New Research on Trauma and Avalanche Fatalities

New research finds that 50% of avalanche deaths result from trauma.

It’s not that often that a new study as impressive as the Risk Management Trends in U.S. Backcountry Avalanche Accidents: Skiers and Snowboarders, published by Ian McCammon & Kelly McNeil, gets put into the ether. But when it does, there is no real surprise that both McCammon’s & McNeil’s names are attached to it.

20% No More

For years, nearly twenty, avalanche professionals across North America & beyond have been referencing the mythical twenty percent number. That twenty percent is representative of the amount of folks that succumb to traumatic injuries in avalanche accidents. What does a traumatic injury in an avalanche accident look like? Well, it’s not pretty. It can amount to severe spine & head injuries, internal bleeding as well as external arterial bleeds. While this is a large component of avalanche fatalities, it’s only second highest in terms of the sheer ranking.

Atop the rankings is death by asphyxiation or better known as the precursor to suffocation. When buried, the victim only has so much time below the snow surface until breathable oxygen has been depleted within the immediate area. After the oxygen has been used up, suffocation ensues. Until recently, this method of expiration held a firm grip as the leading cause of death among skiers and snowboarders.

McCammon & McNeil put forward within their newly released paper that after analyzing nearly five decades of avalanche fatalities, trauma now accounts for nearly 50% of all fatalities. This, in theory, puts asphyxiation and trauma on similar levels of likelihood. And that is actually quite a big deal.

While trauma was never officially an after thought when it came to avalanche accidents, it was definitely not the main point of focus during recreational and professional avalanche courses. I’d wager that almost all students could rattle out, off the cuff, that avalanche victims have at best 15 minutes till they run out of air. Could any of them reference that twenty percent of victims die from trauma? It’s possible but much less likely.