Safety | 2015/16 season review of the avalanche warning services (Ö and CH)

The season report of the SLF mainly contains information on weather patterns and snowpack development, as well as avalanche activity (frequency, patterns, ...) and the issued danger levels. As usual, the report of the Austrian warning services also contains impressive accident descriptions and is made up of a general section and contributions from the individual federal states (and South Tyrol and Switzerland). The Swiss will publish a separate report on avalanches with personal injury and property damage at the beginning of 2017.

The winter of 2015/16 was the second warmest on record in Austria and Switzerland (2006/07 was warmer). There were many westerly and south-westerly conditions, especially in the height of winter. Overall, precipitation in Austria was slightly above the long-term average, although there was a relatively large amount of rain. In Switzerland, snow depths were quite average in the west and below average in the east and south. The zero degree line was very high, especially between the end of October and the beginning of January. Below 1400 m, snow depths were well below average throughout Switzerland. Due to the non-existent snow situation, some of the Austrian warning services did not start issuing regular situation reports until January 11 - later than ever before.

In Switzerland, 158 avalanches involving 204 people were reported by May 31. There were 57 injuries and 20 fatalities. One person died at level 1, 7 at level 2 and 11 at level 3. There was already one fatal accident in October when no level had yet been issued. 7 accidents with a total of 9 fatalities occurred in Valais, 6 accidents with 7 fatalities in Graubünden. There were two fatalities in the canton of Bern and one each in the cantons of Schwyz and Glarus.

There were three avalanche accidents in the 2015/16 season with an unusually high number of buried victims and fatalities: On January 18, a group of soldiers were caught in an avalanche during an exercise in Valfréjus (France). 6 people died. On February 6, an accident occurred in the Tux Alps (Tyrol) with 20 people involved and 5 fatalities. On March 12, 9 people were caught in an avalanche on the Schneebigen Nock (South Tyrol). 6 of them lost their lives. All three accidents were attributed to an old snow problem. The accidents in Tyrol and South Tyrol and their causes are explained in more detail in the Austrian season report.

As every year, the reports are an absolute must-read. Even if you only look at the pictures, the photos of the accidental avalanches in the Austrian report are very impressive. SLF report (pdf). Austrian LWDs report (pdf).