A total of 172 “avalanches that led to damage to people or property” were announced at the SLF between October 1, 2024 and April 14, 2025 (illustration image).
Photo: KEYSTONE/JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT
Ten people lost their lives in avalanches this winter, according to the Institute for the study of snow and SLF avalanches in Davos. It is less than the average of the last twenty years. Winter was also marked by the lack of snow in the Swiss Alps.
In total, 216 people were affected by an avalanche between October 1, 2024 and April 14, 2025, a number very slightly higher than the average of the last twenty years (205), said SLF on Tuesday.
Ten of them have lost their lives, against 19 victims on average over the past twenty years. Five victims were counted in Graubünden, four in Valais and one in the canton of Obwald, according to the SLF.
The SLF advances several reasons for this small number of victims: the avalanches of this winter were generally not very thick, therefore less dangerous than in the past, no avalanche has made many victims and there is also the luck factor, he writes. Another explanation could be that the rescue by those accompanying the victims was well done.
/ATS
