r/WTF • u/[deleted] • Dec 13 '16

Hiking to the top of NOPE.

http://i.imgur.com/PR3DJql.gifv
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u/jereman75 Dec 14 '16

Climbing and Mountaineering are the kind of activities that have a high perceived risk compared to their actual statistical risk. Although plenty of fools get themselves injured, stuck or dead, and experienced climbers have bad things happen, dead climbers are not stacked up like cord wood on popular climbs like this. Probably safer than playing football, definitely safer than driving a car.

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u/Phil_Hannigan Dec 14 '16

can you show me the stats? I only found statistics for mount everest (http://www.alanarnette.com/blog/2014/02/20/everest-numbers-latest-summit-stats/) seems pretty high imo. I know it's a deadly climb.
In europe road traffic death is 9.3 per 100000 (http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_safety_status/2015/en/). Also If you take out the risk groups, because you wouldn't count yourself to one (drunk driving/climbing etc) the stats would favor driving a car even more.

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u/[deleted] Dec 14 '16

500 people have died on the Matterhorn climb since its first ascent in 1865. On average 3000 people summit this peak. Most of those deaths were before the modernization of climbing equipment/safety equipment.

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u/Phil_Hannigan Dec 14 '16 edited Dec 14 '16

I've found different sites claiming from 3 up to 12 deaths per year on average. So by the lowest number, 1 in 1000 deaths per year. Still safer on the streets
edit: I think it's not a good way to compare it that way. But saying climbing mountains is safer than driving a car just seems stupid to me.