Updating in the mountains: A sensemaking perspective on ski guiding

Abstract

For a ski guide, updating on the ever-changing natural conditions and group dynamics is essential to stay safe and provide a good experience for clients. In this paper, we explore how guides update their understanding in the mountains. Our data arise out of a one-season participant ethnography of ski guiding in Norway. The research team had two authors collecting data, one as an “outsider” and another as an “insider”. We find that the work of a ski guide involves a process of monitoring, testing, and projecting. Complementing and challenging the avalanche literature, we find that ski guide decision-making is an embodied updating process rather than a cognitive one that happens at “decision points”. We highlight the implications of these findings both for guides and researchers. Management implications•Continuous updating is critical for adapting to changing conditions and for breaking with set frames of understanding. Therefore, guides should not overly rely on decision aids or fixed decisions.•Guides should listen to their intuition when something “feels off” and be in doubt when something “feels right”.•Clients should acknowledge that they are an active part of the setting and, therefore, influence the outcome with both direct and indirect actions.•Updating relies on the continuous monitoring, testing, and projecting of ecological and social cues. Neither type should be viewed in isolation.