Do "most climbers die"?

"...in a conversation on Twitter..."
There's your problem.
LOL!

By the way, I thought his assumption of "most" was probably much too high. I was also amused that he kept adding qualifiers to his original statement that "most climbers die."

Indeed, though, if he didn't mean to qualify his assertion in any other way, I'd have to admit my belief that all climbers die, as do all other humans at some point.

DannyUncanny wrote: 1/10 and dropping

Even then, that's a ratio of deaths to successful summits, not everyone who attempted Everest in that timeframe.

Spri wrote:Still though, lots of prominent alpine climbers dying all the time. I can think of 2 recent ones that were reported in the last month from Alpinist.

Alpinist doesn't have enough pages to publish every climber who climbed a mountain in the last quarter.

If you are a non climber, how many climbers have you heard of? Chris Sharma, Lynn Hill, Messner, Joe Simpson not many make it into main stream media. Then you look at Cliffhanger, Vertical Limit and that Mission Impossible scene.

How many climbers that die have you heard of? Pretty much any climbing death involving an American, if you live in the US since they get glamorized.

So you hear about everyone that dies who instantly becomes a "serious" climber in the media and the media portrays climbing as this super extreme endeavor. Based on this sample it is natural to think that someone who is not a part of the climbing community would think that "most" climbers die from climbing.

Climbers? Definitely not. However mountaineering specifically...still no. Its obviously a dangerous game, but you must learn to mitigate and control risk. (See Simpson - The Beckoning Silence)

If you put the nitro in the sun, you will die

If you try to take your helicopter into a rescue ranger because he threw the bag of cash into the main rotor blade, but then he hooked you onto the via ferrata in the rky mtn dolomites, after he killed a teddy bear and female climbing BASE jumper because the bolt gun was too much weight on the 1-piton cable tyrol, you will die

(If you were stupid enough not to know how to rappel because you hurt your knee on the climb, but somehow ended up on the summit of a tower, and then called for a heli, you probably deserved to die anyway)

If you climb with pink tri-cams, you wi...no, that one is good

SIMON!!

One of the voices in my head keeps repeating, "Remember guideline #1. Remember guideline #1. Remember guideline #1."

The other voice keeps repeating something else.

statistics prove true that 1/1 people die. All types of activities may be done while experiencing the act of death. Hope that helps.

If the odds are 1 in 320,000 in a British study shouldn't it be less for Americans? Those Brits are crazy.

I don't think you can say that most climbers die, but reading any books about alpinism, and see how many of the authors, and or authors friends have died, that is a dangerous game for sure.

Daryl Allan wrote:The American Alpine Club, in its yearly compendium Accidents in North American Mountaineering, reported 15 fatalities in the United States in all of 2007. The highest tally in the last 57 years, in 1956, was 53. The yearly average was 25. The British government, comparing the risks of various activities, assembled these statistics: * Maternal death in pregnancy 1 in 8,200 maternities * Surgical anesthesia 1 in 185,000 operations * Hang-gliding 1 in 116,000 flights * Scuba Diving 1 in 200,000 dives * Rock climbing 1 in 320,000 climbs * Canoeing 1 in 750,000 outings * Fairground rides 1 in 834,000,000 rides * Rail travel accidents 1 in 43,000,000 passenger journeys * Aircraft accidents 1 in 125,000,000 passenger journeys rest here

Way to go ladies... you are engaged in one of the most dangerous activities. That is an amazing stat if true.

Looking at Alpinism, I would say it's a very dangerous game. Guy Lacelle, Jonny Copp, Micah Dash, Craig Luebben and there were more... That was all in about one season. So yeah, you can shorten your expectancy considerably.

Mark Nelson wrote:If you put the nitro in the sun, you will die SIMON!!

And if you have a harness with an aluminum foil buckle, make sure to give it to your girlfreind. Sly's not just a name, it's a way of life!

RadDawg wrote:Let's be clear about this: All climbers die, along with all other humans. It's going to happen, sooner or later.

Heh, you beat me to it, Jody!

Seriously though, I don't think I've ever heard of a single instance of someone dying as a direct result of climbing. Falling, on the other hand . . .

JL

RadDawg wrote:Let's be clear about this: All climbers die, along with all other humans. It's going to happen, sooner or later.

amen
+1

Daryl Allan wrote:The British government, comparing the risks of various activities, assembled these statistics... Rock climbing 1 in 320,000 climbs

That statistic had been quoted a couple of times in these forums (see mountainproject.com/v/climb… ) and elsewhere on the internet (see hse.gov.uk/education/statis… ). Funny thing is, no-one seems to have an explanation of exactly where that number came from. Can anyone shine any light on this? Is this another Dilbert statistic?

Dilbert statistics

saxfiend wrote:Seriously though, I don't think I've ever heard of a single instance of someone dying as a direct result of climbing. Falling, on the other hand . . .

What about Bob Kamps, who died at 73 of a heart attack while on the wall of a climbing gym?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_K…

Martin le Roux wrote: What about Bob Kamps, who died at 73 of a heart attack while on the wall of a climbing gym?

Direct cause: heart attack. So although he died while climbing, he didn't die from climbing.

JL

I have died many times, so yes, he was absolutely right.

saxfiend wrote:Seriously though, I don't think I've ever heard of a single instance of someone dying as a direct result of climbing

Any case of HACE/HAPE would be a direct result of climbing.

most people usually don't die from falling, either; it's probably more than sudden stop at the end

(I've seen HAPE from driving, also)