I saw this article today and thought it very timely….
I took an avalanche safety course last weekend. One of the most interesting facts I learned from the course, is that once people have taken the course, they are MORE LIKELY to be killed in an avalanche than those who have not taken the course. A pretty staggering statistic!
Adjusting for self-selection, etc.. this is because the majority of avalanche accidents are a result of human error. Taking the course actually compounded a number of heuristic biases that put people in danger.
The stat above is based on data from the course 5 years ago. Since then they’ve totally transformed the course to focus much more on the human side of decision making. One of the items they continually stress, is the brief and de-brief to facilitate communication amongst everyone in the Touring party, and better surface potential risks.
We had a pilot in our group who explained that pilots have been practicing these methods for a long time.
Its somewhat worrying to see that they haven’t filtered into the Medical world yet! Or maybe its just in the UK.
