Mountain accidents

Being close to surrounding ski stations (les Gets / Morillon / Samoëns / Flaine / Les Carroz / Praz le Lys / Sommand, but also further stations such as Chamonix, Megève and Combloux) UMVA has been, for several years, taking care of ski and winter sports injuries to the knee, shoulder, wrist, thumb, ankle and spine

Knee sprains remain the most frequent injuries when skiing,

the majority of ski accidents taken care of at UMVA are sprains and fractures. Wounds from ski blades are not infrequent but only represent a small portion of injuries.

In snowboard, wrist injuries represent the majority of patient cases.

Among chlidren and adolescents, wrist fractures are diagnosed in half the cases following a ski fall.

Sled accidents involving children are often serious (e.g., head trauma).

Snowshoeing is not prone to accidents, but when accidents to happen, most injuries are specific to mountain hiking (falls, sprains, and fractures).

In any case, if you have an accident on the mountain, it is important to see a health professional to be diagnosed and taken care of and to avoid medical complications.

In the region, the alpine tourism has been developing for several years and winter sports resorts have set up a certain number of infrastructues aiming in particular to develop and democratize the practice of mountain biking.

This latter is based on the same concept as skiing, but with the downhill VTT, or Downhill Mountain Biking.

However, with it’s democratization, this has also led to an increase in accidents.

The accidentology is quite significant (10% of practitioners) and the falls are more violent than those in skiing, causing often multiple traumas (such as fractures, wounds, head injuries).

The arrival of electic VVT (VTTAE) inevitably attracts uncomfortable and often unsportsmanlike practitioners. Access to the summits thanks to electric assistance is easier and users tend to overestimate their capacities, especially when going downhill, as these machines are heavier and less maneuverable than conventional mountain bikes.
For the past two years, this has led to an increase in accidentology among VTTAE practitioners.

Other outdoor activities such as tree climbing, white water sports (hydrospeed rafting and canyoning) can also cause accidents, but these are often minor because they are well supervised by professionals.