Switzerland: What’s the real risk from avalanches?
By Simon Bradley
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How common are avalanches in Switzerland?
, there has been an average of 100 reported avalanches a year where people were involved. On average, 23 people die in avalanches every year, the majority (+90%) in open mountainous areas where people were off-piste skiing, snowboarding, or backcountry touring on skis or snowshoes.
In controlled areas (roads, railways, communities and secured ski runs) the 15-year annual average number of victims dropped from 15 at the end of the 1940s to less than one in 2010. The last time anyone died in a building hit by an avalanche was in 1999.
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How are avalanches normally monitored?
Since 1945, the national avalanche warning service, run by the , produces a twice-daily using data gathered by 200 people trained to do the job and 170 automatic measuring stations dotted across the Swiss Alps. This information is shared and used by the police, cantons, communes, mountain resorts, rescue services and other winter professionals across the country.
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Are they normally successful at monitoring and protecting against avalanches?
The density of the avalanche warning network and the level of training and expertise is . But it cannot catch every avalanche, as SLF avalanche forecaster Frank Techel explained to [us].
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