The glacial avalanche that wiped out the Upper Valais village of Blatten on 28 May 2025 has raised questions about other threatened areas and the steps to take to make mountains safer for human settlement.
Blatten 30 May 2025.
swisstopo
Swiss disaster planning saved 300 people from death in a glacial avalanche of rocks, ice and rubble that wiped out the Upper Valais village of Blatten on 28 May 2025. Three months on, national, regional and local action is advancing to keep the villagers in the Lötschental and make “the magical valley”, part of a Unesco World Heritage Site, a major attraction to visitors again. But the local catastrophe has raised questions about other threatened areas and the steps needed to make mountains safer for human settlement. Deputy Editor Peter Hulm, who by chance was in Blatten just two days before evacuations began, analyses the situation three months later.
Lötschental (LINK), situated between the Bernese and Valais Alps (population 1,500), is a “Magical Valley” in Swiss culture, with a local history that is famous well outside its borders (LINK).
The valley was Charlie Chaplin’s favourite escape from celebrity, taking his holidays in the hotel farthest up the valley, the Fafleralp, which has a wing named after him. A large car park provides space for visitors to explore the region around, and a camping site next to it is often packed with vans and tents alongside a stream in summer.
Lötschental’s “wild man” costumes and wooden masks are famous among folklorists. Groups of the valley’s male inhabitants parade in the streets each spring wearing these outfits to chase away the evil spirits of winter.
Lötschental’s settlements date back to Roman times, maybe earlier, but its people were largely cut off from the rest of the world until the 20th century. Even today, coming into the valley is like travelling back into Swiss time with its distinctive Valaisan chalets (mostly dating back to the 16-17th century), narrow streets, and ancient churches (LINK).
And there’s a signed trail above the village of Wiler to Fafleralp with a quiz involving Lötschental legends, spelled via QR codes attached to tree trunks along the way (LINK). If you answer all the questions correctly you could claim a prize at Fafleralp. For example, who were the Lauchernalp dwarves? What was hidden in the Moosstein Cellar? Where did the man from Balme hang his hat? (LINK)
Full disclosure: I would score zero.
The Lötschental mountain peaks include the famously difficult Bietschhorn at nearly 4,000m, and several others reaching over 3,000m. Part of The Jungfrau-Aletsch Protected Area (which is the most glaciated area in the Swiss Alps), Lötschental — including its southern and eastern parts — belongs to the Unesco World Heritage Site declared for the region in 2001.
All this within 27 km, stretching from the Lötschenlücke (Loetsch Source) at 3178m, the top of the Langgletscher (Long Glacier), down to the mouth of the valley to the joined towns of Steg-Gampel, 2500m lower down. The water then runs into the upper Rhone river (the Rotten in local dialect) that can take you some 800km later to the Mediterranean (LINK). P.S. Irish dancing is popular here and there’s a group called The Rotten Line Dancers.
For hikers and bikers the Lötschental is a favourite destination and launching point for treks, many through forests or overlooking the Lonza. But above Wiler at 1900 m, the resort of Lauchernalp, accessible only by cable car in the snowy season, has brought winter sport into the Lötschental tourism business as well as summer activities such as lake swimming and monster scooter trekking (LINK).
Not surprisingly this resort is playing a key role in local hopes of reviving tourism in the region, which lost 58% of the whole valley’s hotel beds through Blatten’s disappearance, as well as affecting suppliers, ski businesses and shops that depended on visitors.
The cantonal authorities have unblocked CHF1m for a new temporary hotel at Lauchernalp that should be ready for the start of the 2025-6 skiing season. The building with 19 2-4 bed rooms of 3-star standard will cost CHF4.2m in all. A local hotel cooperative will manage it.
The aim is to start to make up for the 30,000 hotel nights the Lötschental has lost with the disappearance of Blatten as a living village. With 300 inhabitants and three hotels, Blatten was the furthest village along the road leading from Gampel to Fafleralp at 1542m altitude, and accounted for 80% of the nights spent in the Lötschental’s hotels.
After building, the hotel should provide 8 of the 40 jobs lost in the disaster. Though being constructed containers for speed, each room should have a balcony and it can be used later for a youth hostel or workers’ lodging. Meals will be available at the nearby existing panorama restaurant.
A temporary cable car between Wiler and Weissenried, near Lauchernalp, could be running by May 2026, according to authorities. But it will only be a temporary solution to compensate for the difficulty of roadworks on this steep terrain. Remaking roads in the valley itself could take till 2029, if the geology and natural risks in the region permit it. And they could cost CHF20m, not counting protective galleries for traffic.
On 28 May 2025 at 3.24pm, a large part of the Birch glacier and associated rock rubble came down the mountain and buried 90% of the buildings within 5 minutes (LINK).
