This is the twenty-first report of the Safety Committee and the eighth in conjunction with the Alpine Club of Canada. Data from accidents that occurred in former years and not previously reported have been incorporated in the statistical table.

Attention is called to the changes in the tables at the end of this report. One of the Committee members audited last year’s tables and noted discrepancies. This year all the previous data have been reviewed since each accident and each individual has been filed on a card indexing system. This has permitted us to recheck the data and correct such errors as have accumulated. We believe these new tables are as correct as the data permits. It was interesting to note that the number of unknown factors has been gradually decreasing over the years due to improved reporting of all the pertinent information. The total number accumulated is of a magnitude that may warrant rather more sophisticated statistical manipulation than we have done to date. Hopefully this can be done for next year’s report.

Again this year we wish to emphasize that a hard hat or protective headgear is an essential item to the climber. As one reads these reports one is repeatedly struck by the fact that if the climber had been wearing protective headgear he might have had much less injury or not been killed. Similarly there are a number of instances in which the climber was definitely protected by his headgear (see Phillips, McKinley accident). Although there is no general agreement as to the exact specifications for protective headgear for climbers, this should not discourage anyone from obtaining such gear that meets specifications of the Snell Foundation (see 1966 Report for these specifications). Although these are for racing car drivers or motorcyclists, they do offer considerable protection.

Rappelling and glissading still seem to carry considerable risks. Both must be practised until proficiency has been attained. All persons who are learning to rappel should be belayed during their earlier rappels. It is also advisable for the first person who is descending an unknown rappel route to be belayed. The security of the rappel points must be carefully checked. Sharp edges should be padded to protect the rope. Care must be exercised at the start of a rappel to ensure that the rope is not misplaced. Exaggerated leaping and spectacular sliding or bouncing by the person rappelling should be discouraged. Glissading should be started on relatively gentle slopes with a safe run-out. If packs will be used later, practice should include glissading with a loaded pack in order to have the experience and to learn how to handle the different distribution of weight and how it can vary during a glissade.

In an earlier report (1959) we pointed out that there was a peak in the number of accidents involving the younger climbers. This was not surprising as their age category undoubtedly makes up the largest number of climbers. What was surprising, however, was that a second peak existed in the “older” climbers. If the reader will refer to the table of age distribution, these two peaks will be apparent.

We have not been able to collect sufficiently valid data to estimate the mortality or morbidity rate either per 100 persons or by person days at risk so it is difficult to compare these two peaks. It is interesting to conjecture that the second peak may reflect older persons attempting to climb beyond their current capabilities. Furthermore, there is a considerable body of evidence in medical-physiologic literature that indicates that with age our physical capabilities diminish. Much of this is presumably due to our more sedentary way of life with increasing age, although there do appear to be inherent changes in muscle apart from lack of exercise. The moral here is obvious … maintain a high degree of physical fitness but realize that your limitations may be considerable. Exercise your mature judgement, climb within your capabilities and act your physiologic age. It would be interesting to see whether similar second peaks occur in other sports. Their failure to appear in sports requiring considerable physical effort may be evidence for the effect of decreased physical fitness in the accidents in mountaineering.

Other sports have been indicted as hazardous (1). Certainly in terms of number of persons killed they far exceed mountaineering. This is not to imply that we should tacitly accept the deaths due to mountaineering, but rather put them into proper perspective. The other sports that seem to carry greater risks are sports car racing, sky diving, and Scuba diving. In the report mentioned above mountain climbing was not included.

Two articles in the use of the newly developed rock climbing equipment, specifically pitons, should be noted (2, 3). Both are excellent descriptions of how to use the equipment under optimum conditions and how to obtain maximum benefit under less than optimum conditions. The proper use of equipment is indeed a necessary safety feature.

We have received no results of specific equipment tests. There is, however, much work being done in this area. Griffin in Great Britain has been doing extensive tests on the adequacy of pitons and carabiners. Some of his results have been published (4). Griffin has also emphasized the importance of adequate strength of the carabiner minor-axis (across the short dimension of the carabiner). John Armitage in an informal report has stated, “I would hope to see the carabiners with very low minor-axis strengths (i.e. failing at loads of less than 1,320 lbs.) namely the old P.A. (without pin/slot gate), the Kamet and the Marwa steel kidney, eliminated from the U.S. retail shops. I view as especially dangerous, the practice of calling the last two named “Safety Carabiners” as this tempts climbers to use them for tieing in and in situations where three-way loading is likely. This is partly a problem in educating the U.S. climbers in the importance of minor-axis strength.”

The UIAA (l’Union internationale des associations d’ Alpinisme), an international group of mountaineering organizations, has been holding annual meetings for the purpose of exchanging ideas on equipment and the best method to test the various items. They certainly are to be encouraged in their efforts. In due course they should have some interesting and worthwhile data.

REFERENCES

Fatalities in Hazardous Sports; from the May 1967 Statistical Bulletin of the 2

Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. quoted in the Health Bulletin, July 1967, 5-7.

Chouinard, Y. and T. M. Frost: On New Rock-Climbing Equipment and Its Use. Am. Alp. j., 15, 1967, 334-342.

Schaerrer, B.: Die Chouinard Felshaken. Die Alpen, 1, 1968, 6-10.

Griffin, L.J.: Pitons. Brit. Mountaineering Council Circular No. 454.

SAFETY COMMITTEE, AMERICAN ALPINE CLUB, 1967

Benjamin G. Ferris, Jr., Chairman 

Weston, Massachusetts



William L. Putnam 

Springfield, Massachusetts



Arnold Wexler 

Washington, D.C.



Harold Walton 

Boulder, Colorado



Thomas O. Nevison

Albuquerque, New Mexcio



Ross Petrie

Portland, Oregon



Hal Foss

Olympia, Washington



David Harrah

Riverside, California



J. Vin Hoeman

Achorage, Alaska



A1 Steck

Berkeley, California



ALPINE CLUB OF CANADA

Paddy Sherman

Vancouver, British Columbia



EQUIPMENT TESTING

Jack Baldwin

Portland, Oregon



RESCUE OPERATIONS COMMITTEE

Paul M. Williams, Chairman 

Seattle, Washington