The Himalaya by the Numbers: A Statistical Analysis - Himalayan ...

Deaths by Age Groups
Table and Chart D-33 show death counts and rates by age groups in 5-year intervals
for members.
Age Groups
The table is divided into three sections: all peaks from 1950 to 2006, all peaks from
1950 to 2006 without the Ama Dablam, Cho Oyu, and Everest commercial routes from
1990 to 2006, and finally the Ama Dablam, Cho Oyu, and Everest commercial routes
during the 1990-2006 period.
Chart D-33 shows a striking difference between commercial and non-commercial
climbing.
The blue trend line for all peaks without the Ama Dablam, Cho Oyu, and Everest
commercial routes shows a steady decline in the death rates by age, indicating that
Himalayan climbing becomes relatively safer as one become older (and presumably
more skilled, experienced, and perhaps more conservative sticking to easier routes).
The red trend line for the Ama Dablam, Cho Oyu, and Everest commercial routes
shows a reasonably flat death rate up to about age 60, then a sharp increase due to a
very high death rate of 3.18 for the age 65-69 group. This may be due to a combination
of age and lack of climbing skills and experience for some older commercial climbers.
As shown in Table D-34 below, this higher death rate may be somewhat of an anomaly
since is it based only on 6 deaths.
118 Death Analysis
All Peaks 1950-2006
All Peaks 1950-2006 without
Ama Dablam-Cho Oyu-
Everest commercial routes
1990-2006
Above Death Death
BC Cnt Rate
Ama Dablam-
Cho Oyu-Everest
commercial routes
1990-2006
Above Death Death
BC Cnt Rate
Above Death Death
BC Cnt Rate
Unknown 1540 38 2.47 1377 37 2.69 163 1 0.61
10-14 5 0 0.00 2 0 0.00 3 0 0.00
15-19 130 3 2.31 87 3 3.45 43 0 0.00
20-24 2410 56 2.32 1922 53 2.76 488 3 0.62
25-29 6804 122 1.79 5305 111 2.09 1499 11 0.73
30-34 7553 126 1.67 5199 113 2.17 2354 13 0.55
35-39 6170 103 1.67 3864 77 1.99 2306 26 1.13
40-44 4475 51 1.14 2591 38 1.47 1884 13 0.69
45-49 2737 37 1.35 1464 26 1.78 1273 11 0.86
50-54 1625 17 1.05 794 10 1.26 831 7 0.84
55-59 863 8 0.93 430 5 1.16 433 3 0.69
60-64 413 8 1.94 195 4 2.05 218 4 1.84
65-69 139 2 1.44 76 0 0.00 63 2 3.18
70-74 46 0 0.00 22 0 0.00 24 0 0.00
75-79 10 0 0.00 7 0 0.00 3 0 0.00
Table D-33: Member deaths by age groups from 1950-2006
Ama Dablam Cho Oyu Everest
Above Death Death Above Death Death Above Death Death
BC Cnt Rate BC Cnt Rate BC Cnt Rate
60-64 42 1 2.38 95 1 1.05 81 2 2.47
65-69 18 0 0.00 19 0 0.00 26 2 7.69
Peak Totals 2696 8 0.30 4340 22 0.51 4549 64 1.41
Table D-34: Deaths for members of age 60-69 on commercial routes from 1950-2006