It cut off all road access further up, including to the Hotel Fafleralp and cut off 10 hotel workers there.
The rubble created a lake behind it from the snow and ice, putting more Blatten houses under water, and threatening a flood downstream through the main villages of Wiler, Kippel and Ferden, with the prospect of torrential water even reaching Gampel and Steg in the valley floors.
Eleven days before, however, authorities had begun evacuating Blatten, emptying the village in something like two hours, and none of the inhabitants were injured. Cars, cows and sheep were lifted out by helicopter in the days before 28 May.
Nevertheless, a 64-year-old sheep breeder farming outside the evacuation area is believed to have perished along with his 100 sheep in a stable originally thought to be above the immediate danger zone (YouTube 3:35 min). Severalinhabitants interviewed on Swiss TV only had time to grab their money purse, a phone or a portable computer, and nothing but the clothes they were wearing, before they had to leave (YouTube in French 14:37 minutes).
The avalanche buried 2.5km of the Blatten valley under ice, snow stones and rubble and climbed 200m up the other side of the valley, burying part of the hamlet of Ried, and reached up to some of Weissenried’s grazing huts and homes at 1700m. Behind the debris a lake formed and flooded most of the remaining Blatten houses.
Some 130 homes were lost. In the next 48 hours the snow melt created a way through the rubble to the Lonza below, and continued to drain slowly.
It was nine days before 13 residents of Blatten, Eisten and Weissenried (the two upper settlements) were allowed to go back to their homes by helicopter for one hour on 6 June to collect essentials, turn off electrical equipment and empty fridges (LINK in German). But the risk of further landslides remained. The army catastrophe corps that was on scene with clearing equipment withdrew its monitoring and traffic wardens as a result, while leaving behind the clearing equipment and personnel.
Meanwhile, even two weeks later, rubble continued to tumble down the slopes from the mountainside where once the Birch glacier had been. Homes and buildings in the parts of Wiler and Kippel lowest to the river were preventively evacuated, and people in Steg and Gampel close to the Lonza were told to prepare to leave at short notice if necessary.
Two days before the start of evacuations, I had been in Blatten on 15 May, making a regular trip to Lötschental for walks and flower exploration. On the way home, my wife and I lunched at Blatten’s Breithorn Hotel Restaurant (LINK in German). Nothing indicated disaster was about to descend on the village.
Luckily, the tourist season hadn’t yet opened in the valley (it was due to launch on 16 June). The only other people in the dining room were two men I presumed were locals. Outside in the (for us) rather chilly sun, several definite locals were having a drink together on the terrace. Typical convivial Lötschental. But several other hotels and restaurants weren’t yet in operation.
Thanks to the Breithorn’s Marie-Madlen Rieder-Hasler und her sister Brigitte Lehner-Hasler (whose family are all reported safe with their home in nearby Wiler, though the hotel they managed together for the past 26 years was completely buried), my wife had the best goatcheese dish she had ever tasted (Ziegerkäsehonigsalat, a cheese and honey salad), while I tucked into a delicious Walliserrösti (Swiss roast potatoes with trimmings). And the Breithorn meals have always been superb and locally flavoured.
The Breithorn was a spanking modern hotel that preserved its traditional charm. It had been renovated for winter 2016 and 2017. The restaurant had a new floor, ceiling and lighting while remaining cosy and welcoming (LINK to ntv 2 July YouTube report in German with Brigitte and Blatten plans for the future).
We were in the modern, downstream quarter of the village. To explore traditional Blatten from the Breithorn Hotel you have to walk up the road from the restaurant (Blattenstrasse) past the only shop (a grocery store) to the church.
The Queen of the Rosary church (Kirche Rosenkranzkönigin) was built only in 1985, replacing one dating back to 1877, but with a 15th-century statue of the Virgin and child Jesus displayed next to the altar.
Designed by Amédée Cachin of Brig, it was described as “one of the most striking examples of new building styles in the Lötschental” (LINK). Cachin produced various models before one was approved in a local referendum, and a model can be seen in the museum at Kippel.
If you took the walk past the church to the Lonza, you couldn’t fail to see the giant Wild Man, a huge version of the masked and brightly clothed figures known in the Lötschental as Tschäggättä, standing under a protective wooden awning looking across the river.
I usually came past the church from the other direction, taking a popular walk above the Lonza from the baroque Mariä Heimsuchung (Visitation of the Virgin Mary) chapel, dating back to 1646, below Fafleralp in a region called Kühmatt (Cow Meadow).
A cluster of mountain huts sits beside it, and across the road are stables in the green meadow. The chapel was renovated in 1758-59, and most recently reconsecrated after more work on 2 June 1989.
