Teaching Risk

"Dad, can we do that run again?" asked Jesse. At the time, he was barely seven. We were headed up the ski lift at White Pass for our last run before the lifts closed. I knew why he wanted to do the same run again. He really likes jumps, and this run, right under the old decommissioned lift at White Pass, had about an eight foot drop he had done on the last run.

Jesse does a good job assessing new drops and jumps. He does not send blind. On the previous run he had skied down to the top of the drop, bled off speed on the way, spotted his landing (good powder), rolled off the lip and stuck the landing. I was waiting below because, having seen the drop, I was pretty sure he was going to do it.

Coming back down on the second run, I stopped slightly further down the hill, expecting Jesse to do the drop again. Across from me were five or six snowboarders sitting and watching as a couple of their friends were walking up to hit the drop again.

Looking up the hill, I saw Jesse way up the hill. He carved into the line coming over the crest and pointed his skis straight downhill. Jesse was going full send.

He was still airborne going past me, easily cleared 30 feet downslope, stuck the landing and carved into a turn to stop. The snowboarders were all on their feet cheering. Standing there as a dad, I was not sure if I should feel proud or terrified.

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." - Helen Keller

Jesse's first river trip in a raft was at about two months old on the lower Cispus in Washington. It was a warm up, a shake down before heading to the Deschutes in Oregon when he was 2.5 months old.

Wyatt started going with us in a backpack skiing with us when he was six months old at White Pass Ski Area in Washington. Jesse was skiing all the blue runs by the time he was four.

More than once I have been told something along the lines of...

I can't believe you're doing something so dangerous with your kid at that age!"

My response is fairly practiced by now.

I know! Can you believe we drove I-5 with our kids? Do you have any idea of how many people die on that road every year?!

Outdoor recreation, especially what I refer to as, velocity sports, such as skiing, kayaking and mountain biking, present risk extremely tangibly. After all, you are moving fast, and you can crash. All outdoor recreation, even going for a leisurely afternoon hike, presents risk tangibly. You can get lost, hurt or caught in the weather, and have to get back home.

Risk assessment and management, in these activities, is an inarguable reality. It is a skill to be learned, practiced, and consciously reapplied to have a long tenure pursuing these activities. Risk assessment and management outside of these realms, however, is terribly lacking in the general population and sadly, even with many who pursue velocity sports.

There is a saying in flying, riding motorcycles and other high risk activities.In flying, the saying goes...

There are old pilots and there are bold pilots.

There aren't any old and bold pilots.

Those who pursue any of these activities for a long period of time have to be extremely good at risk assessment and management. We are raising our boys skiing, mountain biking and kayaking, sports where the need for risk management is apparent...even to a five-year-old.

According to the statistics, our boys are exposed to far greater risk getting to and from these activities while riding in an automobile than actually participating in the activities. Eventually, sooner than we likely want to admit, our boys will be driving themselves, just one part of venturing further and further into the world themselves...exploring and discovering all it has to offer.

Increased autonomy means navigating the world and making good decisions, accurately assessing and managing risk. Outdoor sports, especially velocity sports, present the opportunity to learn risk assessment and management in a very tangible environment. This environment, one with tangible risk, is increasingly rare in modern life, but the lessons learned apply to a multitude of situations in modern life.