Avalanche Research in Switzerland

Abstract

DURING the War of 1914-18 the number of avalanche fatalities among the armies in alpine regions was very high ; in the period between the two wars, the influx of winter visitors to the Alps was followed by an alarming increase in accidents due to inexperience in snow-craft. It became obvious that a proper study of snow and avalanches was needed. There followed the private research work of individuals in many parts of Central Europe, who in turn were succeeded by more elaborately organized groups. In 1934 the Swiss authorities inaugurated a small research laboratory on the Weissfluhjoch close to the upper end of one of the Davos funiculars at a height of 8,500 ft. Under the direction of Dr. H. Bader, a crystallographer, and Dr. M. Haefeli, a civil engineer, much valuable work was carried out ranging from the purely scientific to the severely practical. The former has given us a^great deal of new knowledge of the structure and behaviour of ice crystals, such as their rearrangement into regular order under stress with its clearly defined metallurgical analogy. Among the latter were such tests as the reaction of different types of snow to varying meteorological conditions and the resulting tendency to increase or decrease avalanche danger. The drawing together of the many threads of research followed and the results, combined with the investigations of practical men in the mountains, have been of the greatest value in bringing about a closer understanding of, and so mitigating, avalanche dangers. An excellent publication of some 340 pages was produced in 1939 recounting the field and laboratory work up to the end of 1938, and subsequent publications have also appeared.