In the Zermatt ski area at the foot of the Matterhorn, a large avalanche thundered into the valley on Easter Monday. Police were looking for at least three missing people, a spokesman said this evening. It’s possible more people were wiped out.
According to the police spokesperson, there have been no reports of missing persons at the moment. There is a large contingent of police and rescue workers on site and the search area in the southern Swiss canton of Valais is “very large”.
Videos show the power of nature
Zermatt is located below the world famous Matterhorn. The newspaper “Blick” published online videos of skiers intended to show the avalanche. Huge amounts of snow fall downhill and create large snow clouds. On one video, a voice can be heard saying in English that there were four people in the area on the opposite slope.
Leave the variant area
According to police, the avalanche occurred in an anomalous area: terrain where experienced skiers normally ski in deep snow off marked slopes. Most avalanche accidents occur in such areas, often caused by off-piste skiers. They often carry avalanche detection equipment, which can transmit a signal even meters deep under the snow. Many people’s equipment also includes an avalanche airbag, which, when inflated, ensures that you do not get too deep under the mass of snow.
Danger also in North and South Tyrol
The Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research had warned this morning of a high avalanche danger. “Very large and sometimes extremely large spontaneous avalanches are to be expected,” the report said. There was also a high avalanche danger in North and South Tyrol. The reasons for this were a lot of fresh snow and sometimes hurricane winds, which caused large accumulations of drifting snow.
Source: Krone
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