The epidemiology of injury in mountaineering, rock and ice climbing

Climbing and mountaineering sports are gaining more and more public interest. This chapter reviews scientific studies on injuries and accidents in climbing and mountaineering sports to evaluate the danger of these sports and their specific injuries and preventive measures. An initial PubMed query was performed using the key words 'rock climbing', 'sport climbing', 'mountaineering', 'alpine injuries' and 'climbing injuries'. More than 500 extracted papers were analyzed which gave information on injury, mortality/fatality, prevention and risk factors. Cross-references were also scanned according to the above given criteria. Also the data sources of the UIAA and IFSC Medical Commissions were analyzed. Overall, alpine (traditional) climbing has a higher injury risk than sport climbing, especially indoor climbing. Alpine and ice climbing have more objective dangers which can affect climber safety. Overall injury rates are low, nevertheless fatalities do occur in all climbing disciplines. Altitude-related illnesses/injuries also occur in mountaineering. Most injuries in sport climbing are overstrain injuries of the upper extremity. In alpine climbing, injuries mostly occur through falls which affect the lower extremity. Objective reporting of the injury site and severity varied in most studies according to the injury definition and methodology used. This creates differences in the injury and fatality results and conclusions, which in turn makes inter-study comparisons difficult. In future studies, the UIAA MedCom score for mountain injuries should be used to guarantee inter-study comparability. Evidence in preventive measures is low and further studies must be performed in this field.