Make better decisions in the mountains:
be aware of heuristic traps

by Will Legon

In everyday life your brain makes decision making into a simpler process by referring back to a bank of past knowledge/experiences. Psychologists call this the application of heuristics. For most day-to-day decisions, this is fine. But when we’re in the mountains, we need to be careful about being a bit more considered in our approach to what we do.

Human nature dictates that if we see other people doing something then it becomes legitimised as being OK or … safe. What we should do is try to think independently and make in- formed decisions for ourselves.

Sometimes we make a decision and then refuse to back down, no matter that a disaster is looming in our faces: for example, the weather is turning for the worst or daylight is dying, but your over-commitment to the goal means that you want to just … keep.... going.

Those days when the weather is just perfect for a certain given route might lead us to deciding to do it even though it is beyond our ability. Here it is the scarcity of opportunity leading us to make a rash decision.

Familiarity - don’t think that just because you have done a route before it will be fine. Weather, environment and people all change.

In essence be aware of these traps in your decision making and you will be safer in all that you do.

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