Risk management with mandatory upper risk threshold in the world's largest mountaineering school

Abstract

At the beginning of the new millennium, the DAV Summit Club, the commercial mountaineering school of the German Alpine Club and world’s largest provider of commercial mountaineering has developed a risk frame work with mandatory upper risk thresholds. In collaboration with Werner Munter, the system is based on the reduction method and targeted for the out-of-bound skiing, ski-touring and skimountaineering activities of the mountaineering school. Every trip must already in the planning phase fit into the defined risk framework. In the terrain every guides is free to adapt the announced program based on conditions and abilities of the clients, but must equally stay within the upper limits and preferably below by setting the priority of the guiding in providing a very satisfactory client experience at the reasonably low residual risk threshold. All guides report on a daily bases on a web based interface about the touring condition as well as the risk management decisions. The current database contains ten thousands of skier days provided by hundreds of guides. It includes therefore real terrain usage data connected with the implications given by the risk management framework and as one of the many findings proof as an important signal to the guiding industry that there is no positive relationship between providing a high-risk experience and client satisfaction.