GORP - Trail Safe - Planning - The Unsexy Stuff

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Trail Safe Trip Preparation
Planning: The Unsexy Stuff
By Michael Bane

Trail Safe: Averting Threatening Human Behavior in the Outdoors
by Michael Bane

Planning ain't sexy. In fact, according to some of my friends here in the Colorado Front Range, it's downright boring. In fact, they think that not planning is essential to spontaneity. They think that the more we plan, the less spontaneous we are, and heading into the backcountry should be an act of spontaneous joy. I have a different view; of course, our various excursions into nature should bring us joy, and sometimes surprise adds to the bliss. However, as you'll learn in this chapter, going through a planning process coupled with a risk assessment can actually allow you to extract more of that wonderful spontaneity, as you'll arm yourself with knowledge that encourages safe flexibility within the risks of each situation.

Are You Aware or Apathetic?
Do you think the wilderness is a dangerous place?

Do we need to take serious precautions, or is this just paranoia?
Let us know.

Michael's Six Steps for Planning Outrageous Trips

In my business speeches and seminars, I outline the six steps that I've used to put together some fairly scary trips (and some pretty mundane ones as well). Some of these steps will serve to refresh your memory from earlier chapters, while a couple of them now demand further exploration:

Choose a summit. A summit, as opposed to a goal, has the power to capture a person's soul. I have found that people are more likely to accomplish an outrageous goal (such as climbing a 20,000-foot peak) than they are to reach a more attainable one (like losing 5 pounds).
Abandon your comfort zone. This one is tricky. The very subject this book tackles causes discomfort. However, if you never abandon this zone, nothing exciting will ever happen to you! When planning a trip or event, I make a conscious effort to keep a distance from my comfort zone and explore.
Narrow your focus. In a sense, adjusting your levels of awareness accomplishes this. Moving up through the awareness scale narrows the focus. In a similar fashion, you should ensure that your vision for the trip or event is sufficiently narrow to allow for specific planning.
Understand the risk. This includes understanding the distinction between subjective versus objective risks and perceived versus actual risks.
When in doubt, go faster. This is counter to basic intuition, as humans have a reflexive urge to MOVE . . . STOP . . . EVALUATE . . . MOVE AGAIN. Unfortunately, in a high-risk environment, this puts you at a much greater risk than continually moving. This is also true in a self-defense situation, where fluid movement is often the key to escaping the risk or even to survival. Part of planning involves preparing yourself for such a situation.
Embrace chaos. Survival in a chaos system demands research, and this is where the real work of planning begins.