09.10.2024
More than half of all people involved in avalanche incidents suffer no or only minor injuries. Around 32 percent of the people involved suffer serious injuries, while the fatality rate of people caught (regardless of burial depth) is around 13 percent.
Survival in an avalanche depends on the degree of burial and the degree of injury of the people involved. In the case of burial, a distinction is made as to whether a person’s head is buried or not and whether parts of the body or equipment are visible on the surface. These parameters determine how quickly a person can be located, rescued and treated. They also provide information on whether the buried person was affected by a lack of oxygen or not.
Persons involved in an avalanche event are distinguished as follows:
If a person is swept away by an avalanche, this does not always mean that they are completely buried. The Austrian Board of Trustees for Alpine Safety (ÖKAS) has determined that a total of 146 people were caught in an avalanche between 2005 and 2022.
Of the 146 people:
The figure below shows the consequences of these types of burial. On average, around 50 percent of fully buried, around six percent of partially buried and four percent of non-buried people die.
It is pleasing to note that over the past ten and five years, despite the enormous increase in freeriders, the number of avalanche deaths has gradually decreased, as has the number of people caught or injured by avalanches.
According to statistics from the Austrian Board of Trustees for Alpine Safety, a total of 219 young people (< 21 years) were involved in an avalanche accident in Austria between 2010-2011 and 2023-2024. 19 young people died in avalanche accidents in Austria during this period and 15 were seriously injured.
The majority of victims are male and between 16 and 19 years old.
They are usually in a group with people their own age.
14 of the 19 fatalities had no or incomplete emergency equipment (avalanche transceiver, shovel, probe) with them.
Companion rescue only works very rarely.
The avalanches involving young people occurred almost exclusively in the north-facing freeride area*.
The figures are similar in Austria’s neighboring countries. As the accident documentation is different for all countries in the European Alps, we are only comparing the fatal accidents here.
In Switzerland, there were 14 fatalities under the age of 21 in the 2010-2011 to 2022-2023 seasons. 57% of the victims were not equipped with suitable avalanche equipment (SLF 2024).
For Italy, only the figures for avalanche victims under the age of 18 and from 2022 are currently available (season 2022 to 2024). In this short period, 19 young people have died in avalanches in Italy, 3 of them fatally.