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Mountain Deaths

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Essentials of Autopsy Practice

Abstract

The growing popularity of activities such as hiking, climbing and skiing means that large numbers of individuals are visiting the mountains. Since such activities place enormous physical demands on individuals, it is inevitable that deaths will occur. Differences in the activities, conditions and methods of calculation make meaningful mortality rates difficult to obtain. However, it is clear that the mortality rate for some mountain activities is comparable to pastimes that are traditionally viewed as dangerous. Deaths in the mountains are most commonly due to trauma, high altitude illness, cold injury, avalanche burial and sudden cardiac death. This chapter describes the mortality rates of those who undertake recreational activities in the mountains and the aetiology that lies behind them.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anaesthetics and Critical Care, Chesterfield Royal Hospital, Calow, Derbyshire, UK

    Jeremy Windsor

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  1. Jeremy Windsor
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Correspondence to Jeremy Windsor .

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  1. East Midlands Forensic Pathology Unit, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Guy N. Rutty

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Windsor, J. (2019). Mountain Deaths. In: Rutty, G. (eds) Essentials of Autopsy Practice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24330-2_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24330-2_6

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