Skiing accidents in the past 15 years

Abstract For the last 15 years a statistical analysis of distances skied and of alpine skiing accidents has been performed in the Davos‐Klosters skiing area, a ‘closed’ skiing area, where every skier has to return from the top to the bottom station. Distance skied is measured by vertical drop in 106 km determined by calculations from frequency surveys by lift‐operators. About 2.5 million km per season have been skied during the past years, a number remaining constant for the last 15 years. In the same time the requirement for rescue‐transports in this area has shown a decline of 46% to 288 transports per season due to a decrease of the number of injuries with initial immobilization. Therefore the so‐called transport‐quotient (one rescue‐transport per 104 km of vertical drop skied) has decreased from its initial value of 4 to 1 per 104 km. During the same time all winter sport injuries were analysed at the hospital of Davos. About 90% are injuries caused by alpine skiing resulting in a total of 17 246 alpi...