METHODOLOGY & RESPONSES

Qualitative Interviews

Prior to developing the survey, we conducted individual in-depth interviews with two groups of recreational mountaineers between 5th June and 24th August 2021; this included five mountaineers who had been involved in an avalanche and four mountaineers who had not.

The qualitative information gathered from these interviews was used to design an online questionnaire. When this was in a final draft form, we tested the questionnaire with a range of people including some of those who had been part of the qualitative interviews, external reference panel members and MSC staff.

External Reference Panel

Throughout the research we utilised expert advice and input from an external reference panel. This consisted of six professional and recreational mountaineers, academics and researchers. The panel members provided invaluable advice and guidance, and were an excellent sounding board for the researchers.

The panel included: Jaz Morris, Ben Corcoran, Grant Statham, Kay Haughey, Anna Keeling and Pascal Haegeli.

Ethics

Ethics approval for the research was obtained from the New Zealand Ethics Committee on 18 June 2021 (NZEC Application 2021-25).

Survey Biases

There is likely a response bias favoring people who have access to the internet (online survey only), who use social media and who are members of mountaineering clubs and membership organisations.

Surveys of this type are often preferentially completed by people with higher levels of avalanche awareness and interest in further developing their risk management skills.