Mountain village digs itself out

More than a metre of fresh snow fell in Gadmen over the past few days swissinfo.ch

Alpine roads are being reopened after the heaviest snowfalls in four years coupled with a high avalanche risk cut off many mountain villages for days.

swissinfo paid a visit to one of these villages, Gadmen, before the road reopened and found a community taking the situation in its stride.

Pointing at the steep snow-laden mountainside directly above the Bernese Oberland village, Branka Reimann says the villagers are still waiting nervously for the whole slope to give way.

“That’s where it will come loose,” she says. “The snow falls down onto the slope from the cliffs above and can set off a large avalanche towards the village. It can happen very suddenly.”

The grocery shop Reimann runs along with her husband is located directly in the avalanche’s path.

After unusually heavy snowfalls four years ago, they along with the rest of Gadmen’s inhabitants, had to be evacuated for three weeks as a safety precaution.

Risk reduced

But on Saturday, the Swiss Snow and Avalanche Institute in its daily assessment reduced the risk of avalanches in the region from high to considerable.

That was enough to give the local authorities the go-ahead to reopen the road which is Gadmen’s vital link to the valley.

More than a metre of snow fell during the five days the village was cut off from the outside world. Men and women with jobs in the valley were unable to go to work and the local school was closed.

However, the villagers have taken it all in their stride.

“We’ve had to get the underground shelter ready in case it gets worse,” says Doris Schindler, who runs the Alpenrose hotel. “Otherwise, it’s been nothing out of the ordinary except for the amount of snow we’ve had to shovel.”

Her sentiments were echoed by everyone who spoke to swissinfo.

Provisions for weeks

“We’ve got enough provisions and supplies at home to last a month to six weeks,” says one woman while walking her dog in the hamlet of Obermatt just outside of Gadmen.

Each end of the hamlet has been declared an avalanche zone, so the woman’s daily walk with her dog has been limited to a 200-metre stretch between the houses.

“It was always like this when my children were small, and they were really happy when it was so bad that the school had to be closed,” says pensioner Frieda Kühner. “I remember when it was normal to spend a couple days each year in the shelter.”

“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” she adds. “You just have to be careful and you have to take it easy because you can’t go anywhere. But then again, you don’t have to!”

The village mayor, Barbara Kehrli, agrees that people living in mountain villages are used to dealing with everything Mother Nature has to throw at them.

Supplies flown in

“Everyone stocks up on the most important supplies in the autumn,” Kehrli says. “And when we are cut off, fresh produce and bread are flown in by helicopter a couple times a week.”

“We have to change our habits in the sense that we have to restrict our movements,” she continues. “We have to know where the danger zones are.”

Avalanches still threaten Gadmen even if the risk has been downgraded.

What worries locals like shopkeeper Reimann is the thick layer of snow that she can see covering the mountainside directly above the village.

The weather conditions over the coming days or weeks will determine when and with what force it will come down.

swissinfo, Dale Bechtel in Gadmen

In brief

Switzerland has had its heaviest snowfall in four years which caused hundreds of avalanches, cutting off roads and villages temporarily.

The areas with the highest risk of avalanches are in the cantons of Valais, Graubünden and Schwyz.

The Gotthard tunnel, Europe’s main north-south transalpine artery, was closed for several days but has been reopened.

Conditions are easing, but skiers are being urged to stay on-piste.