I'm Not Your Guide

I don't know why it is, perhaps a combination of personalities and places, but I so often find when I am out ski touring with people that they expect me to make all the decisions, and, in effect, be their guide for the day. This is not the role I signed up for, not the role I want, and not the role that is in the best interests of the group. All too often when people - consciously or not - view you as their guide, they are not really paying attention to where they are going, where they have been, what objective and subjective hazards are on the route, or how to manage those hazards. Not only have they no situational awareness, but, there is no capacity for them to catch my mistakes if I happen to get it wrong - and I do get it wrong sometimes. I think of these people as disengaged.

One reason, I suspect, for people being disengaged is that I am frequently going to new areas - areas that are new to them, new to me, or new to all of us. In these unfamiliar locations, it's astonishing how many people will say, "I don't know the area, so I am relying on you." Well, frequently, I don't know the area either. But, I'm engaged, I looking at the map and the terrain, I'm assessing the hazards and deciding how to mitigate them - I'm fully involved in the process. If you never engage in the process, you'll never learn how to move through and manage the terrain and groups yourself, and, you'll be like 99% of the other weekend warriors out there, endlessly going to the same old areas and doing the same old things. Comfortable no doubt. Worthy, definitely not.

So, next time we get to the top of the peak we are going to ski off, instead of just standing there, mindlessly stuffing food and liquid down your gullet, do what I do. Look around, assess the various descent options, and mitigation strategies, ask yourself how might this go horribly wrong and what will we do if it does. In other words, work out how the f**k we are going to get off this peak that is steep, rocky, and avalanche prone on all sides.

Contrary to what you might be thinking, it's not all up to me and you are not just here for the ride. 

Now how do we get off this?