Hiking accidents in Switzerland double in 15 years

The number of hiking accidents in Switzerland has doubled in 15 years Keystone-SDA

The number of mountain hiking accidents in Switzerland has doubled over the past 15 years.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

Between 2009 and 2013, just over 4,000 accidents occurred each year in the mountains, the Swiss National Accident Insurance Fund (SUVA) said in a press release on Tuesday. Between 2019 and 2023, SUVA recorded an average of 9,000 cases, more than double the number.

In more than eight out of ten accidents, the people involved tripped, slipped, fell or took a wrong step. Most often, these accidents are due to unsuitable equipment, lack of attention or overestimated physical fitness, SUVA said.

+ Swiss hiking trails – unique but under pressure

To avoid such incidents, SUVA recommends planning your itinerary, checking the weather and taking paths that are suited to your physical condition.

Between June and September this year, almost 15 people died in Switzerland while hiking. The tragedies occurred mainly in cantons Bern, Valais and Ticino.

Translated from French by DeepL/ts

How we work 

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.  

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at [e-mail]