THE BLOG
Overconfidence rarely feels reckless.
It feels earned.
It feels like experience. It feels like competence. It feels like control.
That’s what makes it dangerous.
In remote terrain and high-risk environments, overconfidence doesn’t look like arrogance. It looks like familiarity — and familiarity ...
Speed feels productive.
In remote terrain and high-risk environments, movement creates the illusion of control. Progress feels like problem-solving. Pausing can feel like hesitation.
But under pressure, speed often accelerates error.
Professionals understand something counterintuitive:
Slowing d...
When GPS fails, the problem isn’t technology.
The problem is what happens next.
Some people freeze. Some keep moving. Some guess. Others chase signal and hope it fixes itself.
Professionals do none of those things.
They switch systems.
Backup Navigation Is Not a Last Resort
Backup navigation...
Decision-making failure rarely looks dramatic.
Most errors made in high-risk environments feel reasonable at the time. Plans stay intact. Movement continues. Confidence remains — right up until consequences appear.
This page explains why judgement degrades under pressure, how situational awareness...
Decision fatigue doesn’t announce itself.
There is no sudden confusion, no obvious mistake, no clear moment where judgement fails. Decisions still get made. Movement continues. Plans stay intact.
What changes is decision quality — quietly, gradually, and often unnoticed.
In remote and high-risk e...
GPS rarely fails when you expect it to.
It doesn’t usually stop working at the trailhead, in clear terrain, or while you’re feeling confident and fresh. It works perfectly during planning, early movement, and familiar ground.
Then, when terrain becomes complex, fatigue sets in, or decisions matter...
Tunnel vision doesn’t feel like confusion.
It feels like clarity.
Under pressure, the mind narrows focus to what appears most important in the moment. Distractions fall away. Doubt quiets. Action feels justified.
That’s why tunnel vision is so dangerous — especially for experienced people operati...
Most search and rescue callouts don’t begin with extreme weather, catastrophic injuries, or dramatic survival scenarios.
They begin with small navigation errors.
Errors that feel manageable at the time. Errors that don’t trigger immediate alarm. Errors that compound quietly until recovery options ...
Wilderness navigation failure rarely begins with panic.
It begins with small, quiet errors — a GPS position that doesn’t quite match the terrain, a route that feels familiar, a decision made a little too quickly.
By the time people realise they’re truly lost, they’re often already committed to the...
Experience is supposed to protect you.
It’s supposed to make situations clearer, decisions faster, and outcomes safer. But in high-risk environments, experience often does the opposite — it creates confidence where caution is needed most.
Some of the worst decisions made in wilderness travel, resc...
GPS failure doesn’t usually happen all at once.
It doesn’t arrive with alarms or warnings. Most of the time, it begins quietly — a position that feels slightly off, terrain that doesn’t quite match the screen, a track that looks right but doesn’t feel right.
By the time people realise something is...
Why SAR Navigation Requires a Different Kind of Skill
If you’ve ever stepped into the field as a Search and Rescue operator — whether in law enforcement, a volunteer team, or a tactical environment — you already know this truth: navigation inside SAR is nothing like navigation in recreational hikin...
