In a small village nestled within Switzerland’s picturesque Loetschental Valley, Mayor Matthias Bellwald encounters warm greetings at every turn, locals offering smiles, handshakes, and friendly words.
Despite his title, this is not Mr. Bellwald’s own village. A recent catastrophic event, occurring just two months prior, obliterated his home in Blatten, located three miles away, as a portion of the mountain and glacier collapsed into the valley below.
The village’s 300 inhabitants had been evacuated in advance, following warnings from geologists regarding the mountain’s escalating instability. However, they suffered the loss of their homes, church, hotels, and farms.
Lukas Kalbermatten, too, experienced profound loss, with the destruction of the hotel his family had owned for three generations. “The essence of the village, its narrow alleys weaving through the houses, the church, the cherished memories of childhood games… all of it is gone.”
Currently residing in borrowed accommodations in the village of Wiler, Mr. Bellwald also maintains a temporary office there, overseeing the extensive clean-up and reconstruction efforts.
Encouragingly, authorities anticipate the site will be cleared by 2028, with initial construction of new homes slated for 2029. However, this undertaking comes with a substantial financial burden.
The estimated cost of rebuilding Blatten is projected to reach hundreds of millions of dollars, potentially exceeding $1 million (USD) per resident.
Public donations quickly generated millions of Swiss francs to aid those who had lost their homes, supplemented by pledges of financial support from the federal government and the canton. Nonetheless, questions arise within Switzerland regarding the feasibility and justification of such expenditures.
While the disaster has sent shockwaves through Switzerland, a nation where approximately two-thirds of the land is mountainous, climate scientists caution that thawing glaciers and permafrost – crucial components for maintaining mountain stability – are increasing the likelihood of landslides as global temperatures rise. Protecting vulnerable regions will necessitate significant investment.
Switzerland already allocates nearly $500 million annually to protective infrastructure. However, a 2007 report commissioned by the Swiss parliament suggested that comprehensive protection against natural hazards could require expenditures six times greater.
The central question remains: Is this a worthwhile investment? Or should the country – and its residents – seriously contemplate the difficult choice of abandoning certain villages?
The Alps are deeply woven into the fabric of Swiss identity, with each valley, like the Loetschental, possessing its unique cultural heritage.
Mr. Kalbermatten previously took pride in showcasing Blatten’s ancient wooden houses to hotel guests, often sharing a few phrases in Leetschär, the local dialect.
The loss of Blatten, and the potential loss of other similar villages, has prompted many Swiss citizens to contemplate the extent to which these cherished alpine traditions could vanish.
Today, Blatten lies buried beneath millions of cubic meters of rock, mud, and ice, while the mountain above remains unstable.
Initially, following the evacuation, Blatten’s residents, accustomed to the centuries-long presence of their houses, believed it was a mere precautionary measure, expecting to return home soon.
Fernando Lehner, a retired businessman, recounts that no one anticipated the scale of the disaster. “We knew there would be a landslide that day… But it was just unbelievable. I would never have imagined that it would come down so quickly.
“And that explosion, when the glacier and landslide came down into the valley, I’ll never forget it. The earth shook.”
The people of Blatten, eager to return to their homes, are hesitant to discuss climate change, emphasizing the inherent dangers of the Alps and characterizing the disaster as a once-in-a-millennium event.
However, climate scientists maintain that global warming is intensifying the risks associated with alpine life.
Matthias Huss, a glaciologist at Zurich’s Federal Institute of Technology and member of the glacier monitoring group Glamos, asserts that climate change played a significant role in the Blatten disaster.
“The thawing of permafrost at very high elevation led to the collapse of the summit,” he explains.
“This mountain summit crashed down onto the glacier… and also the glacier retreat led to the fact that the glacier stabilised the mountain less efficiently than before. So climate change was involved at every angle.”
While acknowledging that geological changes unrelated to climate change also contributed, he emphasizes that glaciers and permafrost are essential stabilizing elements throughout the Alps.
His team at Glamos has documented a record shrinkage of glaciers in recent years, coinciding with rising average alpine temperatures.
In the days preceding the mountain’s collapse, Switzerland’s zero-degree threshold – the altitude at which temperatures reach freezing – surpassed 5,000 meters, exceeding the height of any mountain in the country.
“It is not the very first time that we’re seeing big landslides in the Alps,” says Mr. Huss. “I think what should be worrying us is that these events are becoming more frequent, but also more unpredictable.”
A November 2024 study by the Swiss Federal Research Institute, reviewing three decades of research, corroborated the notion that climate change is “rapidly altering high mountain environments, including changing the frequency, dynamic behavior, location, and magnitude of alpine mass movements,” while acknowledging the “difficult[y]” in quantifying the precise impact of climate change.
Graubünden, Switzerland’s largest holiday region, is renowned for its unspoiled nature, alpine vistas, and charming villages, attracting skiers and hikers alike.
The Winter Olympics have been held here twice – in the upscale resort of St. Moritz – while the town of Davos hosts global leaders for the World Economic Forum annually.
However, one village in Graubünden has a different story to tell.
Brienz was evacuated over two years ago due to signs of dangerous instability in the mountain above.
Its residents have yet to return, and in July, heavy rainfall throughout Switzerland prompted geologists to warn of an imminent landslide.
