Risk and Responsibility

ACMG guides have been trained to the highest standards in the world and are experts at managing and reducing mountain risk. Guides and guiding companies communicate with their client leading up to and during a guided activity to ensure that the activity's goals and objectives match the client's. Guides will provide information before the trip, but the client is also responsible for ensuring that they are well-informed and can decide whether or not the activity fits within their risk tolerance and matches their goals and objectives.

When hiring a guide or signing up for a guided activity, you should be well-informed about the activity's nature and hazards. You must weigh that information carefully and decide if the activity matches your goals and risk tolerance. Your guide will provide pre-trip information outlining the main hazards, and the lines of communication will be open leading up to, during, and after your trip. If you have questions, ask your guide, and they will do their best to answer them.

Most hazards encountered in the mountains also have some uncertainty of outcome, which results from not having enough information to estimate what might happen reliably. The uncertainty (information gaps) cannot be reduced with some hazards. For example, it is impossible to know where lightning will strike or when an ice dagger will fall off above an ice climb. Beyond personal experience with the hazard and conventional wisdom, there's only so much more one can know. With other hazards, uncertainty can be reduced. For example, the uncertainty of a snow bridge's characteristics over a crevasse can be reduced by seeking more information. You can probe to see where the ice ends and the bridge starts or go to the side to gauge its thickness. This, in combination with personal experience, reduces uncertainty by obtaining as much information as is reasonable to help evaluate the potential risk. Guides must be able to understand, acknowledge and communicate levels of uncertainty.

Risk is the likelihood of an outcome and the severity of its consequences when people are exposed to a hazard (a source of potential harm). Many argue that these risks are an important part of the activity and that part of the reward of travelling in the mountains is successfully managing these risks in an inherently hazardous environment. Taking calculated risks is an integral and often rewarding part of mountain activities; however, risks must be assessed by weighing the potential benefits versus the likelihood and consequence of a negative outcome. 

Different individuals have different definitions of acceptable levels of risk or 'risk tolerance', and a given individual's risk tolerance will vary according to the goals and objectives. For example, climbers and skiers on more difficult routes are usually willing to accept higher levels of risk in exchange for the greater rewards offered by achieving the more difficult objective. Guides also have limits to the levels of risk to which they are willing to expose themselves. You will often find that a guide's risk tolerance is lower than most of their clients. Long-term exposure to risk means that guides need to keep such risk low. Guides attempt to manage risk to acceptable levels for all participants.

Risk and uncertainty in the mountains can be reduced, not eliminated. Even when your guide successfully manages risk to acceptable levels, they cannot eliminate it completely. This is known as 'residual risk'. Your guide will do their best to reduce risk in order to achieve your goals and objectives; however, accidents and deaths can occur on guided trips. They will also communicate and work with you to establish goals and objectives that both you and they are comfortable with. Risk means exposure to hazard; even very low risk still includes some degree of exposure. Managing risk to acceptable levels can be very difficult and complex, involving the subjective assessment of many complex and changing variables and often choosing between multiple options. You need to think about your personal level of acceptable risk for a given goal or objective and speak up if the perceived level of risk becomes too high for you.