Anecdotally, mountaineering is an increasingly popular recreational activity, although there is no reliable national dataset to validate this. To understand participation trends, we get a general sense through the activity we see and hear about from our alpine sector partners, through relevant club activity, retail gear sales and engagement with mountaineering-related digital content.
COVID-19 would have had an impact on mountaineering participation, but we cannot fully understand this without a reliable national dataset.
Mountaineering Fatalities
Mountaineering fatalities also fluctuate year by year, as the graph highlights. The 5-year average is now 1.4 fatalities per year, while the 10-year average is 2.3.
Mountaineering Search and Rescues
With the belief that mountaineering is becoming an increasingly popular activity, we also see a corresponding increase in the 10-year search and rescue trend. The 5-year average is now 43.2 mountaineers per year, and the 10-year average is 37.1.
We cannot calculate a search and rescue rate relative to participation for mountaineering due to the lack of a nationally reliable participation dataset.
From 2020-2021 onwards, we included NZ ambulance data from Hato Hone St John, adding a type of ‘rescue’ event not included in previous years. This will have a slight impact on the data and trend.
Note: The data collection system changed in 2018-2019 and this may have resulted in some underreporting for this specific year.