Reshaping a culture of Go Big or Go Home

I really thought this was a great read, so sharing here for anyone who hasn't seen it yet:

www.sportgevity.com/article/killing-people-avalanches

Good points!

The normalization of risk within communities and cultures does shift perceptions.

This is a good article.

"To go one step further, you’ll be a “Hero” if you go for it"

When I read this I can't help but think of those f**king stupid GoPro ads on TV that encourage people to "be a hero." I hate these ads with a passion. Doing anything "extreme" or whatever so you can chestbeat on the internet or post a video of your self-proclaimed awesomeness on YouTube is anything but being a hero. Hero is the most overused word in the modern world, so let's save it for people who run in to a burning building to save 10 orphans or whatever, but it certainly isn't accurately applied to risk-taking extreme sport participants.

I suppose it's only fair to recognize that we all contribute to this culture when we post our "wow, you are badass" or "damn, that's extreme" responses to people posting TRs about pushing it in sketchy conditions, narrowly avoiding disaster and the like.

As somebody who lost their best friend far, far too young, I can say it is anything but heroic or awesome. It's the sh*tiest feeling in the world for all the friends and family left behind. Maybe we should drop the "at least (s)he died doing something (s)he loves" in lieu of "wow, that was selfish to inflict on family and friends." I do my best to avoid this type of fate, but if something were to happen I won't spend those last few seconds thinking of how I went out in a blaze of glory, but rather reflect on the pain I caused for those who I love and left.

Thanks for the link, I agree on the need to reshape the culture. It is quite obvious that there has been a large increase in user base over the last 5-10 years, and currently it seems to be growing exponentially. The growth is probably a combination of growth in ski technology (fat skis, many new touring binding choices, split boards, triple antenna beacons), as well as the network effects of an increased user base (the more people that you know that ski in the backcountry, the more likely you are to try it out).

It is impossible to pull out all of the risk of backcountry travel (I think the long tail of small probability events, think the 100 year avalanche) have the possibility to take out even the best decision makers. If we could shift the current growing user base into an area where they are only subject to long tail risk the majority of the time, we would see a large decrease in fatalities.

Does carrying a go pro make you more likely to make bad decisions? What about a airbag? Can we figure out a way to make people enjoy the UP as much as the DOWN? (I personally enjoy setting the skin track, as much as I enjoy skiing) Can we shift the goal oriented nature of the growing user base (I.E, I want to ski untracked snow), to a more process oriented (I.E, "its about the journey") goal?

I encourage my friends to go out and ski when the avalanche danger prevents good skiing, because I think it creates the mindset that backcountry skiing is really not about the skiing, its about time spent in nature.

Hope to see more discussion.

K

This is a good article.

"To go one step further, you’ll be a “Hero” if you go for it"

When I read this I can't help but think of those f**king stupid GoPro ads on TV that encourage people to "be a hero." I hate these ads with a passion. Doing anything "extreme" or whatever so you can chestbeat on the internet or post a video of your self-proclaimed awesomeness on YouTube is anything but being a hero. Hero is the most overused word in the modern world, so let's save it for people who run in to a burning building to save 10 orphans or whatever, but it certainly isn't accurately applied to risk-taking extreme sport participants.

I suppose it's only fair to recognize that we all contribute to this culture when we post our "wow, you are badass" or "damn, that's extreme" responses to people posting TRs about pushing it in sketchy conditions, narrowly avoiding disaster and the like.

As somebody who lost their best friend far, far too young, I can say it is anything but heroic or awesome. It's the sh*tiest feeling in the world for all the friends and family left behind. Maybe we should drop the "at least (s)he died doing something (s)he loves" in lieu of "wow, that was selfish to inflict on family and friends." I do my best to avoid this type of fate, but if something were to happen I won't spend those last few seconds thinking of how I went out in a blaze of glory, but rather reflect on the pain I caused for those who I love and left.

Very well said! When my buddy was killed skiing (his last words in this life were "I'm goin' for it") one of my reactions was anger about how selfish he was.

[size=10pt]I suppose it's only fair to recognize that we all contribute to this culture when we post our "wow, you are badass" or "damn, that's extreme" responses to people posting TRs about pushing it in sketchy conditions, narrowly avoiding disaster and the like.[/size]

Yes.