There are times when I've experienced,
what feels like, near perfect situational awareness; suddenly
everything coalesces into a coherent picture and, as if a movie were
playing in my head, a series of different outcomes unravel each
preceded by a different action - or inaction - on my part. I choose
the appropriate action and we move on, the entire experience running
almost outside of conscious thought.
The same people who comment slickly on
situational awareness assume that their own level is high from their
"years" of outdoor experience. While experience is a
necessary precursor to situational awareness, experience alone does
not produce situational awareness. A number of other antecedents are
necessary.
The first is a wide range of experience
under a wide range of conditions with a wide range of people. This
is harder to achieve than most people assume, because, without real
ambition to improve (something that is rarer than you think), most
people take the comfortable route and recreate under good conditions,
with the same (they assume) reliable partners, and, all too often,
even in the same areas, doing the same hike, climb or ski trip over
and over again. Such a narrow range of experience while comfortable
will never lead to situational awareness. Friends of mine, who have
gone on to become ACMG certified guides, spent multiple years going
out in bad conditions, over terrain that was novel, with all kinds of
different partners to build up this range of experience.
Even years of experience under a widely
varying array of conditions will not lead to situational awareness if
the experience remains unexamined. Close scrutiny of everything that
went on during every trip with an eye to what could be improved upon
is necessary. Painful, if one is honest, but necessary nonetheless.
In a perfect world, every recreationalist would have an omnipotent
mentor who could give the necessary feedback. The reality is,
however, that most recreationalists bumble along with partners who
are at a level close to their own and are thus not qualified to
provide feedback - even if they knew how. Astute recreationalists
can critique their own trips and recognize their own weak areas, but,
this assumes a level of knowledge that many recreationalists never
reach, caught as they are in a cycle of marginal competence.
Competent enough to achieve some objectives, but not competent enough
to recognize their own weak areas and how to improve upon them.
Finally, a thick skin, determined
attitude, and internal motivation to improve are necessary. A thick
skin helps keep your self-esteem intact when you come back from every
trip with a list - long or short - of things you could improve upon,
and there is always something. A determined attitude will see you
through the hard times when it would be easier to just go out and do
an easy trip you know well, with comfortable partners. People who
are motivated by what their friends are doing, what the cool people
are doing, or what is fashionable at the time, will never succeed, as
the moment the going gets tough, or the influential people change
sports, they'll be gone, onto the next trendy activity. The people
who really succeed are those that keep going no matter what their
friends or the local trend-setters are doing.
Developing mastery, which by
definition, includes situational awareness, has been widely studied
in many fields from aviation to chess, and, the consensus is that
mastery requires a minimum of ten years of focused practice. That
isn't ten years of going out occasionally - or even frequently - to
have fun with your friends. That's ten years of going out every day
working harder than you did the day before, analyzing your experience
and adjusting your behavior accordingly. Rare indeed.
A simple scramble made more
difficult by bad weather and conditions
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