Mountaineering Accident Stats

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colokeith
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Mountaineering Accident Stats

Post by colokeith »

Kind of a messy site but I found the content interesting. The site contains graphs of statistical analysis of US mountaineering accidents 1951-2006

I found it particularly interesting that accidents are statistically more likely on the assent which is the opposite of what I have heard.

http://www.stephabegg.com/home/projects/accidentstats" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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jmanner
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Re: Mountaineering Accident Stats

Post by jmanner »

colokeith wrote: ...statistically more likely on the assent which is the opposite of what I have heard.

http://www.stephabegg.com/home/projects/accidentstats" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yea, that is really interesting. I had heard the same as you.
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Exiled Michigander
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Re: Mountaineering Accident Stats

Post by Exiled Michigander »

Percentage of avvy-related accidents seems somewhat low (3.3%).

Thanks for posting this--very interesting to peruse.
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Presto
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Re: Mountaineering Accident Stats

Post by Presto »

Stephanie has a great website ... been following it for many years. She had her own accident a few years back (on a rather technical endeavor). Tough cookie, that girl ... and quite the photographer (she's been known to do some stellar aerial mountain photos). Thanks for posting. Happy trails! :-D
As if none of us have ever come back with a cool, quasi-epic story instead of being victim to tragic rockfall, a fatal stumble, a heart attack, an embolism, a lightning strike, a bear attack, collapsing cornice, some psycho with an axe, a falling tree, carbon monoxide, even falling asleep at the wheel getting to a mountain. If you can't accept the fact that sometimes "s**t happens", then you live with the illusion that your epic genius and profound wilderness intelligence has put you in total and complete control of yourself, your partners, and the mountain. How mystified you'll be when "s**t happens" to you! - FM
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Re: Mountaineering Accident Stats

Post by TravDoc »

Very cool read, thanks for posting!
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Re: Mountaineering Accident Stats

Post by martinleroux »

I found it particularly interesting that accidents are statistically more likely on the assent
ANAM data by itself tells you very little about the probability of mountaineering or climbing accidents. For that you'd also need to know (a) numbers of climbers, climbing trips or climber-hours and (b) the probability that a given climbing accident will be reported to ANAM. Also, the term "mountaineering accident" is quite fuzzy. Does it include hiking? Sport climbing? Backcountry skiing? It's not really clear.

I'd guess the main reason why ANAM reports fewer accidents on descent is simply that fewer people are doing technical descents than technical ascents. For many climbs the descent is a easy walk-off down the other side.
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mattpayne11
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Re: Mountaineering Accident Stats

Post by mattpayne11 »

I think Colorado stats will look different. In the short time I've been keeping track (since 2010), I think there are significantly more deaths on descent than ascent.

P.S. Steph Abegg is awesome.

Check out her research on mountain vs. peak vs. mount
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