What would you consider to be an extreme sport?

That was the starting question at a recent panel discussion on extreme sports and the ethics of care and rescue held by the Banff Mineral Springs Hospital ethics committee.

With eight panelists representing a spectrum of expertise and interests, it became immediately evident that even defining the term ‘extreme sports’ is difficult. 

X Games gold medalist and extreme ice climber Will Gadd said he has counted more than 30 friends lost to extreme pursuits over the years.

Gadd said those endeavours are indeed fun, but are also risky – although there are a lot of risky things people do on a daily basis.

“From a sheer statistics perspective, maternal mortality kills a lot of people,” he pointed out. “If you want to do something extreme, go have sex.

“There is an idea that life is safe, but if you are born it is not safe.” 

Red Deer College professor of philosophy Guillermo Barron has been a climber for more than 30 years.

Barron said for him, the interesting aspect to the debate  is the disagreement in relevant benefits and risks related to extreme sports. 

He said an extreme sport has an element of risk to it, or in other words, a probability of an adverse event multiplied by the seriousness of the risk taken.

It also involves skill and expertise, Barron added, which would help the athlete taking part in the sport avoid mortal injury. 

Finally, he said, for something to be an extreme sport it should be outside the norm. 

Emergency medicine physician Kyle McLaughlin said he was concerned that media-hype and sensationalism have built up the term ‘extreme sports.’

“I think there is a component of extreme sports that has been sensationalized,” he said pointing to ESPN and the X-Games as examples. “There is a counter culture ambiance with this term.” 

That aside, McLaughlin, who has been involved in adventure medicine and event rescue work for 10 years, said extreme sports have high variables and are often done in environmental conditions that are less controlled. 

Dentist John Gibson was the only health care professional on the panel that has to deal with both private and public insurance related to injuries from extreme sports pursuits. 

Traumatic oral maxillofacial injuries, he said, are for the most part dealt with through private insurance and the burden to the person injured, more than anything else, is in terms of cost. 

Gibson said one must separate extreme sports from extreme recklessness.

“It is more than just going out without preparation and putting yourself at risk,” he said adding an extreme sport athlete requires training and fitness and pushes to a level where the ultimate loss is a loss of life. 

Orthopedic surgeon Mark Heard not only devotes his professional life to getting athletes back to what they love but not long ago found himself on the other side of the equation as an outdoor sports enthusiast when he needed to be rescued. 

On May 10, 2006 Heard drowned while kayaking in Callaghan Creek near Whistler while on a trip with friends and his son.

He was resuscitated with CPR by his group, which also used epinephrine to restart his heart, and local search and rescue crews were called out near dusk to retrieve him.

“They stretched the limits to save my life,” Heard told the crowd. “They put their lives in risk.”

He spent a week in the intensive care unit in a coma with his family not knowing if he would live or die. 

Heard said in most circumstances where a mortality occurs during an extreme sport pursuit, it is circumstances that creates a situation where an accident happens. 

“The mass amounts of death and injuries are accidents and these people have fairly good knowledge and training and skill sets where an accident is consequential, which is different than recklessness,” he said. He also warned against equating risk taking as a huge load on the heath care system. 

The topic of who should pay for rescues when people have wandered off or gone beyond their skill level was also discussed. 

Retired Parks Canada warden Tim Auger said in his experience, the majority of people in need of rescue are not out to impress anybody but find themselves in dire straits when something goes sour.

“Whose fault is that?” he asked. “I don’t like to blame, it is not a good thing to get into.” 

Barron asked how participating in extreme sports is different than any other discretionary activity.

“Why do we think we can lay moral blame on people for being irrational?” 

Gibson, however, played devil’s advocate.

“I think society already puts limits on acceptable behaviour,” he said, adding there are go and no-go scenarios, and choosing the latter comes with consequences. 

The impetus for holding the panel discussion came out of events this past winter near Revelstoke, in which two snowmobilers died and dozens were injured after triggering an avalanche while high marking up the side of a mountain during high avalanche conditions.

Gibson said choices were made by those engaged in the activity, and the cost to taxpayers from this specific incident was $1.6 million.

Heard countered that care should be taken in labeling outdoor activities as extreme. He said getting outdoors encourages people to get off the couch and be active, which is beneficial to the health care system. 

Gadd said the issue comes down to the freedoms we have and the ability to make choices.

“To me this boils down to good people making bad decisions all the time,” he said. “We as a society in Canada allow people to go out and do stupid things and we pick up the tab and I think that is a great thing.

“It is a measure of society’s health how much divergent behaviour it tolerates.” 

Auger said the cost of a rescue has nothing to do with the kind of activity in which the person was involved.

“We have a health system that is supposed to help people, not judge them,” he said. 

The vast majority of rescues, he added, involve a certain type of evacuation which, because it involves access by helicopter, may be slightly risky – but it happens a lot. 

Really extreme rescues are few, said Auger, who spent 34 years in search and rescue.

There are those search and rescue activities that no one talks about, he said, and that includes suicides where people go into the backcountry to end their lives and it is rescue personnel that must respond. 

Bow Valley Victims Services program director Peter Quinn has spent 20 years with Bow Valley Victim Services counseling those who have been in accidents, their families and friends, and those who do rescues.

He encouraged those in the room to remember that real people are involved in accidents, extreme sports and search and rescue operations. 

“It could happen to anyone,” Quinn said. “Everyone should be treated as a real person.

“If there is a problem spend money on education and people will make better decisions.” 

Encouraging better education was an idea supported by all panelists and Heard pointed specifically to continuing outdoor education for children as part of the school curriculum.