Avalanches
The snow let loose — the avalanches that buried climbers, villages and armies beneath the mountains.
Part of Natural Disasters
35 moments in this segment.
- — The burial of Plurs. A rockslide-avalanche buried the wealthy Swiss-Italian village of Plurs (Piuro) in 1618, killing over 1,000.
- — The alpine avalanche disasters. For centuries avalanches have swept away entire alpine hamlets in a single winter night, dreaded as the 'white death'.
- — The 1954 Blons avalanches. Two avalanches struck the Austrian village of Blons on the same day, killing over 100.
- — The 1962 Huascarán avalanche. An ice avalanche from Peru's Huascarán mountain buried the town of Ranrahirca, killing about 4,000.
- — The 1995 Súðavík avalanche. An avalanche destroyed part of the Icelandic village of Súðavík in 1995, killing 14.
- — The 1999 Montroc avalanche. An avalanche destroyed chalets near Chamonix, France, killing 12 and prompting a landmark negligence trial.
- — The Galtür airlift. After the 1999 Galtür avalanche, the largest peacetime helicopter airlift in Austrian history evacuated the valley.
- — The Salang Pass avalanches. Afghanistan's Salang Pass tunnel and road, a Soviet-built lifeline, is repeatedly buried by avalanches.
- — Avalanches in the British hills. Even Scotland's mountains kill climbers in avalanches most winters, a little-known hazard of the UK.
- — The Attabad landslide-avalanche. A massive landslide dammed Pakistan's Hunza River in 2010, forming a lake that drowned villages upstream.
- — The 2014 Everest avalanche. An ice avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall killed 16 Sherpas — the deadliest single day on Everest until the next year.
- — The 2015 Panjshir avalanches. A series of avalanches struck Afghanistan's Panjshir valley in 2015, killing over 300.
- — The 2015 Everest base camp avalanche. The Nepal earthquake triggered an avalanche that swept Everest Base Camp, killing at least 22.
- — The 2016 Siachen miracle. A soldier was pulled alive from under 8 metres of avalanche snow on the Siachen glacier after six days in 2016.
- — The 2016 Aru glacier avalanche. A vast glacier suddenly collapsed and avalanched across a Tibetan valley in 2016, a rare and ominous event.
- — The 2017 Rigopiano avalanche. An avalanche buried the Hotel Rigopiano in the Italian Apennines after an earthquake, killing 29.
- — The 2017 Kashmir avalanches. A series of avalanches struck Indian-administered Kashmir, burying soldiers and villagers.
- — The Tajikistan highway avalanches. Avalanches regularly bury the high mountain highways of Tajikistan, cutting off remote valleys and killing travellers.
- — Central Asian avalanche country. The Tien Shan and Pamir ranges of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan see deadly avalanches every winter.
- — The 2017 Nasu avalanche. An avalanche killed high-school students on a mountaineering training exercise in Japan in 2017.
- — The Vassdalen avalanche. An avalanche killed 16 Norwegian soldiers on a NATO exercise at Vassdalen in 1986.
- — The 2018 Zermatt cutoff. Heavy snow and avalanche danger cut off the Swiss resort of Zermatt in January 2018, stranding thousands.
- — The 2019 Alps snow crisis. Record snowfall in January 2019 triggered deadly avalanches and cut off alpine villages across Austria and Germany.
- — The 1999 Galtür avalanche. An avalanche struck the Austrian ski village of Galtür, killing 31 in one of the Alps' worst modern avalanche disasters.
- — The 2020 Van avalanches. A second avalanche struck rescuers digging out victims of a first near Van, Turkey, killing over 40.
- — The Chamoli glacier disaster. A rock-and-ice avalanche off a Himalayan peak sent a deadly flood down the Rishiganga, destroying dams and killing 200.
- — The Winter of Terror, 1951. Hundreds of avalanches struck the Alps over three weeks in 1951, killing over 250 across Austria and Switzerland.
- — The 1970 Val d'Isère avalanche. An avalanche struck a youth hostel at Val d'Isère in the French Alps in 1970, killing 39.
- — The 2022 Marmolada serac collapse. A chunk of glacier broke loose on Italy's Marmolada in a summer heatwave, killing 11 hikers.
- — The 2023 Nathu La avalanche. An avalanche struck tourists near the Nathu La pass in Sikkim, India, in early 2023.
- — The White Friday avalanches, 1916. During WWI, avalanches — some triggered deliberately — killed thousands of soldiers in the Italian Alps in a single week.
- — The 1910 Wellington avalanche. An avalanche swept two trains off the tracks near Wellington, Washington, killing 96 — the deadliest in U.S. history.
- — Himalayan avalanches. Avalanches regularly sweep the high Himalayan valleys, burying villages, roads and mountaineers under snow and ice.
- — The 1962 Val Parghera avalanche. Avalanches repeatedly threaten the road and rail links through the Swiss and Austrian Alps.
- — The 1970 Huascarán avalanche. A quake shook loose a massive rock-and-ice avalanche from Peru's Mount Huascarán that buried the town of Yungay, killing over 20,000.
