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WEATHER

Swiss avalanche kills one person and injures another

An avalanche in Reckingen in the southeastern Wallis region of Switzerland killed a 68-year-old on Saturday, while a second person was injured, police said.

Published: 6 February 2022 19:53 CET
A man uses a machine to clear a path through the snow in the ski resort of Wengen in the Swiss Alps
A man uses a machine to clear a path through the snow in the ski resort of Wengen in the Swiss Alps. Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP

The two were part of a group of four Italian hikers and were quickly found and freed from the snow by the other two. One died at the scene and the other was airlifted to hospital.

According to a provisional report by the MeteoSwiss weather service on Friday, people have been caught up in 45 avalanches so far this winter.

It urged people to be “careful, careful, careful”.

On Thursday, one person died and several others were injured in avalanches in Switzerland’s Graubunden region, which borders Austria’s Tyrol where avalanches have killed nine people over the last three days.

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SKIING

Do Swiss ski resorts have enough snow for the February holidays?

As many families, as well as foreign tourists, head to the Swiss Alps in the coming days, they may be wondering whether there is enough snow on the slopes.

Published: 10 February 2023 15:33 CET
Do Swiss ski resorts have enough snow for the February holidays?

The concern is not baseless, as the unseasonably warm weather at the end of December and beginning of January meant that medium and low altitude resorts had practically no snow.

A number of them had to close, putting their future into question.

READ MORE: ‘Bike instead of skiing’: Switzerland’s snowless ski slopes forced to close

But fortunately for winter sports enthusiasts as well as mountain communities that depend on tourism to survive, there is now plenty of snow in major ski resorts.

These are the current weather conditions in some of the most popular Swiss destinations (the minimum show coverage for good skiing is about 50 cm): 

  • Zermatt-Matterhorn (Valais): 75 cm on the slopes
  • Verbier (Valais): 85 cm
  • Engadin – St. Moritz (Graubünden) : 65 cm
  • Thyon – 4 Valées: 90 cm
  • Glacier 3000 – Les Diablerets (Vaud) : 180 cm
  • Crans-Montana (Valais) : 150 cm
  • Arosa-Lenzerheide (Graubünden) : 60 cm
  • Adelboden (Bern) : 68 cm

You can find out conditions in other Swiss resorts here, or use this map.

In case you haven’t yet decided where you should go to ski, these articles could help you make up your mind:

Skiing in Switzerland: Three ski resorts within easy reach of Lausanne

Three top ski resorts within easy access of Zurich 

Skiing near Bern: The top 3 ski resorts within easy reach of Swiss capital

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