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WEATHER

Skiers trigger avalanches at Titlis and Verbier

An avalanche carried away 11 skiers at the Titlis ski resort at Engelberg in the canton of Obwald on Sunday but all but two — tourists from Sweden — managed to escape injury.

Published: 9 December 2012 22:01 CET
Skiers trigger avalanches at Titlis and Verbier
Skiing at Engleberg-Titlis (Photo: Switzerland Tourism)

Obwald cantonal police said the snow slide was reported to them shortly after 11am in the Laub area of the resort.

A 45-year-old Swedish citizen was flown in a helicopter by Rega emergency services to hospital for treatment of “moderate” injuries, police said.

Another Swede, 36, was treated for minor injuries while nine others were uninjured.

Ten of the eleven were able to dig themselves out of the snow unaided, while the other person needed help from fellow skiers, police said.

Seven of the skiers were part of a guided group.

The avalanche was described as being 300 metres wide and 800 metres long, occurring partway down the mountain on a slope identified as “off-piste” on the ski resort’s map.

It occurred at a time when the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research had issued a warning for the region urging “caution and restraint.”

While it appeared that all skiers survived the avalanche, police and rescue officials took no chances.

Two dog teams joined members of the Engleberg mountain rescue service, the Central Switzerland Alpine rescue service and cantonal police in a search for possible missing people.

Meanwhile, another avalanche injured a British skier on Sunday in the Col des Mines area of Verbier ski resort in the canton of Valais.

The incident occurred at around 10am in an off-piste area at an altitude of 2,600 metres, cantonal police said.

The victim, a 24-year-old man, suffered mild hypothermia after being swept down the slope along with another British man, aged 22, who escaped injury.

They were skiing with a woman who was uninjured.

The avalanche was 600 metres long and 200 metres wide, police said.

The incidents follow heavy snowfalls in the Alps in recent days with many ski resorts opening for the season over the weekend.

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WEATHER

Will Switzerland be visited by ‘Ice Saints’ this year?

Ascension is not the only annual happening in the country in May, as Switzerland also ‘celebrates’ another 'chilling' event this month.

Published: 8 May 2024 14:20 CEST
Will Switzerland be visited by 'Ice Saints' this year?

From May 11th to the 15th, a meteorological event takes place each year in Switzerland.

It “observes”, though admittedly not on scientific basis, a centuries-old weather phenomenon called “Ice Saints”.

What exactly is it?

As its name suggests, it is related to saints, as well as ice and frost.

The saints in question are St Mamertus, St Pancras, St Servatius and St Boniface.

According to a weather lore, once these Ice Saints have passed through Switzerland in the middle of May, frost will no longer pose a threat to farmers and their land.

As the official government meteorological service MeteoSwiss explains it, “spring frosts have been a regular occurrence for centuries, giving rise to the traditional belief that a blast of cold air often arrives in the middle of May. Over time, this piece of weather lore became known as the Ice Saints.”

Fact versus myth

You may be wondering whether the Ice Saints lore actually has basis in reality.

Records, which date back to 1965 and originate from the Geneva-Cointrin, Payerne, and Zurich-Kloten weather stations, “clearly show that, over the long-term average, frost directly above the soil is only a regular occurrence up until the middle of April”, MeteoSwiss says. “After that, the frequency with which ground frost occurs progressively declines to almost zero by the end of May.”

“We can conclude, therefore, that there is no evidence in Switzerland to confirm the Ice Saints as a period in May when ground frost is more common.”

However, MeteoSwiss does concede that “ground frost is nevertheless a regular occurrence throughout May as a whole…having occurred at least once or twice in May every year, and in around 40 percent of the years there were more than two days in May with ground frost.”

What about this year?

MeteoSwiss weather forecast for the next seven days indicates that, this year too, no frost will be present on the ground in mid-May.

In fact, temperatures through much of Switzerland will be in double digits, reaching between 18C and 25C, depending on the region.

You can see what to expect in your area, here. 

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