Avalanche kills two in the Italian Alps.

Two people have been killed and another five injured, three severely, following an avalanche on Mount Hohe Ferse (or Tallone Grande), a 2669 m peak in the Eastern Rhaetan Alps of Italy's Alto Adige (or South Tyrol) Province, on Saturday 21 March 2025. The avalanche, which is described as having been about 150 m wide, occurred at an altitude of about 2400 m, and caught 25 skiers in total.

Rescue workers searching for people trapped beneath the snow following an avalanche on Mount Hohe Ferse in the Eastern Rhaetan Alps on Saturday 21 March 2026. Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico.

Avalanches are caused by the mechanical failure of snowpacks; essentially when the weight of the snow above a certain point exceeds the carrying capacity of the snow at that point to support its weight. This can happen for two reasons, because more snow falls upslope, causing the weight to rise, or because snow begins to melt downslope, causing the carrying capacity to fall. Avalanches may also be triggered by other events, such as Earthquakes or rockfalls. Contrary to what is often seen in films and on television, avalanches are not usually triggered by loud noises. Because snow forms layers, with each layer typically occurring due to a different snowfall, and having different physical properties, multiple avalanches can occur at the same spot, with the failure of a weaker layer losing to the loss of the snow above it, but other layers below left in place - to potentially fail later.

Diagrammatic representation of an avalanche, showing how layering of snow contributes to these events. Expedition Earth.

The incident brings the number of people killed in avalanches in Europe this winter to 127, including 33 in Italy, 31 in France, 29 in Austria, 15 in Switzerland, eight in Spain, six in Slovakia, and one each in Poland and Andorra. This means that this snow season in Europe (which is not yet over) has already produced the second highest recorded number of deaths, exceeded only by the winter of 2017/18, when 147 people died. 

This high number of fatalities appears to be linked to the warming climate, which has several knock-on effects that can lead to avalanches. Firstly, warmer conditions over the Atlantic lead to higher evaporation levels and therefore more moist air flowing over Europe, which tends to precipitate out as snow when it encounters cold updraughts above the continent's mountain ranges. Secondly, the snow itself is warmer, in many places failing to form the deeply frozen lower layers that tend to keep the snowpack in place. Finally, the higher temperature of the atmosphere tends to lead to windier conditions, which also prevents snow settling in a single place, often leading to moving drifts, which are much more prone to avalanching than solid snowpack.

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Seven known deaths following avalanche on Mount Yalung Ri, Nepal.

Seven people are known to have died and another four are missing following an avalanche on Mount Yalung Ri in the Rolwaling Himal Mountain Range (part of the Wider Himalayas) in east-central Nepal, close to the Tibetan border. The event happened at about 8.30 am local time on Monday 3 November 2025, shortly after the party had left a base camp at 4900 m to ascend the 5630 m peak. The known dead comprise two Nepalese mountain guides, plus five foreign tourists, two Italians, a Canadian, a German, and a Frenchman. Four more Nepalese mountain guides, and another two French tourists (one of whom is understood to have been the wife of the deceased French national) survived, but had to be airlifted to a hospital in Kathmandu to be treated for a variety of injuries. All four of the missing climbers are described as experienced Nepalese mountain guides, familiar with high-altitude conditions.

The location of Yalung Ri. Google Maps.

Avalanches are caused by the mechanical failure of snowpacks; essentially when the weight of the snow above a certain point exceeds the carrying capacity of the snow at that point to support its weight. This can happen for two reasons, because more snow falls upslope, causing the weight to rise, or because snow begins to melt downslope, causing the carrying capacity to fall. Avalanches may also be triggered by other events, such as Earthquakes or rockfalls. Contrary to what is often seen in films and on television, avalanches are not usually triggered by loud noises. Because snow forms layers, with each layer typically occurring due to a different snowfall, and having different physical properties, multiple avalanches can occur at the same spot, with the failure of a weaker layer losing to the loss of the snow above it, but other layers below left in place - to potentially fail later.

Diagrammatic representation of an avalanche, showing how layering of snow contributes to these events. Expedition Earth.

