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Recreational activities in snow-covered mountainous terrain in thebackcountry account for the vast majority of avalanche accidents. Studiesanalyzing avalanche risk mostly rely on accident statistics withoutconsidering exposure (or the elements at risk), i.e., how many, when andwhere people are recreating, as data on recreational activity in the wintermountains are scarce. To fill this gap, we explored volunteered geographicinformation on two social media mountaineering websites –bergportal.ch and camptocamp.org. Based on these data, we presenta spatiotemporal pattern of winter backcountry touring activity in the SwissAlps and compare this with accident statistics. Geographically, activity wasconcentrated in Alpine regions relatively close to the main Swiss populationcenters in the west and north. In contrast, accidents occurred equally oftenin the less-frequented inner-alpine regions. Weekends, weather and avalancheconditions influenced the number of recreationists, while the odds to beinvolved in a severe avalanche accident did not depend on weekends or weatherconditions. However, the likelihood of being involved in an accidentincreased with increasing avalanche danger level, but also with a moreunfavorable snowpack containing persistent weak layers (also referred to asan old snow problem). In fact, the most critical situation for backcountryrecreationists and professionals occurred on days and in regions when boththe avalanche danger was critical and when the snowpack contained persistentweak layers. The frequently occurring geographical pattern of a moreunfavorable snowpack structure also explains the relatively high proportionof accidents in the less-frequented inner-alpine regions. These results havepractical implications: avalanche forecasters should clearly communicate theavalanche danger and the avalanche problem to the backcountry user,particularly if persistent weak layers are of concern. Professionals andrecreationists, on the other hand, require the expertise to adjust theplanning of a tour and their backcountry travel behavior depending on theavalanche danger and the avalancheproblem

Analysis of avalanche risk factors in backcountry terrain based on usage frequency and accident data in Switzerland