Climbing Is Dangerous Shocker

Shocking news from New Zealand where a study of fatality rates in the Mount Cook National Park shows that climbing is around 5000 times more likely to kill you than a work-related injury.

The study by researchers at Otago University, estimates that there are 1.87 deaths for every 1000 climbing days in the park. The research is based on coroners reports and statistics showing the number of people staying in the park's mountaineering huts.

According to this story in the New Zealand Herald, the study is based on the 46 deaths in the park between July 1981 and June 1995. More interesting is the rough breakdown: of the 33 deaths apparently considered relevant, nine were unwitnessed and bodies were never recovered, suggesting solo crevasse plunges, and another eight were climbing unroped, only five deaths were the result of falls with climbers roped together.

So although it's not specifically pointed out, it sounds like around 50 per-cent of the dead were unroped climbers, possibly suggesting that soloing on big mountains is disproportionately dangerous.

But before you sell your ropes and give up on mountains, bear in mind that the study area is dangerous alpine terrain notorious for avalanches and crevasse falls. Advances in both rock and ice protection mean that rock climbing and water ice ascents are liely to be considerably safer.