Chapter 8. Adaptive Management

Mountaineering in extreme conditions is not about skill, nor is it about strength and stamina—although they play an important part. Ultimately, extreme mountaineering is about judgment. It is about walking the narrow edge between success and oblivion.

“This need for control is so fundamental that it has dominated management literature for 100 years.”

—A. De Geus [1997], p. 140.

Given good weather and stable ice conditions, thousands of climbers have the skill and stamina to climb Mount Everest, for example. Natural hazards—violent storms, avalanches, falling ice seracs, hidden cornices, precarious rock (which is waiting to be set loose by an errant foot or hand), high altitude (which can cause debilitating altitude ...

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