I should make it clear that I'm not an expert in this field by any measure, so I'm hardly qualified to comment let alone to criticize.

(I generally travel solo. My solution to avalanche hazards is to go places where there aren't any. Yep, absolutely chicken, but then again a live chicken.)

I'm just trying to understand more broadly the psychology, the thinking process, the assessment of risk vs. reward.

I know skiers and snowmobilers who have had extremely close calls, up to and including shovels and CPR. But their accounts suggest that this is a badge of honour, a rite of passage, a story to be retold over and over. Yet if this were to happen to me, I would consider it a serious and sobering miscalculation -- an embarrassing failure.

I would appreciate the perspectives of people who understand these communities and their cultures better than I.