Yalung Ri is generally considered to be a 'safe' mountain for inexperienced climbers, and the team hit by the avalanche had been scaling it as part of a training exercise ahead of an attempt on the more challenging, 6334 m Dorma Kang. However, Nepal has been hit by particularly high snowfalls this autumn, linked to Cyclone Montha, which hit the coast of Andhra Pradesh, India, on Tuesday 28 October. This has led to a series of snowfall related events, and has led many high-altitude communities in Nepal to move to lower locations temporarily. One of the surviving tourists on Yalung Ri has complained that, despite calling for help, rescue workers did not reach them till some time after the avalanche, something which rescue workers have attributed to poor weather conditions, which prevented a helicopter from approaching the mountain.

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Avalanche kills five in the Italian Alps.

Five people have been confirmed dead following an avalanche in the Italian Alps on Saturday 1 November 2025. The incident happened at about 4.00 pm local time on Mount Cima Vertana (or Vertainspitze), one of the Ortler Alps of Italy's Alto Adige (or South Tyrol) Province. Two groups of climbers were caught in the event, with all three members of the first group, described as two men and a woman, being swept away. The second group, comprising a father and his 17-year-old daughter, were caught lower down the slope, and were swept downhill about 200 m to their deaths. The event was witnessed by two climbers from a third party, who were above the avalanche when it hit and were able to call for help. All of those involved are understood to have been German nationals.

The route of the 1 November 2025 Cima Vertana avalanche. Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico.

All of the climbers are understood to have been ascending the mountain using ice axes and crampons at the time of the incident. The summit of Cima Vertana is 3545 m above sealevel, making it the 125th highest peak in the Alps. Fog and poor visibility prevented rescue teams from reaching the mountain until some time after dawn on Sunday, with teams with Dogs being airlifted to 2600 m, before continuing the ascent on foot. A representative of the Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico has questioned why climbers were ascending the mountain so late in the day, since even a successful ascent would have led to to their having to descend in darkness.

The location of Cima Vertana. Google Maps.

Avalanches are caused by the mechanical failure of snowpacks; essentially when the weight of the snow above a certain point exceeds the carrying capacity of the snow at that point to support its weight. This can happen for two reasons, because more snow falls upslope, causing the weight to rise, or because snow begins to melt downslope, causing the carrying capacity to fall. Avalanches may also be triggered by other events, such as Earthquakes or rockfalls. Contrary to what is often seen in films and on television, avalanches are not usually triggered by loud noises. Because snow forms layers, with each layer typically occurring due to a different snowfall, and having different physical properties, multiple avalanches can occur at the same spot, with the failure of a weaker layer losing to the loss of the snow above it, but other layers below left in place - to potentially fail later.

Diagrammatic representation of an avalanche, showing how layering of snow contributes to these events. Expedition Earth.

The cause of the 1 November 2025 Cima Vertana avalanche is unclear at this time, although there is known to have been recent snowfall on the mountain, and it has been speculated that some of this poorly consolidated snow could have been shifted by high winds, triggering the event.

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Woman and child confirmed dead in Finland avalanche.

A woman and her twelve-year-old son have been confirmed dead following an avalanche at Pyhäkuru slope in the Pallastunturi Fells of Finnish Lapland on Tuesday 2 January 2024. The pair, who have not been named, but have been identified as having come from the town of Korsnäs in Ostrobothnia, 700 km to the south, called for help from Lappland Rescue Service after getting into trouble with high winds and extreme cold, but when they arrived at the site there were no signs of the two. Attempts to locate them were hampered by high winds (about 40 m per second), extreme cold (about -23°C at the time of the incident), and limited light conditions (the Sun rose in the region on Friday 5 January for the first time in a month, earlier in the week light was limited to about five hours of twilight per day). The body of the woman was found by a Lapland Police Department rescue team at about 10.00 pm on the day of the avalanche, that of the boy was not recovered until the morning of Thursday 4 January.

(Top) Conditions on Pyhäkuru slope on Tuesday 2 January 2024. Antte Lauhamaa/Lappland Police Department/Yle. (Bottom) Pyhäkuru slope on Wednesday 3 January. Otto Ponto/Helsingin Sanomat.

