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Valais, Switzerland (click on image to view larger)

Davos, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The danger of avalanches in the Swiss Alps has been at level 3 (“considerable danger”) for the past few days in many areas and is set to rise on Wednesday 30 December. Fresh snow and winds have created drifts, some of which are building up to dangerous levels. The greatest danger areas are above 1,800 metres on northern flanks of the Alps.

“The avalanche-prone locations are to be found on steep slopes of all aspects above approximately 2000 m,” according to the late Monday report from SLF, part of the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research.

“The size of the treacherous snow drift accumulations is increasing. Especially at transitions from a shallow to a deep snowpack, moreover, avalanches can be released in older layers of the snowpack. Whumpfing sounds are a clear indicator of this danger.”

Police in canton Valais have been warning snowboarders and off-piste skiers to be alert to the danger, after a 25-year-old French snowboarder died when he was caught by an avalanche 21 December, the first such death of the 2009-2010 winter season. He died after taking a lift up the French side of the Tête de Balme near Trient, then coming down the Swiss side. He was buried uner two metres of snow in a snow corridor 150 metres wide. His death was followed by a series of rescues in the past week that did not result in more than light injuries: a snowboarder near Morgins the same day, two in separate accidents near Verbier 23 December, at the Col de Mines and Col de Creblets and another the 23rd at Thyon.

Three off-piste skiers set off an avalanche 27 December at Ayent, near Anzeres, which injured one person when it hit a groomed slope.