Swiss Avalanche Fatalities by Activity Category Since 1936

Swiss avalanche fatality statistics are recorded per hydrological year from 1936/37 onward. The dataset categorizes fatalities into four activity types: backcountry touring, off-piste skiing, transportation corridors, and buildings. ENVIDAT compiled this data, which was last updated in 2018 and contains records through at least the 2021/22 hydrological year.

Use Cases

• Analyze long-term trends in the total fatality sum across hydrological years to assess the impact of public safety campaigns.
• Compare fatality counts between the tour and offpiste columns to evaluate relative risks of backcountry versus resort-accessed skiing.
• Model the relationship between the buildings and transportation.corridors fatality columns to understand risks to infrastructure users and workers.
• Forecast future annual fatality totals using time-series analysis on the hydrological year and sum columns.

Strengths

• Covers over 85 consecutive hydrological years of data from 1936/37.
• Provides disaggregated counts across four specific activity categories (tour, offpiste, transportation.corridors, buildings).
• Data collection follows defined guidelines from published scientific literature.

Limitations

• Data is not updated after the 2021/22 hydrological year, creating a multi-year gap.
• The underlying row count and sample size for statistical modeling are unknown.
• Lacks granular detail such as victim demographics, exact location, or avalanche conditions for each incident.

Provenance

Source

ENVIDAT, the environmental data portal of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL).

Collection Method

Compiled according to guidelines for the Swiss avalanche accident database.

Time Range

Hydrological years from 1936/37 to at least 2021/22.

Freshness

Last updated in 2018; contains data through at least 2022 but is stated as no longer being updated.

Geography

Switzerland.