Video by a Alexandre Chapellier @alchapiMountain biking can be very dangerous. In this video, I wanted to talk about risk awareness and explain how I manage risk as a professional rider.
To help me go through some basic safety advice, Mike Conway joins me to share his knowledge as a member of the Search and Rescue team of Whistler. He is physio at Back in Action Physiotherapy and a volunteer to help all of us when we need.
Thanks for watching! And thank you to SORCA (
sorca.ca) for the trail network in beautiful Squamish.
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This may be a different sort of meeting. But maybe not?
On a more serious note, there is a very good video by Alexis Righetti about managing risk in the alpine. Well worth watching, despite the language barrier: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPAjZuWKpUc
- Prepare for the unforeseen (as far as is reasonably practicable)
- Know and understand the hazard
- Know and understand the environment (rain, wind)
- Be aware of your abilities and limitations, don't work outwith them (a challenge if also learning new skills..?)
- Know your tools/equipment (bike) and their limitations (suspension set up, tyre pressures, etc)
- Do a cost/benefit analysis prior to activity (insta likes vs hospital bills?).
- Carry out post activity review and learn from it
I've often wondered about how professional riders approach ESH management; this has been insightful.
Trailbuilding v2.0 is all about speed controll, keeping obstacles that keeps the speed at a safe level, being creative about line and keeping petite climbing cruxes without interrupting the flow of the ride. I try to keep my trails cheeky with a certain degree if gnarflow. In the end, flow is an attribute of the rider not the teail.
How do we make good decisions? Accidents can just happen no matter how well prepared we are, but the severity of an accident is often reduced by considering the soft risks, things like riding alone, riding in slippery conditions, riding above your skill level, or having a beer at that awesome lookout. Those are decisions we make and they can have severe impacts on safety.
On the other side of the soft risk coin, there are a lot f things we can do to reduce risk or prepare ourselves for an accident. Take a wilderness first aid course, bring a first aid kit and tools to fix your bike, know how to access emergency/SAR if needed, etc.
I guess you could sum it all up by saying “make good choices.”
the hazard is the trail feature
probability (likelihood) of experiencing harm as a result of hitting the feature is down to factors identified in the video
another factor to consider when defining control measures, or in this case, is it worth it, is frequency- how often are you going to hit that feature, or perhaps in this context, a variety of hazardous features on a trail (how many are there)
severity is self explanatory
so as simon said, likelihood x frequency x severity = risk score. lower score = lower level of risk.
sometimes/often it's impossible to avoid risk, in which case the hierarchy of control needs to be followed after elimination (reduce/isolate/control/PPE/discipline)
Last year I invested in a Garmin Outreach Mini. It is tiny and has a satellite-based emergency/SOS beacon built in. I pay about $10/month or so for the service, which includes a few satellite text messages... The app lets you send texts via satellite with your phone, also has nav. I think it's a good idea.
but, after breaking (pun intended) the two dozen barrier I can attest hitting that button gets more difficult