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[ a v a l a n c h e s   :   c a s e   s t u d i e s ]


Click on the links to read about avalanches which have occurred throughout history.

Switzerland (218 BC)
Hannibal lost about 18,000 men in avalanches as he crossed the Alps to battle the Roman army. He also lost 2,000 horses and many elephants.

Davos, Switzerland (1440)
2 houses were destroyed by an avalanche. One villager was found alive after being buried for 24 hours. The death toll was 11.

Disentis, Switzerland (1459)
An avalanche destroys the 655-year-old Church of Saint Placidus and 16 people perished.

Saint Gotthard Pass, Italian Alps (1478)
A troop of 60 Zürchers, allies to the Duke of Milan, are killed in an avalanche while crossing the Alps to war against another feudal lord.

Great St. Bernard Pass, Switzerland (1499)
A mercenary army of 400 soldiers were surprised by an avalanche as they traveled to attack the Milanese.

Leukerbad, Switzerland (1518)
An avalanche destroys an entire village and took 61 lives.

Graubunden, Switzerland (1598)
An avalanche in the Eastern Canton took 100 lives.

Davos-Frauenkirch, Switzerland (1606, January 16)
An avalanche occurred after three weeks of snow, destroying 70 buildings and taking 100 lives. Five villagers were found after a 36-hour search.

Davos-Dorf, Switzerland (1609, March 13)
This avalanche hit on Ash Wednesday while many villagers were eating breakfast. The death toll was 26.

Plurs, Switzerland (1618, September 4)
This event, known as the Rodi avalanche, buried the town of Plurs and all of its 1,500 residents, except for four people who happened to be away from the village. The total death count was 2,427.

Montafon Valley, Austria (1689, Winter)
More than 300 are buried beneath a series of avalanches in the Alps this winter. The worst hit was the town of Saas in the Pratigau valley, a popular resort still today. Two snow slides on Calmut Peak on the same day killed 73 people and destroyed 155 buildings. The town remains beneath the area’s wide, steep, and open slopes, and remains vulnerable to avalanches.

Leukerbad (Wallis), Switzerland (1718, January 17)
This famous spa is known for both its medicinal baths and its avalanches. In December 1717, snow fell continuously for ten days. On January 16 and 17, rain fell on already heavily snow-covered mountains. At 10 a.m., a small avalanche killed three people on the outskirts of the town. An unsuccessful rescue mission returned to town around 7 p.m., just as a second powder avalanche came and destroyed the Saint Laurentius Chapel, three of the baths, all the inns, and fifty houses. The slide also killed 52 people. Avalanches hit the town again in 1720 and 1758.

Obergesteln, Rhone Valley (1720)
The so-called Galen avalanche killed 88 residents, 400 cattle, and destroyed more than 100 buildings in the village of Obergesteln. In 1852 another snowslide destroyed only the village bakery. However, fires that resulted from the shattered ovens took the rest of the town. In 1915 a third avalanche hit the area, ruining twelve houses but taking no lives.

Ftan, Switzerland (1720)
Thirty-two children at choir practice in the house of the local schoolmaster perish in an avalanche.

German, French & Italian Alps (1755)
Avalanches took 200 lives in Nice, Savoie, and Aosta.

Stura Valley, Italy (1775, March 19)
Three people in the Stura Valley of the Piedmont break a record for surviving after being buried for thirty-seven days. Maria Anna Rocha (45), her sister-in-law, her daughter (13), and her son (6) were trapped with the livestock in stables behind their home when 50 feet of snow buried the entire farm. Because the men of the family were not home at the time ane assumed everyone had perished, no rescue attempts were made. Meanwhile, the stable roof caved in under the snow’s weight, trapped the four people further in a space 12 feet long, 8 feet wide, an 5 feet high. All the livestock died except for two goats. The little boy died after twelve days. The women were driven nearly insane by the smell of dead bodies and constantly dripping water. On April 24 the spring thaw helped uncover the top of the shed. The men returned at this time to bury the assumed dead bodies, only to find the women still alive. The young girl did not seem injured, but the sister-in-law could no longer speak and Maria Anna Rochia had gone completely bald.

Panixer Pass, Switzerland (1799, October 5)
Heavy snowfall caused an avalanche that killed a Russian Army troop and 300 pack animals.

Splügen Pass, French Alps (1800, May)
56 members of Napoleon Bonaparte’s army are buried under 50 feet of snow. The leading company, including some 30 dragoons uner the command of Marshall Etienne Jacques Joseph Alexandre MacDonald, are on their way to Italy when an avalanche sends them and their mounts over the side of the mountain.

Biel, Switzerland (1827)
88 villagers died when an avalanche destroyed half the town.

Lewes, Sussex, England (1836, December 27)
Cottages on Boulder Row in the resort town of Lewes are swept away by a powder-snow avalanche. 8 of the 15 people who were buried are killed.

