Climbing Stats?

Trying to find some statistics on injuries and deaths for climbers as opposed to other sports. For instance, years ago I read somewhere that there were more injuries in highschool football than in climbing. I am going back and forth with my life insurance company.

Thanks for any help!

http://mountainproject.com/v/general_climbing/climbingjust_how_dangerous_is_it/106553562#a_106554079

http://www.hse.gov.uk/education/statistics.htm

So climbing is safer than hang-gliding and scuba-diving, but more dangerous than canoeing and amusement park rides.

That's just deaths though, not accidents. And it's also for the UK, where I hear they got some scary climbing. It's probably really hard to find accurate statistics for injuries, since most rock climbing injuries are minor and would go unreported (tendinitis and other over-use injuries probably being the most common, at least in my experience with the climbers I know). But good luck with the insurance company.

Here's an abstract I came across on Pubmed. It might be what you're looking for, but I wasn't able to access the full article. By the way if you get anywhere with your insurance company please PM me. I went through the same thing a few years ago but never got anywhere. At the time it seemed that the company I was dealing with didn't do this type of risk assessment in-house -- they were relying on a rating manual compiled by a third party (a reinsurance company) and didn't want to get into a discussion on the topic.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/206…

Sports Med. 2010 Aug 1;40(8):657-79

Evaluation of injury and fatality risk in rock and ice climbing.
Schöffl V, Morrison A, Schwarz U, Schöffl I, Küpper T.

Department of Sportorthopedics, Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery, Klinikum Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany. Volker.schoeffl@me.com

Rock and ice climbing are widely considered to be 'high-risk' sporting activities that are associated with a high incidence of severe injury and even death, compared with more mainstream sports. However, objective scientific data to support this perception are questionable. Accordingly, >400 sport-specific injury studies were analysed and compared by quantifying the injury incidence and objectively grading the injury severity (using the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics score) per 1000 hours of sporting participation. Fatalities were also analysed. The analysis revealed that fatalities occurred in all sports, but it was not always clear whether the sport itself or pre-existing health conditions contributed or caused the deaths. Bouldering (ropeless climbing to low heights), sport climbing (mostly bolt protected lead climbing with little objective danger) and indoor climbing (climbing indoors on artificial rock structures), showed a small injury rate, minor injury severity and few fatalities. As more objective/external dangers exist for alpine and ice climbing, the injury rate, injury severity and fatality were all higher. Overall, climbing sports had a lower injury incidence and severity score than many popular sports, including basketball, sailing or soccer; indoor climbing ranked the lowest in terms of injuries of all sports assessed. Nevertheless, a fatality risk remains, especially in alpine and ice climbing. In the absence of a standard definition for a 'high-risk' sport, categorizing climbing as a high-risk sport was found to be either subjective or dependent on the definition used. In conclusion, this analysis showed that retrospective data on sport-specific injuries and fatalities are not reported in a standardized manner...

You told them that you climb? Oops.

Edit - So rockclimbing has a lower mortality rate than anaesthesia complications? That's great. Anybody make T-shirts, I need one.

Rockclimbing: Safer than Fake Tits.

good luck haggling with them. My wife and i have life insurance and noting i climb makes it cost three times as much as my wife. I'd be honest though as if you die in a climbing accident and don't report it as part of their pre-payout investigation they ask those who knew you, neighbors,etc. if it was a one time activity or a part of your lifestyle. If you get caught it is not only a denial of payout to the wife/husband but you get sued for insurance fraud!

Martin le Roux wrote: per 1000 hours of sporting participation.

That phrase is what dooms this study and about every other one. When dose the clock start/stop? Just as one (of an infinite number of) point to ponder - is the clock running when you are sleeping in a porta ledge 1/2 way up a wall? should it be?

If a poop tube ripped through and squished your skull was it a climbing accident? Were you participating?

Harold, if your life insurance company wants to bump you to Table 2 or beyond, and if you're not involved in *several* "high risk" sports (quotes for those perceived to be high risk), you need to shop for a better life insurance company. They do exist.

Thanks all for the input. One thing you might want to be aware of is that they are searching your name online to check where you are and what you do.

Funny thing is that climbing is listed in "other." Outside of sports such as SCUBA and sky diving. Meaning they really don't have a spot for it, but they have 5 levels of climbing- hiking being the lowest one. They also ask where you go climbing, so they probably have statistics on areas with highest death rates. Type of climbing and what type of gear you use.

I really didn't have a choice to tell them as if something does happen while climbing, my family won't get any money. And crap aside from scrapes and maybe some bruises I don't ever hurt myself while climbing, it's usually the hike out that kills me!!! LOL!!!

Harold Lampasso wrote:Thanks all for the input. One thing you might want to be aware of is that they are searching your name online to check where you are and what you do.

That's good to know - not that I would ever advocate lying to an insurance company... I guess in this day of social media you'd have to expect that.

Spoke with my insurance guy today. My stuff is in underwriting right now so I'll let everyone know how this works out. He said it might add almost $3 to my payment per month, which really isn't so bad for investment grade life insurance that we will use to fund our kids college education.
Funny thing is that yes we all climb and maybe take more added "perceived risks" than most. That being said I am statistically more likely to get killed or seriously injured in a car crash than I am climbing especially since I spend a lot more time driving than climbing. (I am thinking less likely now than when I was growing up in NYC!!!) For the most part the climbers I know and have climbed with are some of the safest people I know.