Despite Corona, increasing Alpine Accidents

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Accident numbers increased as soon as the restrictions eased up

Last year, 3471 people found themselves in an emergency in the Swiss Alps and had to be rescued.
That is more than ever before. 112 people had fatal accidents while hiking in the mountains, as the Swiss Alpine Club announced on Wednesday, March 10th.
With the relaxation of the Corona measures from mid-March 2020, the activities and thus the emergency and accident numbers increase

Of the 3471 mountaineers. 1172 those in dire straits or decrepit could be rescued in healthy conditions or with minor injuries.

A total of 180 deaths

A total of 180 people lost their lives in the mountains, 47 of them as a result of illness, mostly due to a cardiovascular problem. 21 more people trotting in sports such as delta and paragliding, base jumping, and the use of mountain bikes. In mountaineering, in the narrower sense, where no transport device was used, 112 mountaineers had fatal accidents.

What is striking is the significantly lower proportion of foreign victims compared to previous years. While this proportion was mostly well over 40 percent, it was 27 percent last year with 30 fatal accidents. According to the Swiss Alpine Club, the decrease is largely due to travel restrictions.

A total of 1627 people

were in dire straits while hiking. According to the Swiss Alpine Club, especially in spring and early summer as well as in autumn, it became clear that even simple mountain hiking trails become dangerous when shady sections of the trail are snow-covered or icy.
In 2020 there were particularly many accidents on such sections of the route, six of them fatal.

 

See the. Swiss Rega website here

as quoted in the Urner Wochenblatt, March 13, 2021