Heading up to the mountains is a national pastime in Switzerland but 2018 got off to a particularly deadly start and experts are worried the Alpine country is set for a record number of mountain fatalities this year.
Eighty people died while carrying out sporting activities in the Swiss mountains from January to June this year. That’s more than double the number of people who died in the same period last year, and well up on the average 45 deaths seen in years previously, according to the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC).
The organisation has blamed the high number of deaths in the first half of the year on the dangerous avalanche situation in Switzerland this spring and warns that the good weather over the summer could lead to the country seeing a record number of mountain deaths in 2018.
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“Most accidents happen in July and August, so we have to assume that the numbers will rise sharply by the end of the year,” Ueli Mosimann with the SAC’s safety unit told Swiss daily Tages Anzeiger.
Good weather means more people heading to the mountains. In the hot summer of 2015, there were 142 deaths in the mountains but in the cool, rainy summer of 2014, 96 people died.
The SAC figures only include so-called ‘classic’ mountain activities such as hiking, high mountain tours, ski touring and climbing. Sports such as BASE jumping, paragliding and mountain biking are not included. But the alpine organisation notes figures would definitely be higher if mountain biking figures were factored in as the sport has become increasingly popular in recent years.
