.

Yet one can make good decisions, including a lifetime of good decision making. There are climbers and skiers who live life and ski fully, and die of old age, not an avy.

That's my takeaway. Make decisions to keep coming back another day.

Not preaching either. Have made bad decisions myself. Been buried up to my neck, but not completely. Have broken my Fibula sliding head first over a cliff out of control (really bad decision).

Just try and do my best to keep coming back............and hang out with you all great folks!!!

Just a thank you to ron j and all the contributors, great thread, this site at its best.

avalanches aren't problems to be solved they are facts to be avoided.

^^^^This.

Yeah, great point, Jim.
A lifetime or two ago someone in workgroup I was working with said "One person is seldom smarter than 'The Group'", and, of course he was spot on. I have recalled and used this quote many times over the years since then. I think the value of a ski posse freely collaborating on a ski tour is an elegant example of that quote in action.

I'm getting confused...."One person is seldom smarter than the group" and yet in a later post the one person...the snowboarder who turned back is credited with being the smart one and was.

  I get a completely different message. It was the group dynamics, and groupthink that contributed to the accident.

One person can be smarter than the group especially when dealing with risk analysis. Risk analysis is what I do for a living in terms of construction and logistics and maybe why I am such a cynic and contrarian.  People get hyped up by projects/ski lines/ski objectives and there is seldom wisdom to be found within a group that has allowed ego and desire to put them into denial about the risks. People who dissent in a group are often talked out of it by the majority so discussing or even somebody expressing concerns is not a sure fire way to make ensure a good decision is being made.

It took one man, Richard Feynman at the Challenger inquiry to show a team of NASA scientists the risk they actually took in launching that day by dropping a piece of rubber gasket into a glass of iced-water during the hearing.

Personal , singular self responsibility is the most important tool. If I think it's too risky...I ain't doing it...no matter what the group thinks or the group wisdom is.