Kûloir

Spot the skier 👻
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One from the Op Ronin expedition in Hokkaido, Japan last winter
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📸
⛷ .mcwilliam
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Charging the Pow 🤿 ❄️ 💨 Japan 2020🇯🇵
Op Ronin ⚔️
Skier ⛷
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The Thrudark Raid, Thrudark Breach and Osprey Soelden Avy Pro 32 being put to test bamboo bashing and skiing bottomless pow ❄️. Skiing the Blackcrows Atris... not that you can miss them 😎🤘🏽.
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Winter is coming 🗡
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🎥
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📸 Hardy (UK HQ)
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Fat ski ⚡️ Back

Op Ronin ⚔️ ⛩ 🇯🇵 🎥

Awesome times, awesome shoot, awesome adventure!... even more awesome Onsen... if you know... you know 😜



🎥
📸

Winter is coming 🐺
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With temperatures 🌡starting to drop, leaves 🍁 falling from the trees and pre-season training 🏋🏼 well underway we are dreaming of the winter ahead ❄️
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Who else is getting stoked for winter? 🤙🏻
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Heuristic traps - Consistency
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The consistency heuristic allows us to save time and energy by continually making decisions in line and based on our initial decision. It allows us to avoid distractions and focus on the task at hand. Which is useful in day to day life
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Applying the consistency heuristic in the backcountry can be potentially hazardous when our motivation to be consistent overrules new information about potential hazards. Think of someone being 100% committed to their initial decision to ski a specific slope and their decisions leading up to this point are all consistent with this initial decision despite there being ‘red flags’.
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What we at Kûloir do to remain aware of this Heuristic is to continually evaluate conditions, asking questions of ourselves and others and always remaining open minded. This creates an open environment within our groups, allowing individuals to speak up and voice opinions and observations. We also set goals but nothing is 100% when it comes to the backcountry and if conditions are ‘sketchy’ then you can always turn around and come back another day.
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Psychological 🤔
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🎿

Heuristic traps - Familiarity
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“Apparently, there is a tendency among highly trained accident parties to make riskier decisions in familiar terrain than they do in unfamiliar terrain.” (Ian McCammon, 2004)
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Have you ever travelled to work, taking the same route, not having to think about where to go or how long it will take, using minimal effort? This is you being familiar with this particular situation and not needing to figure out what to do every time using up valuable cognitive energy. This is the Familiarity heuristic in action.
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Now apply the same rule in the backcountry. The only problem with this is there are some ever changing factors: the snowpack/avalanche hazard/weather. This means that just because you’re familiar with a certain mountain, slope or route doesn’t necessarily mean that the conditions are the same and therefore the risk.
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Simply being aware of this fact will allow you to understand the familiarity heuristic trap which will add value to your backcountry decision making process 🙏🏻
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Psychological 🤔
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🎿

Decision making - Heuristics
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With so much time on our hands at the moment it’s a great opportunity to further develop our knowledge and understanding in our chosen fields of interest 🤔
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We’ll be taking a look at Heuristics/Human factors and how they effect our decision making in the backcountry and avalanche safety. A Heuristic is a mental short cut that allows us as humans to make a decision or solve a problem quickly with minimal mental effort. Whilst heuristics can be great in daily life for saving time and energy, in the backcountry if we aren’t aware of them then we can be drawn into poor decision making also known as ‘heuristic traps’. The Heuristics we’ll be checking out are:
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•Familiarity
•Consistency
•Acceptance
•Expert Halo
•Social Facilitation
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Psychological 🤔
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🎿

Description - What will I see
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Describing what you see or are going to see as you travel in the backcountry is one of the most effective tools you can use whilst navigating. We recommend using and answering these questions:
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•What will you see on the way to your intended destination?
•Will you gain or lose height along the way and when?
•What will you see when you arrive at your destination?
•What will you see if you go too far past this destination?
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Tactical 🗻
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🎿

Duration - how long will it take
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Knowing how long your journey will take is an important part of planning and ex*****on in backcountry travel. You can estimate the whole journey and break it down into smaller legs. Check out how to do this below:
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1. Work out how far you will travel in distance (km)
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2. Work out how much height you will ascend/descend (m)
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3. Using this information apply it to an equation called ‘the munter method’. Time = Distance (km) + Elevation (m) / 100 / Rate. The rate is either 4 for ascending or 10 for descending. Example: Distance (1.5km) + elevation gain (300m) / 100 / 4 = 0.75 (45mins)
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4. Using the munter method is an estimate and you need to take into account extra time for: breaks, transitions, difficult snow and weather conditions
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Tactical 🗻
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🎿

Distance - how far are you travelling
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Measuring the distance that you intend to travel can be done by using your map and compass. An important skill in poor visibility and accurate backcountry travel. Check out these steps:
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1. Find out the scale of your map. Usually it will either be a 1:25000 or a 1:50000 scale. This will match the scales on your compass used for measuring
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2. Break your route down into smaller legs that are easier to measure
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3. Have a known point A (Where you are) and a point B (Where you want to go)
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4. Holding your compass flat on your map, match the correct scale through both points A and B. This will give you an accurate distance measurement in kilometres. But only ‘as the crow flies’
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5. As we know we don’t usually travel in straight lines in the backcountry. Try using a piece of string or the lanyard on your compass and lay it out along your intended route from A to B. Holding this in place compare it to your map scale to determine the distance
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Tactical 🗻
Equipment 🎿
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🎿
@ Niseko, Hokkaido