Swiss authorities raise avalanche danger to high level in Valais

Avalanche danger in Valais is increasing Keystone-SDA

Avalanche danger in canton Valais, in southwestern Switzerland, has risen since Tuesday evening, with authorities now warning of a high risk.

+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

On Wednesday morning, the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) raised the alert to level four, the second‑highest on the scale.

+ High risk of avalanche in parts of Swiss Alps after heavy snowfall

According to the latest avalanche bulletin, large amounts of fresh snow and drifting snow have built up over an older weak layer of snow, meaning avalanches can be easily triggered or may occur naturally in many areas.

With more snowfall and strong winds expected throughout the day, the avalanche risk is set to rise further. Authorities warn that very large avalanches are expected within the affected zones.

The avalanche bulletin warns that exposed sections of roads and paths could be affected. Conditions are also poor for ski tours and off‑piste descents away from secured runs.

For the Alpine region stretching from the Bernese Oberland to Graubünden, the avalanche bulletin has set the risk level at three, indicating a considerable danger.

Join the debate:

Translated from German by AI/sp

How we work

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.  

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at [e-mail].