Avalanches Have Always Caused Problems In The Alps

WASHINGTON - Deadly avalanches have long threatened residents of the Alps and those passing through.

At midnight on Saturday, Jan. 16, 1602, "a hideously gruesome avalanche smashed into the town of Davos," Swiss chronicler Flury Sprecher von Bernegg wrote.

Tales of devastating snowslides in the Alps reach back well before that.

"Detached snow drags the men into the abyss, and snow falling rapidly from high summits engulfs the living squadrons," the poet Silius Italicus wrote of avalanches that struck Hannibal's invading army in 218 B.C.

African general Hannibal Barca lost 18,000 men, 2,000 horses and several elephants crossing the mountains to invade Italy from the north, according to Roman historians.

He might well have agreed with Austrian Matthias Zdarsky, who wrote during World War I: "The mountains in winter are more dangerous than the Italians."

From 1914 to 1918, Italian and Austrian troops battling in the Tyrol region may have lost a combined 40,000 or more soldiers to avalanches, according to author Jay Robert Nash.

On Jan. 20, 1951, an estimated 240 people died when accumulated snows gave way after a series of heavy rains, sweeping down on a dozen towns in Austria, Italy and Switzerland. Nineteen died in Vals, Switzerland, and six snowslides within an hour devastated the Swiss town of Andermatt, killing 13.

Twenty-seven people died in 1869 when an avalanche struck Biel, Switzerland.

There were 84 deaths among the 200 residents of Obergesteln, Switzerland, when an avalanche struck on Feb. 20, 1720, Robert Henson reports in the January-February edition of the magazine Weatherwise.

On Jan. 17, 1718, a wall of snow destroyed every house in the Swiss village of Leukerbad, killing 52 people. Two centuries earlier, in 1518, 61 were killed in the same hamlet.

Other major Alpine avalanches with 100 or more fatalities include:

-- 1499: Avalanche killed 400 in a mercenary army in Great St. Bernard Pass, Switzerland.

-- 1598: Graubunden, Switzerland, avalanche, 100 deaths.

-- 1606: Davos-Frauenkirch, Switzerland, avalanche, 100 killed.

-- 1689: Montafon Valley, Austria, avalanche, 300 killed.

-- 1755: 200 killed in avalanches in German, French and Italian Alps.

-- 1799: Hundreds of Russian soldiers killed in snowslide at Panixer Pass, Switzerland.