I returned this week from a vacation in Mexico, including a day at the Copper Canyon.
Our tour guide took about 20 of us down the mountain side to see some Tarahumara Indian homes. I decided that I wanted to come back ahead of the group, finding my way back up the path and steps to our hotel at the top.
Let’s walk this through.
My objectives were:
- Get back to the hotel ahead of the group. Many of the members were slow and I would find it frustrating keeping to their pace instead of mine.
- Do so safely. While the path was not bad, it also was uneven and unpaved with a lot of rocks and steps to climb. The likelihood of a severe injury was very low indeed and I could accept a slight stumble. But if I moved too quickly, I could fall and bruise myself or worse.
What might happen along the way? In other words, what would a risk manager put on a list or heat map?
- I might fall. The range of pain and injury went from slight (perhaps 5%) to severe (less than 1%).
- I might get lost. There were multiple paths and I could easily take the wrong one. If I did that, I was confident (>90%) I could either find my way back and take the right path, continue on the (well-worn) path that would eventually take me back to the hotel, even if the arrival would be delayed, or ask one of the other people that I could see on the…
