Climbing Deaths and Injuries in 2013 Taking a Toll
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I dont have the numbers readily available, nor names or faces memorized of the injured and dead of 2013. I have no statistical analysis of how this year would compare to others in the past. Perhaps this year was only unique in the amount of media coverage of accidents - I dont know. Maybe losing my first friend to climbing one year ago has heightened my awareness of accidents this year. All that I know is, it seems this year there has been one accident after another, often with fatalities in the climbing community. This has spurred me to ask the following questions: |
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Nice write up. I blame Reel Rock Film Tour, GoPro, and Red Bull. |
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You know you might really be on to something with the GoPro thing,,so many people seem to get one and want to do something TOTALLY extreme to post up on Facebook, not just document their climbs and fun activity,but just stupid stuff and risky moves. Didn't happen as much when you couldn't get it all filmed as easily to show yourself off to the world and get your 15 min. of internet fame( and 100,000 views in a day). Sad if technology is part of the cause. |
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I'm not sure if I'd lay any blame, or if any is due. If the climbing media is sending a skewed story, it is in part because it is what we as consumers are buying. The questions I'd ask are why are we buying it, and what result does that have on our decision making? |
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Chris Kalman wrote:1. Is the percentage of climbers dying or getting injured from climbing rising?I don't think anyone would argue that all forms of climbing have been growing substantially over the last 10 years (which is as long as I've been climbing). While I think everything you said probably contributes to the problem, I would think it has more to do with rising number of climbers than it does a rising percentage of climbers getting injured... more folks climbing=more accidents. |
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Minus this airball ... |
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Nick Stayner wrote: I don't think anyone would argue that all forms of climbing have been growing substantially over the last 10 years (which is as long as I've been climbing). While I think everything you said probably contributes to the problem, I would think it has more to do with rising number of climbers than it does a rising percentage of climbers getting injured... more folks climbing=more accidents.This is why it is a question of percentages... If the rise in injuries corresponds to the rise in climbers, than it's arguable nothing is changing. If not - i.e., if a greater percentage of climbers are getting injured nowadays than in years past - than something is probably different about climbing/climbers today. |
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vincent L. wrote:Minus this airball ... "...alpine climbing is becoming more dangerous due to climate change and its resultant deglaciation." You pose some interesting questions .This may not be as much of an airball as you think. If climate change is significant enough to drastically reduce the size of, say, Mill's Glacier on the approach to the Diamond, it may also be significant enough to result in a rising number of loose blocks in the North Chimney. I don't know of any research done on this, or how one would go about conducting any, but I'd certainly be surprised if there was no correlation. |
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vincent L. wrote:Minus this airball ... "...alpine climbing is becoming more dangerous due to climate change and its resultant deglaciation." You pose some interesting questions .What is wrong with the comment about climate change causing increased dangers in same alpine venues? There does, in fact, seem to be a fair bit of anecdotal evidence supporting this hypothesis. I'm interested in the reasoning behind your dismissal of it. |
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nytimes.com/2012/07/15/us/f…
more at link The extremes are becoming more extreme, said Tucker Chenoweth, a mountaineering ranger at Denali National Park and Preserve. Mr. Chenoweth trains search and rescue teams on McKinley from the ranger station here in Talkeetna, which oversees the mountain and its expeditions about 60 miles from base camp. In a strange way, Mr. Chenoweth and other experts said, wild places like McKinley are getting wilder, or at least harder to predict. Sharper seasonal variations of ice and snow and temperature are being repeated all across the world from the Himalayas to the Andes, which scientists say are driven by a higher level of energy in the atmosphere from global warming. As a result, climbers have to think twice about what they might expect one year to the next, or even one day to the next, in places they might have climbed for decades. ;) |
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2013 didn't have nearly as many accidents as a couple of years ago. So no I don't think the percentage of climbing accidents is going up. Like someone else pointed out; more people participating equals more accidents occurring. |
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Brent Apgar wrote:2013 didn't have nearly as many accidents as a couple of years ago. So no I don't think the percentage of climbing accidents is going up. Like someone else pointed out; more people participating equals more accidents occurring. To the other questions. That's an ethical debate... to each his own. But I would say that if you choose to roll the dice, you shouldn't expect everyone else to risk their asses to bail you out.That's interesting. I'd like to see the numbers when this year's ANAM comes out and compare it to 2011 (is that the year you are talking about?) Actually, I think that a statistical analysis plotting accidents and participation against time would really be a great project to undertake. That would really be the way to see if a greater percentage of climbers are getting injured or not. |
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Chris Kalman wrote: Actually, I think that a statistical analysis plotting accidents and participation against time would really be a great project to undertake. That would really be the way to see if a greater percentage of climbers are getting injured or not.I had that thought as well, when I made my original statement and tried to find stats to back up my anecdotal observations of growing numbers of climbers. |
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This is the same problem in the Ski industry and only last year did they really address it from a media standpoint. Many Professionals had been screaming at the industry for years and focusing on the problems that were growing rapidly. The main stream media and companies making all the money on the gear turned their back on the issues and didn't want to hear it. At the end of the day it was the "Pros" that were getting spanked , not the professionals if you can relate. Last year Powder came out with an issue and the Cover read, "why do the best skiers keep dying" The reality was in my eyes that they were not the best skiers, but the most covered, sponsored and well known pros, but they were not necessarily the most professional and or educated skiers in most cases. |
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"I'm interested in the reasoning behind your dismissal of it." |
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If an analysis is to be made it should be done in a bomb proof manner. The OP has an interesting hypothesis, such an analysis should test it, rigorously. I'm talking age, years experience, type of climbing activity engaged in during accident, cause of death, and, if possible what caused the accident. This last category would be most useful, yet most subjective. Was it user error, gear failure (or more subtle user error), bad weather, or sh!t bad luck? It's a blame game, but actually looking at the root of the problem can maybe be a learning event for others and decrease the likelihood of repetition. |
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Get an AAC membership if you don't already have one. Their 'accidents' book that comes free when you join. They have charts in the back listing types and numbers of accidents every year going back for a long time, should be a good resource for your research. |
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Great thread and ironic BF just sent me this link: |
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It could be that are planet is evolving. |
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Jake Jones wrote:Here are my thoughts: Without numbers to confirm that there have been a significantly higher amount of accidents this year as opposed to recent years past, there probably isn't.This... |
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Just saw this online and thought I'd include it here: |