How Beliefs Lead to Harmful Outdoor Practice

Getting outdoors is something we all love; it’s great for your health, lifts your spirits, and connects you with nature. But not every trip goes as planned. We’ve all faced wild weather or tricky situations out there. And if you think about it, you might recall an outdoor activity that turned bad, or even unsafe because of how the leader managed it. As members of Outdoors Queensland, this article might spark some thoughts about how you run your own groups.

So, why do we take people outdoors? What do we believe these outings should achieve? Who benefits from them, and what’s the real purpose behind our efforts? This article dives into two opposing ways of leading outdoor programs.

One way focuses on supporting people and respecting their rights, while the other pushes or forces them to meet certain expectations. These differences echo the big debates we see in the world today, like those on the news. Most of us don’t sit at the extremes, but the article highlights the dangers of overly controlling leadership. We’ll look at examples from Queensland and troubling cases in the USA to show how these beliefs can lead to serious harm, even death from trying too hard to ‘save’ someone.

The main point? Forcing people to do things, even with good intentions, can start a chain reaction that ends in trouble. Instead, let’s use our outdoor groups to show what a fair and caring society could look like. By creating these positive experiences, we can inspire participants to bring those values back to their own lives and communities. One step at a time, one outing at a time, we might help make the world a better place.

Small warning: this article includes confronting details from a 2023 USA Coroners report

Article: https://rdcu.be/eIevV

Journal page for the same article: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42322-025-00222-7