Alta, Utah (1867)
60 to 65 people perish in the mining camps in the Wasatch Range. In 1937, the first U.S. avalanche observation and research center is built here.

Biel, Switzerland (1869)
A flash avalanche destroyed the village in a matter of seconds, taking 27 lives.

Elm, Switzerland (1881, September 11)
30 houses were destroyed and 150 killed when an avalanche hit.

Alta, Utah, USA (1885)
16 people die in one of the first U.S. recorded avalanches.

Iso Fiord, Iceland (1906, February 21)
An avalanche swept over Hnifsdal, killing 23 people.

Wallace, Idaho, USA (1906, February 27)
An avalanche buried 75 inhabitants.

Mace, Colorado, USA (1906, February 29)
An avalanche destroyed the town, taking 60 lives.

Rogers Pass, Canada (1906, March 6)
An avalanche buried a train, taking 62 lives.

Lofoden Isles, Switzerland (1906, March 7)
An avalanche took 21 lives and injured an additional 39.

Wellington, Washington, USA (1910, March 1)
Three passenger trains were stalled at a station house on the way up to the Stevens Pass in the Cascade Range. The trains, several carriages, and the station house were swept up by an avalanche and carried over a ledge in a canyon 150 feet below. 118 people were estimated dead.

Italian-Austrian Alps (Tyrol) (1916, December 13)
A series of avalanches take the lives of over 10,000 soldiers from both the Italian and Austrian forces in twenty-four hours. Heavy snows caused the avalanches. A barracks in the Marmolada Hills was destroyed, taking 250 men and officers.

Italy (1915-1918)
More than 60,000 Italian and Austrian troops fighting in World War I are lost as they fight in mountain passes over a four-year period. Avalanches were often used as weapons. Soldiers bombed snowfields above enemy troops to start snowslides. One report claims that 3,000 Austrians perished in forty-eight hours. One officer noted, “The mountains in winter are more dangerous than the Italians.”

Vancouver, British Columbia (1915, March 23)
An avalanche buried 50 miners and injured many others.

Cuneo, Italy (1916, March 12)
An avalanche struck and buried 25 people in the Agordo district.

Marmolada, Switzerland (1916, December 12)
Snow swept away 253 soldiers of the Austrian Army.

Japan (1922, February 5)
A railroad train by buried by falling snow. The death toll was 110.

Irkutzsk, Siberia (1925, March 27)
A train was buried by an avalanche that killed 22 and injured 30.

Bingham, Utah, USA (1926, February 17)
More than a foot of heavy snow falls near the town, causing an avalanche of snow, rocks, and trees to slide down Sap Gulch, burying 75 and killing 40.

Rocque Billierre, Switzerland (1926, November 24)
A number of avalanches hit the area, destroying the village. The death toll was 24.

Mt. Serrat, Brazil (1928, March 10)
An avalanche killed 92 people, even though many evacuated.

Bardonecchia, Italy (1931, January 28)
An avalanche killed 21 soldiers. Nine survivors, on the verge of starving to death, made it out of the disaster to Rochemolles Valley.

Ortiperio, Corsica (1934, February 5)
An avalanche took 39 lives and swept away 10 houses.

Swiss-Austrian Alps (1950-1951, winter)
A series of 649 avalanches killed over 265 people in three months known as the Winter of Terror. The slides were caused by strange weather conditions. Warm air had moved inland from the Atlantic Ocean to collide with cold polar air, producing lots of snow and rain. Austria suffered the most damage, losing thousands of acres of forest, several small villages, and more than 100 lives. Switzerland lost 900 buildings and 92 lives.

Austria (1952)
A bus is swept off the road by an airborne avalanche. 24 skiers and the bus driver perish.

Dalaas, Austria (1954, January 11)
An avalanche hits on a dark, stormy night, and lifts a two-ton train off the tracks, slamming it against the station house. Another carriage is pushed over into a ravine, killing 10.

Blons, Austria (1954, January 12)
More than 200 people die in Austria’s single worst avalanche. About 380 people lived in Blons, a village with 90 houses spread over 10 square miles. At 10:30 a.m., a dry-snow avalanche called the Falv destroyed the central part of town. Nine hours later, a second avalanche known as the Montclav struck, moving 3,800 feet downhill in less than thirty seconds. 115 rescue workers and people died in the second slide.

Vovarlberg, Austria (1954)
An avalanche buries a town at the foot of Kirschberg Mountain, taking 125 lives.

Lowarai Pass, West Pakistan (1959, December 16)
Snow slides into this steep mountain pass, killing 48.

Switzerland (1962)
An airborne avalanche destroys 250 acres of century-old trees.

