What Will Kill You Outdoors

By Colleen Kennedy

You’re gonna die. The question is, how? Will it be a bear attack? Snake bite? Drowning while pinned under a boulder in a class V rapid? Sorry to disappoint, but chances are, it won’t be anything quite that dramatic.

According to S. Jay Olshansky, professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois, the probability of a death occurring during participation in outdoor activities is so minimal it’s difficult to find statistics on the topic. Try it: Google the number of deaths that occur annually from a climbing rope snapping and you won’t be able to find anything.

The main cause of death in 2005, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was major cardiovascular disease, with 856,030 deaths. It looks like inactivity is far more dangerous than activity, whether outdoors or not.

Injury more likely
Deaths during outdoor recreation don’t even merit a study by the CDC. But in June 2008, the agency released what it called “the first [study] known to present national estimates of outdoor recreational injuries.” Gail Hayes, senior press officer at the CDC’s Injury Center, explains, “When we have common injuries such as fractures or sprains, we look at what might be the risk of people who are engaged in physical activity. The numbers in the study are a national estimate of those types of injuries where individuals might be a considerable distance from medical care.”

Results of the study concluded that from 2004 to 2005, an estimated 213,000 individuals were treated in the United States for outdoor recreation related injuries – not deaths. More than half were people between the ages 10 and 24. The most common diagnosis (27 percent) was a bone fracture. And the most risky sport? Snowboarding. A small but significant percentage of injuries – 6.5 percent – were diagnosed as traumatic brain injury.

According to the CDC, the most common accident that will kill you is a transportation accident. In the United States, 48,441 people died from transportation accidents in 2005. That includes land, water and air transport, although the vast majority are automobile accidents. In other words, the most dangerous part of your activity is getting to the trailhead or put in.

When outdoor recreation fatalities occur, they are often caused by human error, meaning you’re more apt to tie a knot wrong in your static line and plunge off the cliff than you are to plummet because your rope broke. “Ropes don’t snap when being used properly,” says Kolin Powick, quality assurance manager for Black Diamond Equipment, "but everything changes when you start considering outside influences on the situation.” These include previous usage, age of the rope and sharp edges coming into contact with the rope. The same idea applies to equipment for all outdoor activities.

An ounce of prevention
The CDC report advises that primary injury prevention includes following the three principles of wilderness injury prevention – planning, preparation and problem anticipation. That means knowing your skill and experience levels and not exceeding them as well as maintaining your fitness level, important considering cardiovascular disease is the number one killer. Double check to make sure all your equipment is functioning properly, use common-sense safety precautions, brush up on your knots, wear a helmet or a life jacket. Let people know where you’re going and when you plan to return.

Get out and do something; it might cost you your life, or it just might save it.

Colleen Kennedy has been skydiving, rock climbing and whitewater rafting and has yet to harm herself while participating in any of it.