Mountaineering

Is mountaineering safe?

No. Of the sports most people can actually take up, alpine mountaineering is one of the most dangerous. Studies of individual peaks give about 0.3 deaths per 1,000 climbers on Mount Rainier and 0.6 per 1,000 on the Grand Teton, or 300 to 600 micromortsMicromortA one-in-a-million chance of death. It lets you compare the risk of very different activities on one scale.More in the glossary per ascent. Around New Zealand's Mount Cook, a study of hut records estimated 1.87 deaths per 1,000 climbing days, about 1,900 micromorts per day, ranging from 300 to 6,500 depending on the area.

Those figures are old and peak-specific, and easy routes are safer. The best current figure comes from Denali in Alaska, where the park service registers every climber: about 1,400 micromorts per attempt in 2021–2025. Even the low end of the range is about the same as a BASE jump and 50 to 100 times a day of hiking. A single expedition to Mount Everest, at about 7,000 micromorts, sits at the extreme end of the same sport.

This page covers climbing glaciated and rocky peaks with rope, crampons and ice axe: the Alpine 4,000-metre peaks, Rainier, Denali, Aconcagua. Pure rock climbing and ice climbing have their own pages.

Denali: the best current count

Denali (also called Mount McKinley) is one of the few big peaks where both climbers and deaths are counted. Every climber must register with the park service, which publishes the number of attempts and a report on each season's rescues and deaths. We counted only deaths on Denali's own routes, not those on nearby peaks or in plane crashes:

Season	Registered attempts	Deaths on Denali	Summit rate
2021	1,007	0	53%
2022	1,127	2	69%
2023	1,017	1	30%
2024	1,049	2	50%
2025	960	2	36%
Total	5,160	7

That is 1.4 deaths per 1,000 attempts, or about 1,400 micromortsMicromortA one-in-a-million chance of death. It lets you compare the risk of very different activities on one scale.More in the glossary per attempt. If a 2021 ice-fall death below Reality Ridge, on the mountain's south side, is counted too, the figure is about 1,550. The park issued no climbing permits in 2020 because of COVID-19. Rangers treated or assessed 152 patients in these five seasons, 43 of them with frostbite, and several lost fingers or toes.

The deaths show the pattern: two solo climbers fell near Denali Pass, a guided client collapsed at 19,000 feet, a climber died of altitude illness after reaching 14,200 feet in a day and a half, a team pushed to the summit without acclimatising and one member died of exposure, and two skiers died in a fall and an avalanche in 2025.

What the Swiss data show

The Swiss Alpine Club publishes the most complete annual count. Deaths on high-alpine tours have fallen from an average of 41 a year in 1984–2003 to 25 in 2004–2023, and were 22 in 2024 and 23 in 2025. The number of climbers is not counted, so a rate cannot be calculated, but hut nights hit record levels in 2025.

A 2022 analysis by Beat Gasser of 303 deaths on Swiss high-alpine tours in 2009–2021 found:

Finding	Share
Caused by a fall	81%
Rockfall	5%
Stranded	3%
Avalanche	3%
Men among the dead	86%

More than half happened on routes to classic 4,000-metre peaks. The Matterhorn had the most deaths (40), followed by the Mönch (18) and Piz Bernina (10). The average age of those who died was 53.

Death on the way down

Almost two-thirds of the fatal falls in Gasser's data happened during the descent. On Denali, McIntosh and colleagues found the same pattern: 61% of 96 deaths in 1903–2006 occurred on the way down. Climbers are tired, often behind schedule and less focused once the summit is done. Snow softens in the afternoon, and a slip on a ridge or snow slope without a belay can be fatal.

Being stuck is the most common reason for a rescue. In Switzerland, 60% of high-alpine emergencies in 2025 were climbers who were exhausted, lost or unable to go up or down, against 19% from falls.

Avalanches, rockfall and altitude

Objective hazards weigh more in some ranges than others. On Mount Rainier, 34% of the 50 deaths in 1977–1997 were avalanche victims, and a quarter of bodies were never recovered. In the Alps, warming is loosening rock and changing glaciers, which raises the rockfall risk on many classic routes in summer.

Higher peaks add altitude. On Aconcagua (6,961 m), 21 of 29,397 climbers died in 2013–2024, about 700 micromortsMicromortA one-in-a-million chance of death. It lets you compare the risk of very different activities on one scale.More in the glossary each, mostly above 6,000 metres and mostly from medical causes; climbers over 50 were five times more likely to die. On Denali, the long-run rate in 1903–2006 was 3.08 deaths per 1,000 summit attempts, about 3,000 micromorts. It fell by 53% after the park service began registering climbers in 1995, and in 2021–2025 it was 1.4 per 1,000.

How to climb more safely

1. Build up over seasons. Learn crevasse rescue, self-arrest and rope work on a course before attempting a big peak.
2. Hire a certified mountain guide for your first 4,000-metre peaks or any route beyond your experience.
3. Set a turnaround time and keep it. Leave enough strength and daylight for the descent.
4. Start early so you are off snow slopes and below loose faces before the afternoon thaw.
5. Rope up on glaciers and stay roped on the way down.
6. Acclimatise above about 3,000 metres and descend at the first signs of altitude illness.
7. Check the avalanche and weather forecasts and carry a phone or satellite communicator.

How we scored it

Fatality risk (20) reflects hundreds to about 2,000 micromortsMicromortA one-in-a-million chance of death. It lets you compare the risk of very different activities on one scale.More in the glossary per ascent, attempt or climbing day, with Denali at about 1,400 per attempt in 2021–2025. Injury risk (40) is high because frostbite, altitude illness and fall injuries are common, and controllability (45) is limited by avalanches and rockfall. The environment (22) is remote and hostile. Compare rock climbing, where the risk is counted per hour, not per climb.