Ranrahirca, Peru (1962, January 10)
On January 9, a storm drops several tons of snow onto the slopes of 22,000-foot-high Nevado de Huascarán, the second highest mountain in South America. The next day, the fresh snow begins to melt and flow down beneath the layers of Glacier No. 511. At 6:13 p.m., about three tons of snow on the north summit breaks loose from the melting glacier and falls 3,000 feet into a gorge below. Two minutes later, after traveling one mile, tons more ice and snow wipe out the villages of Pacucco and Yanamachito, killing 800. The remnants of the village are carried down the narrow canyon, a solid wall almost 50 feet high hurtling at speeds over 100 miles an hour. A gale of compressed air pushes ahead of the mass, destroying buildings in Huaraschuco, Uchucoto, Chuquibamba, and Calla before they, too, fall prey to the avalanche. Exploding out of the canyon mouth, about 39 million feet of snow and debris cascade into the river plain and roll over Ranrahirca, burying homes, livestock, buildings, and over 2,700 people. A slight bend in the canyon diverts the avalanche, saving the city of Yungay.

Saas-Fee, Switzerland (1965, August 30)
Part of the Allalin glacier breaks loose, wiping out the Mattmark Dam construction site and killing 12 men.

British Columbia, Canada (1965)
A mining camp witnesses an avalanche and loses 27 people.

Val d’Isère, France (1970, February 10)
A 120-mile-per-hour avalanche rushes into this resort town in a wave 500 to 1,000 yards wide. It buries several cars, then smashes into a youth hostel. 40 youths, most of them Belgian, French, and German students on holiday, are killed while eating breakfast. The powdery snow fills the cafeteria from floor to ceiling, and rescuers use dinner plates to dig out victims. The next day, another avalanche 20 miles away at Bourg-Saint-Maurice takes a line of evacuating vehicles.

Reckingen, Switzerland (1970, February 24)
An avalanche strikes a military camp, killing twenty-nine officers of the Swiss army. Avalanche threats had been apparent for a month, for snow was laden heavily on the side of 10,200-foot-high Blinnehorn Peak, directly over the camp. The avalanche carried the stone officers’ barracks 200 feet from its foundation. Fortunately, the snow missed the main part of camp, where about 500 enlisted men were staying in wooden huts.

Sallanches, France (1970, April 16)
Seventy people, mostly young boys, are killed when a 60-foot-high wave of snow and rock hits two dormitories and a nurses’ residence at the Sallanches Tuberculosis Sanatorium. The snow rolled about 1,000 feet, sweeping up trees, rocks, and other debris, striking the hospital shortly after midnight. The house sheltered about 200 children.

Yungay, Peru (1970, May 31)
At 3:23 p.m., while many of the city’s 20,000 residents were listening to the closing moments of the World Cup soccer game, a huge earthquake shook the northern half of Peru. The city was soon in ruins - walls collapsed, houses crumpled, and the city plaza was split open. The survivors of this worst earthquake in Western Hemisphere history then heard a low rumble overhead. Millions of tons of icy snow break loose from the high slopes of Nevado de Huascarán, tumbling down into lakes and reservoirs. The ice falls then cause lakes to overflow, sending a wave of mud, ice, debris, and rocks 10 miles down the valley at 3 miles per minute. The city and its 20,000 inhabitants, including some small villages, are buried beneath 100 million cubic yards of mud and rubble. Only 92 survive. This would be known as the worst avalanche in history. A Peruvian relief pilot, flying above the destruction, reported in disbelief, “Yungay no longer exists!”

Obergesteln, Switzerland (1972)
88 people, 400 cattle, and 120 buildings are lost under an avalanche in the Rhone Valley.

Pamir Mountains, Russia (1974, July 10-August 10)
Thirteen international climbers lose their lives in a series of storms and avalanches in the mountains. Among them are 8 Soviet women attempting to scale Lenin Peak, third highest mountain in the then USSR.

Eastern Turkey (1976, February 8)
14 people perish in the mountainous eastern region of Turkey when an avalanche cuts roads and power lines, isolating hundreds of villages.

Lahaul Valley, India (1979, early March)
Five days of snowstorms creates deep drifts over the Himalayan foothills in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. A series of avalanches bury the valley beneath 15 to 20 feet of snow. About 200 people are estimated dead.

Mt. Rainier, Washington, USA (1981, June 21)
Eleven mountain climbers are swept off the mountain’s face when a wall of ice and rock breaks off the face of a glacier and sweeps downhill. The bodies are buried under nearly 70 feet of ice and debris. The accident is thought to be the worst in the history of American mountaineering. It happened as 29 climbers tried to scale 14,410-foot-high Mt. Rainier, the highest peak in Washington State. They had reached the 11,000-foot mark when the ice fell. The other 18 party members survived without injury. Park rangers say that ice falls on the mountain are even more dangerous than avalanches because they can occur at any time and under any weather conditions.

Alpine Meadows, California, USA (1982)
An avalanche damages this ski resort, taking 7 lives and destroying many buildings.

Iran (1990)
A 7.7 scale earthquake causes avalanches that bury villages and take 50,000 lives.

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