the sharpest end

This trip report bleeds from the normal banter and into a rant. As bad as it sounds, I’m trying to be constructive with my criticism.

Just to put it in perspective, on an outing that normally gets a location assignment with no issues, it boiled down to a flip of a coin in the parking lot of the Northgate Park and Ride at 6:00 AM on the morning we were leaving!

What went wrong:

• An avalanche expert spoke in class the earlier that week and proceeded to scare the shit out of all the students.
• I gave the students the ability to choose the locations for plan A as well as plan B.
• I asked everyone to pay close attention to the weather data for the area and base their decision on it. Everybody read the NWAC report and went solely off that.
• Because nobody could make a decision, we resorted to flipping a coin at 6am Saturday to find a location.
• I failed miserably to re-apply sunblock and now look like a lobster.
• I put my bindings on backwards TWICE.
• We opted to make this a ski touring outing, which compromised members’ ability to realize the importance of *just covering the class material*

What went right:

• The weather was BEAUTIFUL.
• The snow cave was plush
• The students are competent mountaineers on their way to becoming good at what they do.
• The local avalanche danger was much lower than anticipated.
• The beer was cold when we got back to the lot.

Planning – why you shouldn’t wait until the last minute

None of us are as dumb as all of us.

-from a demotivators poster

I’ve worked in groups all my life. The one thing I know is that the size of a group is inversely proportional to the group’s ability to make quick and informed decisions. We made a decision on Artist Point outside Mt. Baker Ski Area as plan A and plan B was up in the air. Members were told to disqualify plan A on factors such as avalanche danger and weather.  The weather was beautiful everywhere, so that didn’t discredit any one location. The relative avalanche danger was estimated to be similar all the way down the cascade crest. It turns out that there were actually other factors group members were basing their decisions on including, proximity to Seattle, familiarity, and skiability of terrain. This is fine, but it wasn’t mentioned up-front, hence we have a 49-thread email on the matter. All we had to do was make these concerns prioritized and known up-front.

There is a mutually exclusive relationship between those who define their own work and those who have their work defined by someone else. Falling halfway between is a recipe for disaster, and it is sprinkled all over the human decision-making element of the climbing world.  This is what kills people on alpine climbs.  They fuck up the planning and wander out into the wild with unsound minds and no backup strategies.  We observed that here, where no single person took the lead and challenged assertions. Instead, everyone threw out a suggestion (often with little or no explanation) and argued over it. This is not only bad style, but bad leadership on (I believe) my part for not just stepping up and forcing people to just trust me. That’s hard though, when you don’t know me and I understand that.

It is not only bad style, it is annoying to not know the location you will be climbing! We have to buy maps. We have to watch the weather. We have to tell our girlfriend where we will be going. If you want to make a decision in the parking lot on the morning of the event, please realize you are throwing most of your planning time and money out the window. In my book, that isn’t acceptable solely based on these facts.

relative avalanche danger – qualify your assertions!

I think my biggest problem is getting people to qualify their assertions. This tendency manifested itself in this outing. We had a 49-page email thread that ultimately went nowhere. Here are some things I heard.

we just need to watch the avvy conditions

OK. Yeah we need to watch the avalanche conditions. What do you mean? Checking NWAC, trip reports, personal experience, direct on-site observation, or all of the above? What is your specific concern?

There’s no way I’m getting on a slope this weekend.

“a slope?” Quantify that. Do you mean traveling on one or below it? What angle or range of angles is most suspect?

It’s going to be unsafe on open slopes everywhere.

Everywhere? Really? That is an all-inclusive word and its connotations lead one to believe that there is *no alternative*, which isn’t always true. What other places might it be unsafe and why?

Let’s build a pit to see if it’s dangerous or not.

It’s a sliding scale; There is no “completely safe” or “dangerous” condition. It’s a mixed bag and it’s not whether it’s dangerous or not. It’s how bad it could possibly be and the relevance to your planned use of that terrain. I know what you meant, but the concept of a sliding scale and the amount of uncertainty need to be taken into consideration.

If you can qualify your assertions and convince me, I’ll think hard about changing my mind. Otherwise, it’s always an option *not* to climb with the people you find dangerous.