Rock falls while high-altitude mountaineering - More often in the last years? Evidence from the Swiss alps

Objectives: One risk while high-altitude mountaineering despite falls or stranding are rock falls. Due to the climatic change such events might have become potentially more common yielding to the research question to elucidate rock falls while high-altitude mountaineering in the Alps of Switzerland. Design: A retrospective analysis was conducted from the central registry of the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC) during the observational period from 2009 to 2020. Results: A total of 266 cases of rock falls was detected during an observational period yielding to in average 22.2 +/- 7 emergency cases per year. No increase nor decrease of the number of cases over time (R2 = 0.0019) was detected. The average age of a victim was 50.2 +/- 18.6 years. The mean of the NACA-Score (NACA = National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) was 2.7 +/- 1.4 implying a moderate injury, however not life threatening. The NACA-Score slightly decreased over time indicating that emergencies have become less severe (R2 = 0.1379). The injury pattern was relatively equal distributed between upper and lower extremity. Conclusions: The slight decrease in the severity of the events might be a consequence of increasing security standards over the observational period. The fact that the average victim of an emergency action was around 50 years, might indicate that stone falls are a constant risk as it can be suggested that alpinists with this age are more risk averse than younger alpinists. As findings were analyzed in a retrospective design, a quasi-prospective design might be helpful while directly analyzing emergencies after occurrence with interviews of involved persons. These hints could be used constructively in order to improve security recommendations.