Item: AVSAR MINDSETS: A COMPANION FRAMEWORK FOR THE AVGAR
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Title: AVSAR MINDSETS: A COMPANION FRAMEWORK FOR THE AVGAR
Proceedings: Proceedings, International Snow Science Workshop, Whistler, BC, Canada, 2026
Authors:
- Michael Ackerman [ Silverton Avalanche School, Silverton, Colorado, USA ]
Date: 2026-09-28
Abstract: The AvGAR is a decision-making tool for assessing and deploying avalanche search and rescue (AvSAR) missions, adapted from the United States Coast Guard's Green-Amber-Red (GAR) risk assessment model. Risk assessment tools that resolve to a numerical score are vulnerable to what practitioners call GARwashing: responders adjust category scores until the sum permits the deployment they already intend. This paper describes AvSAR Mindsets, a companion framework of six named operational postures declared before scoring the AvGAR. Declaring a mindset first fixes the team's stated level of urgency and risk tolerance in advance, so that subsequent scoring is checked against a commitment made when the team was least invested in a particular outcome. The framework follows a line of avalanche-sector work on mindsets, beginning with Atkins (2014), extended to avalanche education by Conger (2022), and first applied to search and rescue by Laverty, whose 2024 presentation directly inspired this work. The six mindsets are organized into three phases: a default state (READINESS), four mobilization states (REHEARSE, RESCUE, RAPID and RECOVERY), and a de-mobilization state (RE-SET) that closes the operational cycle and returns the team to readiness. AvSAR Mindsets are scoped to responses with a known incident and a confirmed subject, which is the activation profile of most avalanche rescue; search is out of scope. This paper presents the framework, maps it onto AvGAR's fixed and malleable categories, and proposes a mindset shift as an explicit trigger for the Tactical Pause. No outcome data are presented, and no claim is made that the framework has improved mission results. The author identifies reported uptake and practitioner observations as such.
Object ID: ISSW2026_P1.19.pdf
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15788/1790098728
Language of Article: English
Presenter(s): Michael Ackerman
Keywords: avalanche rescue, decision making, risk assessment, human factors, search and rescue, mindsets
Page Number(s): 571 - 576
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