This article examines perceptions of risk and risk management effectiveness among 2SLGBTQ+, women, BIPOC, or trauma-affected members of the avalanche and mountain guiding profession. It draws on 17 in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted in Canada, USA, Switzerland and France within a profession that is overwhelmingly White, cis-gender, hetero, and male. This study critiques traditional approaches to risk, and offers a new definition of intersectional risk, as a function of mountain hazards and human-caused hazards, exposure and vulnerability. Human-caused hazards in the profession include exclusion, harassment, and discrimination based on identity factors, such as stigma related to trauma or mental health challenges, racism, ableism, sexism, and misogyny. The study revealed that many members of non-dominant groups in the profession must navigate a non-stop second shift of risk management due to human-caused hazards, in addition to the regular work shift of mountain hazard mitigation. This invisible workload emerged as metaphoric ‘invisible avalanches’ that affect a minority of the profession, but do so profoundly. As a result of this additional workload of risk management, heightened complexity, and exposure, members of non-dominant groups in this study demonstrated enhanced risk management effectiveness. By providing visibility and language for an expanded practice of risk management, this study points to a broad shift in how risk is understood and applied in masculinized, high-risk work environments.
Reimer et al. (Thu,) studied this question.