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I was wondering if there was a website where I could find the different kinds of statistics of accidents in the mountains. I know that Dragon 06 (rescue service of Alpes-Maritimes) posted some numbers online in 2008. But I'm looking for more recent figures.

The data that I'm looking for includes:

  • The number of accidents for each month (in the old data you really see a peak in the middle of the season).
  • The state of the victim after the accident
  • The cause of the accident
  • The kind of accident (broken bones, cuts, ...)
  • The place of the fractures
  • The way the victims got evacuated
  • The time between calling the helicopter and being actually rescued

I'm focusing on canyon-accidents, so if the statistics include these kind of accidents only that's a big plus :)

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    In German the biggest alpine club (DAV) releases accident statistic reports each year. Very informative and you could translate some key words to get the point. E.g. For 2013: google.de/url?q=http://www.alpenverein.de/chameleon/public/…
    – Wills
    Jan 27, 2015 at 17:05
  • Worldwide I doubt it, more locally your local climbing organisation (such as the BMC in the UK) will likely have done some studies.
    – user2766
    Jan 27, 2015 at 17:08
  • For example
    – user2766
    Jan 27, 2015 at 17:09
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    It seems unlikely to me that statistics on mountaineering accidents would tell you much about canyoneering accidents.
    – user2169
    Jan 28, 2015 at 5:00
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    @BenCrowell, according to the French alpine rescue's 2006 statistics 87% of all canyoneering rescues are done by helicopter-evacuation. So for me personally (and the course on canyon first-aid that I'm writing) it might be nice to get some extra contemporary information.
    – Nick
    Jan 29, 2015 at 8:45

2 Answers 2

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The American Alpine club publishes this data for North America annually, though it's unlikely to cover all accidents.

One of the best visualizations of this data I've found is from Steph Abegg: Mountaineering Accident Statistics and Mount Rainier Accident Statistics.

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I don't know of a source for Europe, but The American Alpine Club published "Accidents in North American Mountaineering" annually.

Published annually since 1948, Accidents in North American Mountaineering reports on the year’s most significant and teachable climbing incidents. In each case, the American Alpine Club analyzes what went wrong, helping you to prevent or survive similar situations in the future

As for overall statistics, I don't think there's any unified reporting system for mountaineering accidents. Each search and rescue agency and mountaineering group tends to keep their own numbers but there isn't an organization in place to collect and publish those data in aggregate.

You ask about canyon accidents and have the tag, so I'm not sure if you're referring to mountaineering/climbing/hiking accidents that occur in canyons and ravines or if you're referring to canyoneering as in exploring rivers in canyons. If the latter, you might find more relevant scenarios and statistics by looking for data about swift water rescue. I'm not aware of any specific resources for this but they may be more readily available than canyoneering-specific data in mountaineering publications.

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