One of the side effects of having a fairly visible web presence is that people sometimes assume that your Google ranking is some sort of proxy for expertise. For myself, I rather enjoy offering up my 10 cents when people email me asking for advice on hikes I’ve done or wilderness areas I’ve visited. I drew the line, however, when a journalist wanted to interview me about how to see bears safely in Alaska. Photographing bears in Alaska has been one of the most memorable experiences I’ve had, but as a theoretical astrophysicist hailing from the “wilds” of Kent in the UK I’m singularly ill qualified to offer advice about potentially dangerous megafauna. Like most hikers and photographers, I suspect, I consider myself to be a cautious and safety-oriented lover of wilderness. But if we’re honest it’s hard to prove that – even to ourselves – objectively. I’ve crossed glacial creeks in the Yukon without incident, but would I have known to turn back if it had been unsafe to cross? I’ve followed advice to get an early start in Colorado to avoid thunderstorms, but is my awareness of dangerous weather sufficiently perceptive? How risky, really, is hiking?

I was reminded of these thoughts reading a great blog post by one of the rangers in Wrangell-St Elias national park. Wrangell-St Elias – in Alaska – is one of the true wildernesses of North America, and a place I’ve long wanted to visit. The ranger’s story is of a visitor who, through inexperience or poor judgement, abandoned his pack on the notorious scree slope that has to be traversed on the park’s most famous backpacking route, the Goat Trail. Ranger Olson’s conclusion, “Anytime a hiker has to make a decision between their life and their backpack it’s fair to say they