Swiss Alpine resorts covered in white gold for Christmas
Alpine resorts covered in white gold for Christmas
Keystone-SDA
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Swiss Alpine resorts covered in white gold for Christmas
Many areas at low altitudes in Switzerland are enjoying a blanket of snow. In the mountains, the intense precipitation of the last few days has delighted skiers.
This content was published on
3 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Français
fr
Les stations alpines couvertes d’or blanc pour Noël
Original
Snow has arrived in almost all of Switzerland. It is abundant in the Alps, wrote MeteoSwiss on the X social network. Since Friday night, more than a metre of snow has fallen in the high Alps, adds MeteoNews on its website.
As a result, many Alpine resorts were covered in a thick blanket of snow. In canton Valais, there was 180 cm of snow at Crans-Montana, 170 cm at Ovronnaz and 127 cm at Portes du Soleil-Champéry, according to the Suisse Tourism snow report. In Leysin and at Glacier 3000 in Le Diablerets in canton Vaud, the snow cover was between 110 and 115 cm.
In central and eastern Switzerland, there was snow at 145 cm in Grindelwald, in canton Bern, 125 cm at Sedrun-Oberalp-Andermatt and 140 cm at Elm, in canton Glarus. Another metre of snow was measured at Alt-St-Johann in the Toggenburg region of St Gallen.
Avalanche danger
The Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (WSL) warns that the avalanche danger is very high due to these heavy snowfalls. It is considered “high” (degree 4 out of 5) throughout the Valais, central Switzerland and parts of Graubünden, and “considerable” (degree 3 out of 5) in the rest of the Alpine arc and parts of the Jura.
Conditions for snowsports outside of secured pistes are critical, adds the WSL, pointing out that avalanches can be triggered by “a single snowsports enthusiast”.
More
More
How I survived an avalanche in Switzerland
This content was published on
The advice – try to ‘swim’, create a breathing space with your hands – is not so easy to follow when you’re tumbling in a wave of freezing snow.
Snowfall decreased on Monday afternoon. Only a few snow showers were still expected, with occasional fresh snow, Meteoswiss told news agency Keystone-ATS. Along the Alps and in the Jura, snowfall was expected to continue until Tuesday morning.
Crumpled sheet metal
However, the abundance of white gold was not all good news. The Oberalp railway line between Andermatt and Dieni was interrupted until the end of service due to the bad weather, announced the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn. Piggyback transport was also interrupted in the Furka tunnel due to the risk of avalanches.
Numerous accidents were also reported in the morning. The Bernese cantonal police counted several dozen, which caused only minor material damage. No injuries were reported.
Translated from French by DeepL/jdp
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Swiss Abroad
The citizenship obstacle course facing spouses of Swiss Abroad
Council of Europe warns against excluding Ukraine and Europe from peace talks
This content was published on
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, has warned against the exclusion of Ukraine and Europe from peace negotiations.
Switzerland records fewer illegal medicine imports
This content was published on
Last year, the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security seized 15% fewer illegal imports of medicine than the previous year.
Swiss president reacts to US vice president’s speech in Munich
This content was published on
For Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter, the Munich Security Conference was marked by uncertainty over the course of US foreign policy.
Swiss ‘Covid leaks’ scandal: court keeps gagging order
This content was published on
Swiss prosecutors, investigating a leak of confidential government information during Covid-19, remain blocked from seeing sensitive communication.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.