Elsewhere in Switzerland, above the resort of Kandersteg in the Bernese Oberland region, an unstable rockface threatens the village, prompting residents to develop an evacuation plan.
There, too, heavy rainfall this summer raised concerns, leading to the closure of some hiking trails to Oeschinen Lake, a popular tourist destination.
Some disasters have resulted in fatalities. In 2017, a massive rockslide near the village of Bondo claimed the lives of eight hikers.
Bondo has since been rebuilt and reinforced at a cost of $64 million. As far back as 2003, the village of Pontresina invested millions in a protective dam to stabilize the thawing permafrost in the mountain above.
While not every alpine village is at risk, the perceived unpredictability is causing significant concern.
Blatten, like all Swiss mountain villages, was subject to risk mapping and monitoring, which led to the evacuation of its 300 residents. Now, questions are being raised about the future of other villages as well.
In the aftermath of the disaster, an outpouring of sympathy was met with doubts surrounding the potential cost of rebuilding the village.
An editorial in the influential Neue Zürcher Zeitung questioned Switzerland’s traditional – and constitutionally enshrined – wealth distribution model, which redirects tax revenue from urban centers like Zurich to support remote mountain communities.
The article described Swiss politicians as “caught in an empathy trap,” adding that “because such incidents are becoming more frequent due to climate change, they are shaking people’s willingness to pay for the myth of the Alps, which shapes the nation’s identity.”
It suggested that people living in risky areas of the Alps should consider relocation.
Preserving the alpine villages is expensive. While Neue Zürcher Zeitung was not the first to question the cost of saving every alpine community, its tone sparked outrage among some.
While three-quarters of Swiss citizens reside in urban areas, many maintain strong family ties to the mountains. Despite Switzerland’s current status as a wealthy, highly developed, and technologically advanced nation, its history is rooted in rural life, characterized by poverty and harsh living conditions. Famine in the 19th century triggered waves of emigration.
Mr. Kalbermatten explains that the word “heimat” holds immense significance in Switzerland. “Heimat is when you close your eyes and you think about what you did as a child, the place you lived as a child.
“It’s a much bigger word than home.”
When asked about their heimat, many Swiss citizens who have lived for decades in Zurich or Geneva, or even New York, will identify the village where they were born.
For Mr. Kalbermatten and his siblings, who reside in cities, heimat is the valley where people speak Leetschär, the dialect they continue to dream in.
The fear is that if these valleys become depopulated, other aspects of their unique mountain culture could be lost as well – such as the Tschäggättä, traditional wooden masks unique to the Loetschental valley.
Their origins are shrouded in mystery, possibly pagan. Every February, local young men don them, along with animal skins, and parade through the streets.
Mr. Kalbermatten points to examples of areas in northern Italy where such cultural loss has already occurred. “[Now] there are only abandoned villages, empty houses, and wolves.
“Do we want that?”
For many, the answer is no: An opinion poll conducted by the research institute Sotomo, involving 2,790 participants, asked what they most cherished about their country. The most frequent response? Our beautiful alpine landscape and our stability.
However, the poll did not inquire about the price they were willing to pay.
Boris Previsic, the director of the University of Lucerne’s Institute for the Culture of the Alps, suggests that many Swiss citizens, particularly those in cities, had come to believe they had tamed the alpine environment.
Switzerland’s railways, tunnels, cable cars, and high alpine passes are engineering marvels that connect alpine communities. Yet now, partly due to climate change, he believes that confidence has waned.
“The human induced geology is too strong compared to human beings,” he argues.
“In Switzerland, we thought we could do everything with infrastructure. Now I think we are at ground zero concerning infrastructure.”
The village of Blatten had stood for centuries. “When you are in a village which has existed already for 800 years, you should feel safe. That is what is so shocking.”
In his view, it is time to combat the decline of these villages. “To fight means we have to be more prepared,” he explains. “But we have to be more flexible. We have always also to consider evacuation.”
Ultimately, he adds, “you cannot hold back the whole mountain.”
In the village of Wiler, Mr. Previsic’s point is met with a weary smile. “The mountain always decides,” agrees Mr. Bellwald.
“We know that they are dangerous. We love the mountains, we don’t hate them because of that. Our grandfathers lived with them. Our fathers lived with them. And our children will also live with them.”
During lunchtime at the local restaurant in Wiler, tables are occupied by clean-up crews, engineers, and helicopter personnel, as the Blatten recovery operation proceeds in full swing.
At one table, a representative from one of Switzerland’s major insurance companies sits alone. Individuals – elderly couples, middle-aged men, young women – join him intermittently. He offers each a drink and meticulously documents details of their lost homes.
Outside, along the valley’s winding roads, lorries and bulldozers make their way to the disaster site, while helicopters transport large pieces of debris overhead. The military is also participating.
Sebastian Neuhaus, commander of the Swiss army’s disaster relief readiness battalion, emphasizes the need to persevere despite the magnitude of the task. “We have to,” he says. “There are 300 life histories buried down there.”
The predominant sentiment is one of unwavering determination to move forward. “If we see someone from Blatten, we hug each other,” says Mr. Kalbermatten.
“Sometimes we say, ‘it’s nice, you’re still here.’ And that’s the most important thing, we are all still here.”
Lead image: The village of Blatten after the disaster. Credit: EPA / Shutterstock
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