What I Learned in Avalanche School

The most fascinating thing I took away the article was heuristic traps. Although they were designed around avalanche avoidance, the author applies them to other situations in the article which made me feel they are more broadly applicably to daily life.

Here are summaries of the original four from McCammon's paper [0]:

- Familiarity: Letting our guard down when faced with familiar places or experience.

- Social Proof: Our behavior is justified when we see others engaging in the same behavior.

- Consistency (or Commitment): Continuing to pursue a goal when information suggests one should not, in order to remain consistent/committed.

- Scarcity: Perceived scarcity affecting one's evaluation of risk.

Two more from the school's lessons:

- Expert Halo: the experts know what they're doing, so it's safe to unquestioningly follow them.

- Acceptance (peer pressure): not wanting to appear foolish to peers.

And one from the author (verbatim):

- Nostalgia Trap: not yet coined by McCammon, but a human factor nonetheless - wherein a person is tempted by the bluebird days of the past, and the sense of loss she feels for the person she might have been, had she been, from the start, a different person.

[0] http://arc.lib.montana.edu/snow-science/objects/issw-2002-24... [PDF]

I took my avalanche course last weekend, and my biggest takeaway was the advice “that bad avalanche decisions usually just leads to great skiing”. There is so little feedback in avalanche decisions it leads to reinforcing bad choices.