The last couple of New Years I have not compiled a 'top stories' article as it had been several years of more of the same. It is not every year that something 'new' emerges, but this year a couple notable events make the year worth looking back upon. I sense a couple of these are still unfolding, so may be future more of the same, but for now, they mark something new for us as risk managers to wrap our heads around. Here they are, in somewhat of an order of what I predict to be their lasting impact on our little adventure risk sector:
Criminal charges - make a mistake, go to jail
This one is huge and I have the least to say about it... yet. In 2017 an Ontario student on a high school outdoor ed canoe trip drowned in Algonquin Park - a terrible story that hit home with many guides in my neighbourhood and with several of my students who were guiding trips in the same park at the same time. I commented on this event at the time, which as become the most read post on this page at over 12,000 reads (read it here).
New this year, astoundingly, is that the teacher in charge of the trip (even though he hired a canoe operator to run the trip) is charged with criminal negligence. This is unprecedented and genuinely surprised everyone - lawyers, teachers, pro guides. Legal commentators in the news did not know what to make of it. One former Crown Prosecutor was quoted as saying "...accidents happen; accidents don't lead to criminal charges." You can read preliminary legal opinions here.
The scary thing is that this charge is not in isolation. Two paramedics in Hamilton, Ontario, were criminally charged when a patient who died in their care. This, too, is unprecedented for a 'mistake' to turn criminal. (This story is fascinating from a safety performance and sensemaking perspective. It too, will have more details come to light when it gets before a judge). Read this story here.
Stay tuned on these items, but apparently something has changed that mistakes have moved from tort resolution to criminal.
#MeToo
Early last year Outside mag published a disturbing and poignant article on sexual harassment in outdoor guiding, titled Hostile Environment. It was graphic, difficult and important to read (read it here). This came on the heals of a U.S. National Park Service report of sexual harassment for park workers and river rangers in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado (read it here), and data published by the American Alpine Club in their #SafeOutside project, showing pervasive sexual harassment in recreational climbing (here).
These stories, the multiple commentaries it spawned (I like this one, by Emerald Lafortune), and the general #MeToo movement has put sexual harassment in the outdoor workplace front and centre. It turns out that the outdoor workplace is a workplace, first and foremost, and comes with all of the issues, problems and challenges of most every other workplace. This conversation has changed the way I look at what we deliver in my college guide training program, and I've had conversations with many managers that #MeToo has them reconsidering how to deal with harassment, gender and power dynamics in their guiding companies. All positive but no one (at least yet) has the magic solution to these issues. The HR managers from Colorado Outward Bound took a stab at it with a presentation at the 2018 Wilderness Risk Management Conference. See their presentation notes here.
Go Smaller
My colleague Jon Heshka and I have been pushing this message ever since Canadian ski star Sarah Burke died in 2012 (commentary here). With the Winter Olympics in 2018, there was significant interest in re-awakening this 'how big is too big' story, on the heals of two elite slalom skiers dying in training/competition, and then the ridiculous wind conditions during the Olympics. I spent some time with radio and print journalists commentating on this issue (here) and posted commentary on this site (here).
What is new is that we are not the only ones. Outside mag published this piece, where Marc Peruzzi memorably wrote that "once healthy outdoor pursuits [have] devolved into suicide clubs" (source here). It is agonizing to watch how long it is taking for athletes to get in control of the competitions in which they risk their bodies and lives (as Heshka is quoted on PRI radio, "The cost of making a mistake is one's life", source here). I'm heartened by little events that I think are huge: Canadian ski racing star Eric Guay abruptly retired after the violent crash of his teammate (story here). My Olympic hero Spencer O'Brien pulled up on her slopestyle run, with a tell-tale hands up 'WTF?'. Unfortunately there is no middle ground (yet). From the athletes' perspective, it is either go big or drop out. We can do better than that. My 2019 wish is that every action sports event has an athlete's safety officer and/or safety veto card and/or do over option. This is totally fixable.
Outdoor retail realizes it has a voice
Gun violence in the U.S.A. had several major outdoor retailers pushing some morality on the marketplace, by dropping any brand associated with gun distribution. MEC in Canada was first in, and several followed suit (story here). Likewise, the uber influential Outdoor Retailer industry trade show moved out of its Utah location in protest to land management positions taken by that state's government (insightful story here, on the role of OR and the issues it is addressing). This is just a piece of the larger story of the 'outdoor industry' now being recognized in U.S. GDP and economic measures (here). All of a sudden we woke up from our teenage years and realized that we are actually an adult with some clout. More good things will come from this in the future.
Guide deaths
Guide deaths are potentially becoming more common (or maybe I'm just more attentive to them), but are rare none-the-less, counting perhaps 2-3 per year North America. New this year was an employer found partially responsible for a guide death - in this case a Yellowstone kayak guide who drowned. Wyoming’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited OARS, a well known outfitter, for $38,672 in fines for eight safety violations that were believed to be related to the employee's death (story here). As above, we are a workplace first and foremost. We are so way past overdue on catching up to our obligations as employers to meet occupational safety requirements. If you are a manager, you are likely non-compliant in a long list of areas. Get on it.