Soapbox
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Latent Threats: When training bites back
Read more: Latent Threats: When training bites backLatent Threats: When training bites back. This blog is about Latent Threats. Threats that lurk undetected in training systems, procedures and practice. In a previous blog post, Threat Managers: Rethinking Risk, we described the approach of Threat and Error Management. Specifically we described threats as being inherent in mountaineering, the need to manage them, and…
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Threat Managers: Rethinking risk
Read more: Threat Managers: Rethinking riskThreat Managers: Rethinking risk. This blog is about the management of risk in the outdoor sector, the challenges with risk and a way forward. Here I argue that we need to rethink our notions of risk, explaining the approach of Threat and Error Management (TEM). Mountain Professionals are well placed to act as “Threat Managers”.…
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Slow is smooth, smooth EQUALS FAST
Read more: Slow is smooth, smooth EQUALS FASTSlow is smooth, smooth equals fast is the title of this blog. In climbing and mountaineering there is prestige in speed. Perhaps even an association with speed and competence… This is a blog about the culture of speed in the training, assessment and practice of mountain professionals. It is always there, sometimes pervasive and certainly…
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Safety by PowerPoint…
Read more: Safety by PowerPoint…Safety by powerpoint. This is a blog about assumptions or preconceptions about safety management in the outdoor sector. This isn’t just the domain of senior instructors and heads of outdoor centres but a function of our collective behaviour. “I sat down quietly in the instructors briefing having introduced myself and listened intently. Accustomed to meetings…
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Exotic Behaviour: Cultural norms and the wild west
Read more: Exotic Behaviour: Cultural norms and the wild westExotic behaviour: cultural norms and the wild west. This blog is about exotic behaviour in an archipelago of craggy islands off the west coast of Scotland. Cultural norms and values give us predictability in the outdoor sector. In short, they provide us with expectations, shaping how we think and act as mountain professionals. exotic adjective…
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Human Factors – Change the person or the context?
Read more: Human Factors – Change the person or the context?Human Factors – Change the person or the context? Procedures that we don’t always follow, even if we should. After incidents and near misses in the outdoors much of the conversation around learning from these events is focused on the performance of the instructor or guide concerned. I recognise that as normal, in that the…
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Swipe Right! – Decision Making in avalanche terrain…
Read more: Swipe Right! – Decision Making in avalanche terrain…Alison shouted AVALANCHE, as the wet slide exited the hidden couloir well above us. The volume seemed to build exponentially until the snow hit the frozen lake below. Breaking the ice, the debris started a tidal wave across the lakes surface. Seconds earlier we had faced a “go or no go” decision. We were fully…
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1:x What’s in a mountain guiding ratio?
Read more: 1:x What’s in a mountain guiding ratio?1:x What’s in a mountain guiding ratio? 1:1, 1:2 Cultural norms, local customs, regulation and why small ratio groups are more important than you think. The situation I found myself in was suboptimal. ‘Tower Ridge’ is normally climbed roped up, with one or two clients per instructor or guide, using the techniques of short-roping and…
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The Normalisation of Deviance and how I nearly killed myself at an avalanche “safe” venue…
Read more: The Normalisation of Deviance and how I nearly killed myself at an avalanche “safe” venue…The Normalisation of Deviance and how I nearly killed myself at an avalanche “safe” venue… MOVE, MOVE, MOVE, we pushed forwards in towards the cliff as we were hit by the air blast. Pelted by chunks of snow I wrapped my arms around my head and waited either for the avalanche, or my life, to…
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Latest posts
- Latent Threats: When training bites back
- Threat Managers: Rethinking risk
- Slow is smooth, smooth EQUALS FAST
- Safety by PowerPoint…
- Exotic Behaviour: Cultural norms and the wild west
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