Apart from the beauty of the 45-minute easy walk, the trail is notable for its 10 meditation signs with texts inspired by the landscape you can see around you. Perhaps its most encouraging message for the relationship between people and the environment: “All is one”. The parish website has details (in German) of the Lötschental churches and pilgrim walks as well as texts relating to the signs.
This walk would bring me past a new hydraulic power station and a few metres further into the oldest part of Blatten, past a historic sawmill (dating back to 1756) that was still cutting wood, and storage barns as well as traditional flower-decorated chalets with kitchen gardens and delicious-looking food plants in close view. All this has now gone.
Blatten, not to be confused with Blatten bei Naters 15km to the southeast (50km by road) (LINK), is first found in written records as uffen der Blattun from 1433 (in the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, using the Valais dialect designation of the village) or as uffen der Blatten from 1342 according to another source.
A pin found in Blatten has been dated to probably the Bronze Age (3000 BC). But the village itself only separated administratively from downriver Kippel in 1898. The Swiss Historical Dictionary (LINK in French) notes that the 19th century saw major emigration for locals taking jobs as foreign workers and domestic servants.
A local priest pointed to Blatten’s devotion to Catholicism: "It's the region from which many [Vatican] Swiss Guards come from.” The disaster happened weeks before a spectacular procession for Corpus Christi, Father Robert Biel noted. "Lötschental Valley had the most beautiful procession of Corpus Christi, with people dressed in traditional folk clothes, carrying historic banners, with orchestras playing and church choirs singing." And soldiers in 19th-century costumes of red jackets and white trousers formed an essential part of Blatten’s parades (LINK).
In the 20th century Blatteners also moved away to jobs in industry and the services. It was hard to get to the valley until the opening of the Lötschberg tunnel in 1913. Until 1945 agriculture and animal husbandry provided most of the jobs. But Fafleralp has been a tourist attraction since 1910 and in 1953 a major road to the Rhone River valley opened, enabling Blatten’s people to take jobs in the valley on a daily or weekly basis, and made the region easily accessible to eager tourists.
Eleven days after the landslide, the valley reopened to tourists above Goppenstein to Wiler (LINK), including trekking trails and the cable car to Lauchernalp. However, debris was still falling from the source of the catastrophe, the Kleines Nesthorn peak at 3341m (the Bietschhorn was once called the Nesthorn), which before the disaster was largely neglected by climbers (LINK).
To help residents build a new life, the local bus service has been running new services to the town of Visp with its many businesses and industries.
The disaster has relaunched a debate in Switzerland about coping with natural threats (LINK). There is no legislation for national action, and the Federal Council (Ministerial Council) had to use its emergency powers to make CHF5m available for urgent help.
One in six houses in Switzerland is said to be at risk from a natural disaster. In Bern and Graubünden (Grisons) nearly 200 rockfaces and slopes are said to threaten landslides. The popular Bernese resort of Kandersteg (population 1,200 as well as tourists) near Oeschenen faces the prospect of three times as much rock coming down in its direction as in Blatten’s catastrophe. Monitoring of possible earth movements is taking place in 89 parts of the Valais, particularly Val d’Herens, Val d’Anniviers, Val de Bagnes and the Saas valley.
In the catastrophe that wiped out Blatten, however, the experts largely agree that the monitoring and prediction system worked very well: the 300 inhabitants were saved. 25 years before, 13 people in the tiny village of Gondo on the Swiss-Italian border died when an earthslide swept away 10 houses, the school, shops and the road after 3 days of torrential rain (see “The seven worst landslides in Swiss history” by swissinfo).
Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said it was “almost a miracle” that only one person was reported missing from Blattten. At the 8th meeting of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva, he told the 4,000 participants we should invest more in prevention (LINK). Switzerland spends CHF2-3 billion a year on disaster risk reduction at home and CHF250m abroad. Swiss parliamentarians have also called for more resources to combat natural hazards.
Patricia Danzi, head of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), who co-chaired the Geneva meeting, said increased spending at home would not necessarily be at the expense of efforts to support developing countries. As for financing reconstruction, “Switzerland has expertise that we want to share” with countries that have not set up a mechanism, she said.
Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, said the Blatten earthslide was “an important reminder” of the effectiveness of early warnings, but they “cannot prevent glaciers from disappearing”, and she called for greater efforts to combat climate change.
The Geneva-based United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNODRR) said on 27 May in its 2025 Global Assessment Report that natural disasters around the world are becoming increasingly costly: “While the direct costs of disasters averaged $70–80 billion a year between 1970 and 2000, between 2001 and 2020 these annual costs grew significantly to $180–200 billion” (LINK). But the losses are nearly 10 times higher if indirect effects are taken into account: over $2.3 trillion each year (LINK).
