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The Riffelberg near the Matterhorn: Three dead after an avalanche
Photo: Jean-Christophe Bott/dpa
Hours after the fatal avalanche accident in Zermatt on Easter Monday, the situation on the mountain remains dangerous: The Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research assessed the avalanche danger for the area from Valais to Graubünden towards Austria as still high. According to the announcement on Monday evening, danger level four on the five-level scale initially remained in effect. A downgrade to danger level three was planned for Tuesday, it was said.
Three dead after avalanche
On Riffelberg in Zermatt, four people were swept away by the masses of snow when a large avalanche occurred on Monday afternoon. Three people died and a fourth person was injured and taken to hospital. The police initially did not provide any information about the identity or condition of the injured person. Because there were no reports of missing persons, the rescuers assumed that there were no other people under the snow, Zermatt's rescue chief told the newspaper "Blick".
Danger due to lots of drifting snow
The increased danger situation was already apparent due to the weather over Easter. A lot of snow had fallen at altitude and at the same time there were sometimes hurricane-force winds. This resulted in large accumulations of drifted snow that are particularly prone to triggering. The danger of avalanches was also high in places in Austria and South Tyrol in Italy. Even with a downgrade to danger level three, avalanches could not be ruled out, the experts said on Monday evening: “Individual winter sports enthusiasts can trigger avalanches in places, even very large ones. Tours and variant descents require great caution and restraint.«
The accident on Monday happened in a variant area. There are no prepared and monitored slopes there, but winter sports enthusiasts ski in deep snow. This is where most avalanche accidents happen. Marked pistes are closed if there is a risk of avalanches above.
has/dpa