Abstract
Mountaineering includes high levels of sensation and death anxiety according to the way it is done. The level of risk in mountaineering affects the pursuit of sensation and death anxiety. In this research, it was aimed to examine the sensation seeking and death anxiety experienced by mountaineers. The population of the research consisted of mountaineers in Turkey, and the sample consisted of 516 (376 men, 140 women) athletes selected by random sampling method. The Turkish Death Anxiety scale developed by Sarikaya (2013) and the Sensation-Seeking scale developed by Hoyle et al., (2002) and adapted into Turkish by Çelik and Turan (2016) were used as data collection tools. Data were collected online and face-to-face during the climbs. Independent Sample t test, Anova and Correlation analysis were used in the analysis of the data. For mountaineers, sensation seeking and death anxiety emerged as a determining factor. Thrill seeking levels are above average. In general, mountaineers have a low level of death anxiety. Only winter climbers have moderate death anxiety. A low level of positive correlation was found between sensation seeking and death anxiety. Excessive excitement seeking and high death anxiety can cause mistakes while climbing. It is recommended that athletes do not perform activities above their own skills, abilities and experiences.