Background data for: \"Risky Positioning - social aspirations and risk-taking behaviour in avalanche terrain\"

This dataset contains information from a survey that was distributed in North America from January to April, in 2018. To target the population of interest for this study, backcountry riders, we distributed a link to the survey via the American avalanche education provider the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE), an American-based producer of avalanche safety equipment (BCA), 14 American-based backcountry avalanche- forecasting centres, and a popular magazine for backcountry riding (Powder Magazine). We also presented at several regional snow and avalanche workshops in the Western USA to solicit participation. To incentivize participants to complete the survey, they were given the opportunity to participate in a lottery to win one of a set of spot prizes (value approx. $70). The dataset contains information about backcountry experience, avalanche assessment training, experience of avalanche incidents, risk preferences, social norms, positional preferences, and terrain choices. The data has been aggregated to avoid identification of individual participants. The empirical analysis in Mannberg et al., (2021) is based on non-aggregated individual data. The sample size is N = 648.