Can Your Climbing Trip Plan Save Your Life?

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There is enough risk out on my climbs… particularly my exploratory and alpine climbs. Weather, rock fall, avalanches, unknown route specifics, changing terrain, altitude, and the like all create risks, and that’s besides the risks I might already be bringing to the climb in terms of skills (or lack of certain skills), fitness, mentality, etc.

So, I look for ways to tilt the odds in my favor. And if I can reduce risk while sitting in the comfort of my home, all the better.

That’s part of why I am drawn to trip plans.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t make a trip plan for every trip. Sometimes it’s just a coordinating conversation with my climbing partner: ‘I think the climb will take this long, so if we want to be down by x time, we probably need to be climbing by y-o’clock; so, with a thirty minute drive and maybe an hour approach, let’s leave at something-something AM. What do you think?’

It’s still a trip plan, but it’s done quickly and informally. As you can see, it’s designed to mitigate risks by making sure we are reducing objective hazards (like weather or sun-hit thawing the mountain or whatever) as well as the subjective hazard of team coordination.

Sometimes, though, I want something more formal: written down, shared, and revised. I give a list of reasons in the video as to why I might choose a more formalized trip plan. Basically, if there is additional risks due to complicating factors, this is one way I can put my thumb on the scale on the side of risk-reduction.

Sure, it takes some time. Again, I don’t always do it. But if the risks are starting to pile up, why not take that extra time where it is comfortable and safe rather than wait when we’re cold and tired and with limited options?

‘An ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure,’ as they say.

Not every trip plan needs to be this detailed. This can be trimmed down. And for that matter, it can also be fleshed-out even more as in the case of a big expedition. But I think this video gives a good menu of elements that might go into a trip plan so that you can decide for yourself which elements to include in your own trip plans, when you think such a plan might be called for.