An Interview with ANAC Editor Pete Takeda

[American Alpine Club]

AAC: Describe the scope of the work that goes into making Accidents in North American Climbing [ANAC].

Pete Takeda: The scope and the type of coverage we do have expanded over the years. It’s not just a print publication anymore, where we analyze accidents from across the continent. It’s also the monthly email, called The Prescription, that delves into one of the accidents from that year’s book, repackages it, and adds related resources. Now we’ve also brought in the video component, with me as the on-camera personality, plus IFMGA/ AMGA guide Jason Antin and how he recommends folks avoid the accident we’re analyzing.
So as an editor, I have to change hats a bit. I kind of hate being the on-camera personality. But I see it has an impact, and so whatever I feel about it is irrelevant because it serves the community.
Another new exciting thing is working with Dr. Valerie Karr, a professor who studies human behavior across many complex environments, who came out of the blue and scanned and made searchable every physical copy of ANAC dating back to 1948. We can now respond to legitimate, official queries for data.
Dr. Karr has also brought forward a framework for examining human factors in accidents. In other words, how you feel, what you’re thinking, your background, what you’re doing and experiencing in the moment, and how those all can lead to accidents and also influence the outcome. For example: I was distracted, or I was thinking about my dog, or someone asked me a question. It’s just basic things like that every climber can relate to. You can read about some of her initial findings in this year’s book.
So, we’re no longer just addressing the mechanics of the accident: My carabiner came undone, or the rope was running over the edge, or I placed a cam and it blew. It goes beyond just these technical aspects.

AAC: What’s the history of ANAC?

Pete: First, it was simply a report from the AAC Safety Committee, starting in 1948. In 1952 they settled on calling the annual book Accidents in North American Mountaineering. The person who really evolved it into what it is today is Jed Williamson, a past president of the AAC and the editor emeritus on the masthead of ANAC. He steered the direction of ANAC, as a volunteer, for 30 or 40 years. He’s the one who established this current format and managed to source information from all these different reporting sources, like federal rangers, SAR teams, and individuals.
In 2016 the name changed to Accidents in North American Climbing, [to reflect the fact that] we as climbers really would not self-apply the term “mountaineer” to what we do 99 percent of the time.

AAC: What’s a unique challenge you’ve faced while compiling and editing ANAC?

Pete: Figuring out how to accurately portray such technical concepts is always a challenge. You really have to partition your mindset, just like you do in the disciplines in climbing. Some things work in the print realm. Some things work in the digital realm. Some things work in video.
With a print publication, you’re combining imagery with graphics and words. Between those three things, you should be able to allow people to view the material, read the material, and come away with as comprehensive and as fact-checked a report as they can. And that’s something that really sets us apart: We actually check facts.
Of course, it is challenging to create a graphic that matches the nuances of how a knot came undone or how a carabiner unclipped, but we have excellent designers on our team. [Another] major hurdle I have is acquiring photos for every accident, either of the accident scene or showing the mechanics of the accident, the routes, the area, etc. People on Mountain Project have been very generous in donating their photos.
The purpose of all this material is to evoke questions. You can usually tell how successful you’ve been by the questions that people write on social platforms or via email. That’s [certainly] the case with the Prescription videos—and, if someone wants to dig more, they can always look in the book or get on the AAC website and look up the accid...

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An Interview with ANAC Editor Pete Takeda — American Alpine Club

Originally published in Guidebook XVII .

American Alpine Club (americanalpineclub.org)