Three people did not survive the huge avalanche near Zermatt. They could only be rescued dead. One person was found alive.
At least three people died in a huge avalanche near Zermatt, Switzerland, on Easter Monday. A fourth person was found alive, the police in the canton of Valais reported late in the evening. It was initially unclear whether there were other people under the masses of snow. According to the rescue chief, there were no reports of missing persons. The search has been suspended for the time being. The police wanted to reassess the situation on Tuesday morning.
The police initially did not provide any information about the nationality of the victims or the 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, as Zermatt’s rescue chief told the newspaper “Blick”.
The police, together with a large contingent, had been searching for missing people for hours. The avalanche occurred in the Riffelberg ski area in the early afternoon – according to the police, 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 slopes are closed if there is a risk of avalanches.
Outside the marked pistes, ski tourers must assess the danger themselves. In Switzerland, 14 people died in twelve avalanche accidents in the winter of 2023/24 by the end of March. (APA/DPA)
Great caution is still required in Zermatt. Hours after the fatal avalanche accident, there was still no all-clear for winter sports enthusiasts: The Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research still assessed the avalanche danger for the area from Valais to Graubünden towards Austria as 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.
The increased danger situation was already apparent due to the weather conditions over the Easter days. 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. According to experts, even if the danger level is downgraded to three, avalanches cannot be ruled out.
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