What wasn’t predicted in Blatten was the size of the disaster: 9 million cubic metres of rock and ice instead of the calculated “worst case” of 5 million. The scientists had calculated their “worst case” landslide might not reach the village.
Blatten, the Kleines Nesthorn and the Birch Glacier had been under scientific observation since a large landslide in December 1993 (LINK). This was stepped up recently with satellite monitoring using Eutelsat, drone observations of the 4-6 million cubic metres that had broken loose before the collapse, and radar station sensing of vulnerable areas at altitude.
What is not clear to me is why the village inhabitants weren’t told to store their most valued possessions somewhere away from the village. For example, family photo albums, mementoes, legal documents etc. After all, the village was known to be at risk for 30 years.
One reason might be that the village wasn’t on the current map of danger zones, because it was “unlikely to be vulnerable in 300 years” according to Swiss geologists (LINK in German).
Nevertheless, scientific alarm was heightened on 14 May when debris came down to 500 metres above the valley and Lonza River. The first evacuation of 90 inhabitants and 16 tourists took place on 17 May because of increasing ground movement. The rest of the 300 village was emptied within 2 hours on 19 May (LINK).
Swiss-French Television followed the events in detail from the evacuations of 19 May through to the 28 May catastrophe and since.
Authorities drained the Ferden dam and reservoir to hold back possible flood water, Gampel closed its pedestrian walkways over the Lonza, and helicopters designed to handle large loads removed trees and branches from the flood course.
Spontaneous collections for the beleaguered Blatten evacuees organized by over 40 people in Steg and Gampel gathered so much that much has to be sent on to the needy elsewhere.
Banks suspended repayments of mortgages till the end of the year, though what happens then about the debts owed is still unclear.
Local authorities organized a meeting of all the evacuees in Wiler to discuss what they want to happen after the immediate crisis. The village inhabitants said they want Blatten to be rebuilt.
Environment Minister Albert Rösti, visiting the stricken area, gave his support at a media conference on 6 June (LINK).
On 12 June the Blatten community came together for their annual meeting, this time in Wiler in closed session. They affirmed their wish to stay in the Lötschental and approved a detailed plan to expand settlement in Eisten and Weissenried within 3 to 5 years, starting with the buildings left standing there when the earthslide halted at 200m above the valley (LINK). The plan even includes rebuilding the village centre of Blatten.
Commune President (Mayor) Matthias Bellwald saidthere will also be a road, village square and church. For young people, this will then be Old Blatten.
Unfortunately for Blatten resettlement, “almost all [Lötschental] is classified as a red zone, indicating that it is judged to be at high risk because of earth movements, floods and above all avalanches” (LINK).
But Bellwald’s word after the catastrophe have gone all around the world on the Internet via the BBC as: “We have lost our village, but not our heart” (LINK).
The community has been offered emergency funding of CHF5 million from the Swiss federal (national) government for urgent measures not covered by insurance or subventions, in addition to support from the canton (CHF10m) and friendly communes and other cantonal authorities (around CHF5m), as well as the emergency aid organizations (at least CHF13.7m raised by the Chaîne du bonheur from individual gifts).
Federal Minister Albert Rösti insisted the national payment is only a first step. “Later, the payments will be much higher.” He noted that last year it paid out CHF54 million to the Ticino, Grisons and Valais (LINK).
The total damage in Blatten has been estimated at CHF320 million, CHF260 million of which relates to buildings and goods, and CHF60 million to lost revenue (LINK in French).
Journalist Jelena Kalbermatten, who grew up there and lost her home in the landslide, waited one month before publishing her feelings in the Walliser Bote (LINKin German and paywalled).
But announcing her decision on LinkedIn, she said: “On May 28, 2025, a landslide destroyed my home. I didn't write this text because I have answers. On the contrary. It is an attempt to find words for what actually leaves you speechless. For pain, powerlessness, uprooting — but also for gratitude. Gratitude for what was. For a childhood and a life in a village that was paradise for me. For mountains that were our protection and home — and that have now shown us how small man is compared to nature. I know that we will go further. As a community. At some point, perhaps also as a village — in whatever form.”
Insurance dilemma
As for Charlie Chaplin's renowned Hotel Fafleralp, the only hotel of the region to escape destruction, its rooms to accommodate 120 guests had been booked up to the end of June. Now closed, it is expected to lose hundreds of thousands of francs in business for the year. But the hoteliers said they do not expect to be able to recover anything from insurance against business losses, because the place was not physically damaged (LINK in German).
Nusereal: Updates and background
New Yorker 27 August 2025: The Lessons of a Glacier’s Collapse.
Photos from websites and personal, unless otherwise indicated.