Number of avalanche fatalities per calendar year in Switzerland since 1937

Attention: this data is not updated after 2022 anymore. This dataset contains the statistics on the number of avalanche fatalities per calendar year in Switzerland. The data collection commences with the beginning of the year 1937. After the completion of a hydrological year, which is the standard way avalanche fatalities are summarized in Switzerland and ends on the 30th of September, the new data is appended to the existing dataset. If you require annual statistics per hydrological year, please download the data from here: [https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/avalanche-fatalities-switzerland-1936]

The following information is contained (by column and column title):
- year
- number of fatalities in the backcountry (=tour)
- number of fatalities in terrain close to ski areas (=offpiste, away from open and secured ski runs)
- number of fatalities on transportation corridors including ski runs, roads, railway lines (=transportation.corridors)
- number of fatalities in or around buildings or in settlements (= buildings)
- sum (of all four categories)

The definitions for these four categories, as described in the guidelines to the avalanche accident database are:

tour:
activities include back-country ski, snowboard or snow-shoe touring

offpiste:
access from ski area, generally from the top of a skilift with short hiking distances

transportation.corridors (Techel et al., 2016):
people travelling or recreating on open or temporarily closed transportation corridors (e.g. a road user or a skier on a ski run) and people working on open or closed transportation corridors (e.g. maintenance crews on roads, professional rescue teams)

buildings (Techel et al., 2016):
people inside or just outside buildings, and workers on high alpine building sites

• Funding information not available.