Help Build a Record of Fatalities on Colorado’s 14ers

[supranihilest]

Brent (Jorts) has the best advice - reach out to public information officers. I don't know how much you'll get given the sensitive personal and medical nature of rescues. There's ample reasons SAR teams don't release much more than a typically vague social media post.

I would strongly caution against collecting data from the public unless those reports are fully separated from anything official and very clearly marked as unreliable public hearsay. A bystander does not have the training nor authority to add useful data to a database of such technical and sensitive nature.

In general, while I'm sure this project comes from a place of good intentions, there's certainly a host of legal and social/personal reasons one doesn't already exist. Something to keep in mind.

[CaptainSuburbia]

This blog did a good job chronicling 14er deaths for a number of years.
https://www.100summits.com/articles/col ... ing-deaths

[Eli Boardman]

I don't think it's a good idea for this type of list to be compiled by some random individual.

However, much of the information could probably be accessed through public records requests directed to the relevant county sheriff offices, because as far as I understand it is usually the sheriff office that has authority for things like authorizing helicopter landings and coordinating multi-agency dispatch.

[rijaca]

For what it’s worth, there are 14er deaths that have virtually no record outside of the internal records of the authorities who performed the body recovery. Sometimes families request to not have the identity of the deceased revealed nor the circumstances of the accident reported.

I'm not sure about this project. There are undoubtedly some families that would rather not have their loved ones listed in such a database. Calling SAR teams and others to collect data also requires them to dedicate resources to this effort.

"She was the only hiker ever to die while seeking the summit of central Colorado’s most famous 14er." This was written in a major magazine article and is simply not true.

[Timmy]

Hey everyone,

I appreciate everyone’s input. There are a few things I’d like to clarify.

I’m building this list out of respect for the people who lost their lives and out of respect for the mountains themselves. All of the information I’m using comes from publicly available sources, so I recognize that it may not be complete or entirely accurate. The information is being entered into a database, which means it can be updated, expanded, corrected, or transferred in the future.

If any organization would like the database files, I would be happy to provide them free of charge. I also want to be clear that I have no intention of advertising on the site or monetizing the site or the data in any way.

Regarding the publication of names, I would absolutely respect the wishes of a family if they ever asked for a name to be removed. My assumption is that when a name and incident are already part of the public record, the information has either been publicly released by the family or is otherwise considered a matter of public record.

As for whether the names should be removed altogether, I have given that considerable thought and have not yet reached a final decision. I personally know two people who lost their lives at ski/snowboard areas, and there is a website that documents fatalities at ski and snowboard areas throughout Colorado, including the names and some details about each incident.

For me, there’s something important about putting a name to the story. It reminds us that these weren’t just statistics—they were real people with families, friends, and lives.

And finally, creation of the site has been difficult at times. Compiling incident information has been very sad. My first date with my wife and we went on a bike ride to the Maroon Bells from Aspen. That day there was a fatality on the Bells and I often think of how a new chapter in my life was beginning, one was ending. It's not something I take lightly.

[nyker]

I think the idea of this is probably fine if done properly taking into consideration of the inherent sensitivity around it, with some caveats;

* Use publicly available information
* Don't disclose any names, just focus on the statistics which more broadly speaking is really the goal of this exercise, right? and what people can learn from it.
* Don't contact any families / friends of anyone who perished in this regard - maybe offer your contact information in the end product and offer people to contact you if they want to volunteer additional detail. I think contacting anyone proactively may not be received
well by some. If someone does contact you' I'd still refrain from using names.
* Use a "just the facts maam' approach and avoid any judgement since even with anonymity, folks familiar with an incident will still be sensitive to how it's portrayed

Footnote the project with "using publicly available data"; Whether something like this is considered complete or not, isn't really as important as it's probably never going to be complete as records won't be available for everything you want.

You'll need to find a way to ascertain that your dataset is reasonably complete and accurate to be of use where any conclusions drawn will have value; if not, then the value of this would be more speculative and in question.

SAR team members and local authorities as has been suggested can be a good source, as can other books/periodicals on the idea that have done the legwork on older incidents that you can cite in your bibliography.

You should probably expand your categories, adding vehicle accident on those few peaks where roads exists, animals, foul play and perhaps mining related going back a little further or even AMS related.

[Timmy]

Thanks for the comprehensive response. Two things:

I’m not contacting anyone for information.

I’m using the CMC metric for age, cause, sex, mountain name and range. I’ve added the month and day, name, actual age and details.

Currently the actual age is mapped to a range.

Cause include: fall, ice rock fall, lightning, cardiac, avalanche. I’m going to stick with their clauses.

[Violet]

I happened to open this web page and read this:

STATS AT A GLANCE

Total deaths on Colorado 14ers (2010-2017): 57
Deaths by mountain: Longs Peak (9), Maroon Bells (9), Capitol (7), Crestone Needle (5), Crestone Peak (3), Kit Carson (3), Snowmass Mountain (2), El Diente (2), Harvard (2), Evans (2), Missouri (2), Torreys (2), Princeton (2), Quandary (1), Windom (1), Antero (1), Little Bear (1), Yale (1), Blanca (1), Challenger Point (1)
Deaths by gender: M (50), F (7)
Deaths by age range: >20 (2), 20-29 (16), 30-39 (16), 40-49 (6), 50-59 (13), 60 or over (5)
14er deaths by mountain range: Elk Range (18), Sangre De Cristo (14), Front Range (13), Sawatch Range (8), San Juan Range (3), Tenmile-Mosquito Range (1)
Deaths by Cause: fall (38), falling rocks (5), avalanche (3), heart attack (2), lightning (1), unclear (8)
Deaths by Year: 2010 (10), 2011 (10), 2012 (6), 2013 (5), 2014 (6), 2015 (4), 2016 (5), 2017 (11)

SOME SURPRISES

Capitol Peak a 14er in Colorado's deadly Elk Range
Capitol Peak has been site of seven fatal accidents
so far this decade, including five in 2017 alone
What can also be useful from a data set like this is considering not just what is there but what is not. For example, neither Sunlight Peak, Wilson Peak, nor Pyramid Peak appear on this list. These three mountains are oft-touted as some of the hardest/most dangerous in the state yet nobody has died on any of them so far this decade. Also, there was only one death on Little Bear, another peak that is often regarded as the most dangerous of all the 14ers. In all these instances, however, these low numbers could be the product of much fewer numbers of attempts.

HOW TO AVOID AN ACCIDENT

Statistically speaking, there are a couple of easy things you can do to virtually eliminate your odds of ending up on a list like this in the future:

1) If your main goal in Colorado mountaineering is simply not to die, then do NOT climb the Maroon Bells, Capitol Peak, Longs Peak, or the Crestones. Again, over half of the fatal accidents this decade have occurred on these six peaks. Of course, many people simply cannot put their backs to the siren call of these dangerous peaks. For those, perhaps extra care should be taken to exercise the greatest possible caution: climb in good weather, wear a helmet, start early, avoid crowds, and tread lightly!

Link:

https://www.coloradomountaineering.com/ ... -14er.html