What are the odds of dying by mountain climbing?
In all forms of wilderness outings in the USA, including mountain climbing, there’s typically about 4,000 search-and-rescue efforts per year. Out of those, roughly 150 involves deaths. Out of those, just about a dozen or so involves deaths from falling. The death rate per climbs is actually lower now than it has been 50 years ago, because of better equipment and search-and-rescue efforts. Today, it stands around 1 death from falling per approximately 300,000 climbs. While it’s true that it’s still more dangerous than canoeing, it’s less dangerous than scuba diving. As a rough rule of thumb, mountain and rock climbing is about a hundred times riskier than ordinary risks people take, such as air travel, rail travel, interstate travel, even amusement park rides. This is the reason why insurance companies hate mountain climbing activities.
