Injury rates in rock climbers

Abstract

The popular perception of rock climbing is often of a high risk sport, with serious injury a common outcome of participation. To date, little data exists to test this hypothesis. The purpose of this study was to determine injury rates and associated data in a group of Australian rock climbers. A retrospective survey was undertaken and data collected from 59 active rock climbers. Analysis of the data collected suggests that rock climbing has a relatively low injury rate, in terms of injuries sustained per 1000 h of participation, in comparison with many other popular sports.