"Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain" equivalent for climbing?

Hey all, I have gained so much from studying Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain for backcountry skiing, and most interested in how it helps with decision making, risk mitigation, communication, etc. I'm adapting a lot of its teachings to climbing/multipitch/trad but wondering if anybody has any recs for an equivalent book/course/resource that is climbing-specific? Have had a few close calls/mistakes over the last year or two and want to be more intentional about risk mitigation.

Montana Alpine Guides out of Bozeman has an Ice Climbing Avy 1 that had lots of different curriculum from a regular Avy 1. I found it very useful to supplement. Might be the only approved Ice avy 1 in the country? But I think I have heard of one of the CO companies having something similar, maybe near Ouray?

Freedom of the Hills! 

Climbing Self-Rescue (Nicholson), also from Mountaineers Books, will probably check most of the boxes you're looking for. In the same way that Staying Alive... places much emphasis on snow science, Nicholson's book is primarily geared towards technical rope work, but both are interwoven with valuable discussions on intelligent risk management. Alpine contexts are invoked frequently, which dovetails nicely with the snow-oriented knowledge you're coming from.

Strongly recommemd reading the AAC accidents report each year. You can find a lot of past years' editions at gear stores, or search up individual reports on their website.

Basically each edition provides a detailed report and analysis of every significant accident over the past year in North America. Deep dives on gear failures (uncommon) weather problems (common) and human error (extremely common). Also some good rescue stories. There have been many, many times I've read a report that helped me think about how to mitigate risk in the future, or retrospectively dissect my decisions in the past.

Another vote for the AAC accident reports! I read them religiously the first couple years of my multi-pitch climbing experience. Since I was climbing a lot of in Yosemite, I would basically read every accident that happened on the route I was planning on climbing. Lots of good safety beta for that specific route plus general overall themes. 

Also, every climber who is interested in the topic of "Staying Alive" should read the short John Dill piece titled "Staying Alive" ( http://dev.supertopo.com/topos/yosemite/stayalive.pdf ) It uses Yosemite specific examples but is valid for any climber. I reread it at least once a year, and so far haven't died.

Great read Ben, thank you for sharing. 

Awesome question OP.  I haven't found anything similar for the context of climbing decision-making, and am curious to see if anything turns up.

In lieu of that, I think you can apply the same general framework that we use for avalanches to more general decision-making.  Trip planning, uncertainty and margins, yellow and red flags, planned check-ins and decision points, communication strategies, and high quality debriefs.  It's much more complicated in the broader climbing scenarios because instead of worrying about one specific hazard (avalanches), you need to consider, manage, and mitigate a multitude of different hazards simultaneously (avalanche, exposure, weather, rockfall, timing, protection, etc.).  I think being really intentional about practicing these skills in digestible chunks helps.

Another potential crossover to consider is that, similar to how you can use terrain/AETS to avoid or mitigate avalanche hazard, you can also largely avoid or mitigate some alpine hazards with trip planning.  For example, you can take speed and timing off you list of things to stress about if you pick a route that's short and easy relative to your abilities and the length of the day.  If you want to try an alpine route with a grade near your limit, you might pick something shorter (remove speed and timing concerns) that doesn't require any snow or glacial travel (removes avalanche and crevasse hazards, plus a whole category of slips/falls), has a simple descent (remove various descent/rappelling risks), etc.  This can let you pick and choose which hazards you expose yourself to on a particular objective, and lets you practice different pieces in semi-isolation.

This is all some excellent beta, thanks y'all. I especially like this Staying Alive doc, thanks for that Ben!

Another vote for reading at least a few years worth of anam. Another book not mentioned that pairs well with a WFR is Vertical Aid.

Check out having: Divorce for Dummies. Marriage and kids are the climbing equivalent to an avalanche.  

Stay safe Stay climbing. 

trailridge wrote:

Check out having: Divorce for Dummies. Marriage and kids are the climbing equivalent to an avalanche.

Nonsense 

Link for Accidents in North American Climbing publications.americanalpine…

trailridge wrote:

Marriage and kids are the climbing equivalent to an avalanche.  

...Marriage and kids are an unpredictable objective hazard that could injure or kill you?

In the context of risk evaluation, I really like alpine climbing with partners that are married (or in long term relationships) and have kids or other major commitments.  I find it really helps us ground our decision-making in very clear ways like "would I be proud to explain this choice to my spouse" and "is this a good decision if the number one priority is to watch my kids grow up."

• Accidents in North American Climbing by the AAC (as has been mentioned)
• Freedom of the Hills (as has been mentioned)
• Down - by Andy Kirkpatrick
• Climbing Anchors - by John Long & Bob Gaines

One key thing to remember is that a long drive is not a good excuse to get killed. We drove all this way lets give it a go is a terrible reason to get on something when the conditions are bad.  This was probobly one of the factors in the fatality when Positive Thinking fell down. 

Freedom of the Hill, 9th edition, not the 10th edition. Chapter on Safety. The new stuff is the 10th edition is just weird. For example, the word 'safety' is replaced with 'security.' Mountaineers seems to be taking a unique fork toward accident prevention.

Specifically for rock climbing, another vote for John Long and Bob Gaines, Climbing Anchors.  Freedom of the Hills is great but has a wider scope (rock climbing but also basic hiking, map-reading, weather, glacier travel,etc.).

A fun, perhaps frivolous depending on your goals, but thought-provoking book about safety systems is Me, Myself, and I: The Dark Arts of Big Wall Soloing by Andy Kirkpatrick.  Thinking through rope soloing systems and whether you'd trust your life to them is a fun intellectual exercise if nothing else.