Item: Tracking Heli-Ski Guides to Understand Decision Making in Avalanche Terrain
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Title: Tracking Heli-Ski Guides to Understand Decision Making in Avalanche Terrain
Proceedings: International Snow Science Workshop 2014 Proceedings, Banff, Canada
Authors:
- Jordy Hendrikx [ Snow and Avalanche Lab, Depatment of Eart Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA ]
- Christopher Shelly [ Majestic Heli Ski, Alaska ]
- Jerry Johnson [ Political Science, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA ] [ Snow and Avalanche Lab, Department of Earth Sciences Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA ]
Date: 2014-09-29
Abstract: Heli-ski guiding can be considered a prime example of high stress, high consequence decision making in avalanche terrain. The combination of factors that make heli-skiing an exciting experience and high value industry create a high pressure scenario that demands consistently high quality decisions. Heli-ski operations provide a unique setting in which to examine the decision making of terrain usage of highly experienced professionals as they balance repurposed terrain, changing hazard ratings, group expertise and, a variety of other factors. Furthermore, given the recent fatalities in the heli-ski industry in Alaska, and the proposed new checks by the Alaska Occupational Safety and Health, there is also a strong desire to better understand, and quantify practices in this industry. Previous work examining decision making in heli-ski operations has considered case studies of accidents, or close calls. However, no analysis has been undertaken to examine real-time, terrain focused, decision making outcomes as evidenced by ski tracks. Our work will present the first such results having GPS tracked and analyzed 18 days of heli-ski guiding at Majestic Heli-Ski in South Central Alaska. Our results show that when repeatedly used terrain was examined, that there was a statistically significant difference in terrain usage under different avalanche hazard conditions. This analysis highlights that the extreme values (i.e. the 90th, 95th and 100th percentiles) for slope angle, may provide more insight into terrain decisions than considering changes in the entire distribution for a given day due to the mobility of a heliski guide. We propose that this methodology to perform real-time tracking and report the terrain based metrics, could be useful if operationalized in real-time for operational self-checking, transfer of institutional knowledge, and external auditing. We compare these findings to decision making in self-powered back country settings which highlights that decision making is about small scale thinking about the immediate landscape in both cases, but that heli-ski guides have more options to move into adjacent areas to aid mitigation.
Object ID: ISSW14_paper_P3.38.pdf
Language of Article: English
Presenter(s):
Keywords: Decision making, Heli-skiing, terrain analysis, GPS.
Page Number(s): 1065-1071
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