UKC

I am doing some research on people's avalanche hazard decision making and as part of this I will be carrying out survey using a questionnaire. There is the possibility of working with someone else in the USA on this as our research is similar, however, their research is aimed at skiers and to work with them I would need to use the same questionnaire as them.

I was hoping that people would be able to have a look at the following questionnaire and tell me if they think that they could complete this as a climber in Scotland:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=3K0ZnMD7Cu4zqxm2raKGq9dfFBDy3KIdGDQo...

This research is based on using GPS data (from a smartphone app which costs 79p and is unrelated to the research) to analyse the terrain covered over the course of a day and then linking this with decision making process for the day.

I understand that this questionnaire is not aimed at climbers but using it would save me a lot of time so it would be useful if people could let me know if they think that a) they could answer this as a climber not a skier and b) if they would be willing to pay for the app, log their days activity on it and then fill the questionnaire out afterwards.

If you have any questions then please feel free to email me.

Cheers

Will

In reply to wi11:

Hi Will, I read through the questionnaire and think that yes - I could fill that in after a day's winter climbing in Scotland. However I suspect that the responses would be very similar day after day so I'm not sure how useful your results would be. I think it is much better suited to the back-country skiing scenario than climbing.

In reply to AdrianC:

Hi Adrian,

Thank you for your reply. I agree that this questionnaire is much better suited to back country skiers and there are parts of it that would be of limited use to me however the underlying points remain the same.

I think that some of the answers would be the same day-to-day from individuals, however, as an example the terrain analysis vs. avalanche rating for the day is likely to be different and I expect there to be variability between different respondents. Alternatively it might show nothing but I will cross that bridge if it comes to it!

Cheers

Will

In reply to wi11:
Will,

I think if you want climbers to fill out a survey then it needs to be climber orientated. There are a lot of bad and poorly planned surveys already on UKC so another one will not help. Bear in mind many of last years fatalities in Scotland were walkers, so do you want winter walkers involved as well?

At a deeper level I would say that there is a fundamental problem with linking climbers and skiers attitudes to Avalanche Hazard in one survey. Climbers will generally want to avoid conditions of high avalanche hazard for lots of reason other than just fear of dying... e.g. wading through deep snow on walk-ins, rubbish climbing conditions, etc. Skiers however will generally actively seek out more hazardous days... e.g. fresh tracks after a storm, deep powder, steep slopes etc. So I would suggest combing the two types of hill user in one survey could lead to inconclusive results.

In reply to Andes:

Hi Andes,

Thanks for your reply. This is what I was thinking and I was only hoping to use the existing project to save me setting a similar one up but it is now looking like that is what I will be doing.

I was not looking to exclude any groups from the research, however I would differentiate between them in the analysis. Although I would expect common themes to emerge in all of the groups as has been seen in previous studies.

Thank you for your feedback though, it is all very useful to me!

Cheers

Will

In reply to wi11:

A survey including all groups sounds good, although how you get a representative sample of climbers v. walkers v. skiers is going to be tricky.

For what it's worth, in my opinion there is a bit of a problem with the media describing last years avalanche fatalities in Scotland as "climbers". I feel this can result in lots of people who only see themselves as winter hillwalkers thinking they are not in the at risk group. Really, in Scotland, in winter, it's all mountaineering.

They just said it again on Radio Scotland as I am writing this.... "skiers and climbers".... reference to the documentary on BBC Scotland tonight at 9:00

In reply to Andes:

I choose to go out normally when tree is good neve. Ploughing through soft snow isn't much fun. The best days are front pointing on well consolidating neve.