UKC

What do you do when you're a qualified, established instructor and you make an error of judgement in the mountains that could have easily cost you your life?

Sally Lisle looks at what happened, why she made the error, the emotional impact this had on her as an instructor and her rehab process following major surgery. She also reflects on human error in the outdoor industry and the use of goal setting as a motivational tool.

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Brave thing to do, putting this experience down on paper. Good luck with your cycle!

Maybe this is a generational thing, but the outdoor professionals/instructors I know are way more open about mistakes/accidents etc. than the non-professionals I know. Admittedly, most of the instructor types I know are 2yo. They all like to analyse and talk about things that went wrong, things that went right (de-brief, I guess) in detail, things like human error and heuristics as well as more 'techy' things. 

I applaud your efforts, both sharing your story amongst your local community and this wider audience, and also your rehab; I've broken more than my share of bones (mostly on, or rather off of, two wheeled vehicles) so I can appreciate how hard it is to continue working past that plateau where you are probably 70% functional, and just want to get on with life. A quick glance at Instagram looks like your means/trip has gone well too. 

Yep, it's worth figuring out how to make the distinction between intuition in the mountains and the ordinary fear/'gripped' sensation. I'm still working on it! 

Excellent article, very open and honest. This prompted me to read Sally's other articles on managing feat, interesting stuff!