private wrote:
"Booker C. Bense"
bbense+rec.skiing.backcountry.Oct.12.05@telemark. slac.stanford.edu wrote
in message ...
snip
The only thing keeping you safe is your judgement

and it's incredibly easy to confuse luck with skill. There's a
high potential for self delusion in all this, particularly after
you've done it a while. Pilots have a handy phrase for this that
I can't google at the moment. Basically, you're most dangerous
when you have enough experience stop overestimating the risk,
but because of your false sense of expertise you begin
underestimating the risk.

Reminds me of the accident on of the Kennedys had flying out at night to
Martha's Vineyard. Did anyone read about that? Flying on instruments you
can go into a 1G spin. Pilots have trouble believing the altimeter
ticking down and assume it is equipment malfunction. Often the first
they know they have made a bad decision is when they hit the ground at
200mph (or the wings rip off due to air speed).