50 lives were lost in the mountains last year, the highest number in two decades of monitoring this statistic.
The most common cause of accidents remains slipping (nearly a quarter of cases)
Last year, 50 people died in the mountains, a record number of deaths in the mountains in the last 20 years of keeping such statistics, the mountain rescue association reported. Last year, they carried out 633 rescues, with just under half involving foreign nationals.
The Alpine Rescue Association of Slovenia (GRZS) presented, as usual at the beginning of the year, an analysis of mountain rescuers' interventions for the previous year. They note that the number of accidents in the mountains is increasing, and rescues are becoming more demanding: "In the last 10 years, the number of interventions has risen from 430 per year (in 2015) to 660 mountain accidents per year."
Last year, they responded to 633 accidents, which means their number increased by four percent compared to the previous year. In total, mountain rescuers managed to rescue 767 people last year, with 46 percent being foreign nationals. "This time the number is not a record (the most rescues, 687, were in 2023), but the record number of deaths in the mountains is worrying," they warn, adding that there were 50 deaths in the mountains last year, significantly more than the previous year when there were 37. Of the 50 deceased, 15 were foreign nationals, they state. "In the last 20 years, this is the highest and worrying number of fatal accidents," they further warn. They add that the most notable and most demanding rescue was of foreign hikers in the avalanche under Tosca, which claimed three lives.
Most common cause of accidents: slipping
The most common cause of accidents is still slipping (24 percent of accidents), followed by lack of terrain knowledge, inappropriate equipment, and unpreparedness for the tour, the mountain rescue association notes. According to them, slips most often occur due to fatigue, tripping over roots or stones, loss of balance on a path that has become too demanding, or a moment of inattention when the gaze is directed elsewhere instead of the path.
"Among frequent causes of accidents are also lack of terrain knowledge (22%), meaning rescues of people who either got lost in impassable areas or could not continue the path due to its difficulty and got stuck, inappropriate personal equipment (11%), and physical unpreparedness for the tour (10%)," they explain at GRZS and add that the most accidents occurred during hiking on trails (20%), off-trail hiking (8%), due to air activities (7%), fewer during mountain biking (4%), climbing (4%), water activities (2%), work (2%), or skiing (2%).
In the past year, the vast majority of interventions (89%) were rescue operations (588), 10 percent were search interventions (67), and helicopters of the Slovenian Army or police participated in 41 percent of interventions.
Most interventions in summer months and in the GRS Bohinj area
The most interventions in 2025 were carried out by the GRS Bohinj association (96; 14 percent of all interventions), followed by GRS Ljubljana (69 interventions or one tenth of all) and GRS Bovec (60 interventions or 9 percent of all), which due to tourism are "the most burdened mountain rescue services in Slovenia". The most accidents in the mountains (352) occurred in the main tourist season, i.e., in the summer months (from June to August). The most accidents (128) occurred in the Triglav area, followed by Kamnik-Savinja Alps (103).
Nearly half of the rescues, 331, involved uninjured people, but the number of rescues of seriously injured is increasing. The most accident victims were in the age group 20 to 29 years (20%). The share of rescues of foreigners is increasing – last year, as mentioned, they rescued foreign nationals in 46 percent of cases, which is two percent more than the previous year. "Among the foreign rescued are most often citizens of Germany (65), Poland (34), Croatia (25), Hungary (23), Czech Republic (23), Austria (22), Great Britain (22), France (20), Netherlands (18), Belgium (15)," GRZS also noted.
Current conditions in the mountains very dangerous
Snow conditions in the high mountains are currently very demanding and dangerous. Conditions can change quickly. In the high mountains of the western and southern Julian Alps, there is a high risk of avalanche release (4th degree).
Mountain rescuers advise replacing high mountains with lower and safer destinations and regularly monitoring avalanche forecasts.
Source:
https://www.rtvslo.si/crna-kronika/lani-v-gorah-ugasnilo-50-zivljenj-kar-je-najvec-v-dveh-desetletjih-spremljanja-te-statistike/771641