The national park business is booming back to pre-pandemic levels. According to the National Park Service, 312 million people visited one of 63 congressionally designated national parks across the U.S in 2022. That’s 15 million more than in 2021. But with more visitors comes more accidents and fatalities.
“Anybody can get hurt if they’re in the mountains, no matter whether they’re an expert or beginner. The mountains are always moving, rocks fall, snow slides, people trip, people make mistakes. All these things are possible,” Jason Martin, executive director of the American Alpine Institute, said.
Martin has been climbing mountains for 31 years.
“I think that there are more mountain climbers coming to the national parks, that’s for sure. But most of the visitors that go to national parks are day tourists in the national parks. There’s a set percentage that does more adventuring further away from the road. And then of that percentage, there’s a smaller percentage that will do some type of climbing type thing,” Martin said.
According to PSBR Law, a firm that analyzed data it received via a Freedom of Information Act request from the park service, there were a total of 2,727 deaths at U.S. national park sites between 2007 and 2018. That’s 8 deaths per 10 million visits. 81% of those deaths were male. The No. 1 cause of death was drowning, followed by motor vehicle crashes. Falls and slips were fourth.
“These types of things happen in the mountains, regardless of who you are. It doesn’t matter how strong you are, how fit you are, how good you think you are with your backpack, with your climbing gear, or how strong of a climber you are. Anybody can make a mistake. And anybody can get hurt or worse,” Martin said.
In part two of this series, Straight Arrow News will visit the park with the highest death rate in the U.S to investigate why it has a mortality rate three times higher than the second highest site. The park isn’t Yosemite or the Grand Canyon, it’s actually the North Cascades National Park in Washington.