Avalanches are caused by the mechanical failure of snowpacks; essentially when the weight of the snow above a certain point exceeds the carrying capacity of the snow at that point to support its weight. This can happen for two reasons, because more snow falls upslope, causing the weight to rise, or because snow begins to melt downslope, causing the carrying capacity to fall. Avalanches may also be triggered by other events, such as Earthquakes or rockfalls. Contrary to what is often seen in films and on television, avalanches are not usually triggered by loud noises. Because snow forms layers, with each layer typically occurring due to a different snowfall, and having different physical properties, multiple avalanches can occur at the same spot, with the failure of a weaker layer losing to the loss of the snow above it, but other layers below left in place - to potentially fail later.

Diagrammatic representation of an avalanche, showing how layering of snow contributes to these events. Expedition Earth.

Pyhäkuru slope is popular with freeskiers, but local residents consider it to be extremely dangerous in bad weather. In high winds loose snow from the surrounding area can pile up against the side of the slope, making it appear much less steep than it actually is, but this snow is only loosely packed, and will easily give way if people venture onto it, making skier-induced avalanches a frequent problem.

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Skier killed in avalanche in Denali National Park, Alaska.

A skier has died after triggering an avalanche in the Denali National Park in Alaska on Thursday 2 May 2023. Park rangers and a helicopter were dispatched to the scene after witnesses described observing the skier trigger the avalanche while crossing an unnamed north-facing slope to the south of Jenny Creek at about 1.00 pm local time. They arrived to find the skier, later identified as Eric Walter, an employee of the park, who worked as a ski guide, had died in the avalanche.

Eric Walter, an employee at the Denali National Park in Alaska, killed in an avalanche on 2 May 2023. CNN.

Avalanches are caused by the mechanical failure of snowpacks; essentially when the weight of the snow above a certain point exceeds the carrying capacity of the snow at that point to support its weight. This can happen for two reasons, because more snow falls upslope, causing the weight to rise, or because snow begins to melt downslope, causing the carrying capacity to fall. Avalanches may also be triggered by other events, such as Earthquakes or rockfalls. Contrary to what is often seen in films and on television, avalanches are not usually triggered by loud noises. Because snow forms layers, with each layer typically occurring due to a different snowfall, and having different physical properties, multiple avalanches can occur at the same spot, with the failure of a weaker layer losing to the loss of the snow above it, but other layers below left in place - to potentially fail later.

Diagrammatic representation of an avalanche, showing how layering of snow contributes to these events. Expedition Earth.

The Alaska Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation has issued a warning to people travelling in avalanche-prone mountain areas in the state, as the warming spring weather makes snow-covered slopes more prone to avalanches at this time of year.

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Avalanche kills six in the French Alps.

Six people, including two mountain guides and four tourists, have died in an avalanche in the French Alps on Sunday 9 April 2023. Another tourist is reported to have received minor injuries, while eight more were swept downslope by the avalanche but escaped unscathed. The event happened on the Armancette Glacier, in the Haute-Savoie Department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France, at around mid-day. The cause of the event is unclear at this time, and it is understood that no avalanche-warning was in place at the time.

An avalanche at the Armancette Glacier, near Mont Blanc in south-eastern France, which killed six people on Sunday 9 April 2023. BBC.

Avalanches are caused by the mechanical failure of snowpacks; essentially when the weight of the snow above a certain point exceeds the carrying capacity of the snow at that point to support its weight. This can happen for two reasons, because more snow falls upslope, causing the weight to rise, or because snow begins to melt downslope, causing the carrying capacity to fall. Avalanches may also be triggered by other events, such as Earthquakes or rockfalls. Contrary to what is often seen in films and on television, avalanches are not usually triggered by loud noises. Because snow forms layers, with each layer typically occurring due to a different snowfall, and having different physical properties, multiple avalanches can occur at the same spot, with the failure of a weaker layer losing to the loss of the snow above it, but other layers below left in place - to potentially fail later.

Diagrammatic representation of an avalanche, showing how layering of snow contributes to these events. Expedition Earth.

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