If in Doubt Abort

There is an old rule that I live by. If in doubt, abort. It's related mainly to when I was diving but is linked to other forms of extreme sports. The logic is simple. If you're going hiking, climbing, diving or some other dangerous sport and you have some doubt, for any reason, the rational thing to do is to abort.

## Turning Around or Aborting

The idea is that if you're 200m from the summit of a hike and you get hit by a hail storm you turn around, despite being so close to the summit. The idea is that if for any reason one person doesn't have the right gear to dive, and you're diving with someone else, then you abort.

A few years ago I spend 45 minutes arguing that I didn't feel safe diving with one person, without a more experienced diver with us. I had wasted two hours to drive to the dive site but I just didn't feel comfortable so I stayed true to my own limitations.

## The Concerns

Today, instead of writing a blog post I could have done a Via Ferrata with two different groups. In the end I chose not to because the foot that I injured last Sunday is still hurting. I have two concerns. The first is that I will start to feel real pain whilst climbing the VF. The second concern is that I might be fine while climbing but in agony on the way down a relatively steep path.

The third concern is that if I had gone to do either VF today I could prolong the time for which I am injured. Instead of being injured for four days I went for a walk and my injury has lasted seven days. If I did either VF I could prolong my injury time by another week or two.

I am frustrated that I couldn't do either activity today but that's a good thing. It shows that my habit of self-isolating is diminishing. I want to do things again. If I wasn't injured I would have had a choice of what to do.

## Delayed Gratification

My third choice is delayed gratification. I have chosen to allow my body to recover for another week, so that next week I can confidently commit to doing something interesting.

## Confirmation Bias

This morning my foot felt a lot better, and that is what really convinced me that I should take another day's break. It's because my foot felt so much better after a lazy day that I was convinced that staying home was/is the right thing to do today.

## The Spectre of "What If"?

Of course, the difficulty in deciding not to do something is the spectre of "What if". What if I felt fine? What if I had missed an opportunity to make new friends?

The real question is "What if I got stuck on the Via Ferrata and needed to be "rescued". What if the walk down was excruciatingly painful? What if, because I went this week and injured myself more, I ended up being out of action for even longer than a week and a half or two? That's why I speak of delayed gratification.

Misshing out this week amplifies the opportunities for next week.

## And Finally

The rational of "If in doubt, abort" is a good habit to have. If you do the Via Ferrata in Saillon and you do the first and second part then it's fun, but if you're in doubt about the second part it's good to skip it. It's better to regret, and come back, than to push too far and need rescuing.

Another time someone needed rescuing on a VF was Plan Praz. The person was exhausted and got stuck. We needed a rope to rescue that person too.

The third example, of the hailstorm on the Cheval blanc, is a good one. We were just 200m from the summit when a hailstorm hit us. We could have continued up but we didn't know if there would be another hailstorm and by the time we were down we, or at least I, was at risk of hypothermia. Luckily I did recover but it was good to turn around when we did.

In today's context I aborted because I have an injury that is clear and evident. I wish I could have done either via ferrata, and I could, but there is a very high probability that I would feel more pain, and that I would regret testing my luck.