Going Deep Workshop: Building Your Decision Competency In The Backcountry

Session #5: Building Your Decision Competency in the Backcountry: How to know when your decisions are good decisions and not just based on luck. When: March 12th, 2015 Cost: $10 for REI Members / $15 for non-members Tickets: http://www.rei.com/event/65346/session/111355/04202015 Time: Doors open at 5:30 PM – Session begins promptly at 6:00 PM and runs till 9:00 PM Where: REI Seattle As the saying goes: “It’s better to be lucky than smart”, or is it? Do we want to depend on good luck to result in a positive decision outcome? We all spend a lot of time thinking about backcountry decision making, and for good reason—a day out involves many choices. Interestingly, nearly all of these decisions produce a favorable outcome, or, to be blunt: no one got hurt. If the result of your process was clearly positive, was the decision you made actually right, or did you just get lucky? The development of decision competence in avalanche terrain occurs within an environmental context often plagued by ambiguous feedback and overshadowed by the potential for fatal consequences. A common error is to equate decision outcome with decision competence. Typically, the quality of the decision process is described as being contingent on the evolved expertise of the decision maker. The challenge then, lies in the measurement or estimation of the decision maker’s competence. The central question becomes “how do I know when I am making a good decision?” This workshop is presented the Northwest Avalanche Center with special guest, Dr. Iain Stewart-Patterson, PhD, IFMGA Iain is a Senior Lecturer and one of the founding members of the Adventure Studies Department at Thompson Rivers University. Blending theory and practice, he is a certified IFMGA Mountain Guide and recently completed a PhD, in which he investigated the decision process used by expert heli and snowcat guides. He has been guiding ski, rock and alpine adventures for over 25 years. He is an active avalanche educator with the Canadian Avalanche Association Industry Training Program. He is also an enthusiastic climber with many first ascents on both ice and rock and has been on expeditions to Nepal, Peru and Alaska. Join us at Paddy Coyne’s after the workshop for drinks and socializing. Each admission includes a beer ticket.