Photo: Hiroshi Higuchi/Getty Images

Swiss Village Buried by Massive Glacial Collapse

Originally posted on Powder | By Ian Greenwood | Last updated May 28, 2025 5:51 PM ET

A chunk of the Birch glacier collapsed Wednesday, May 28, 2025, burying large portions of the small Swiss village, Blatten, under a mass of snow, ice, and debris, according to news reports.

On May 19, residents of Blatten, which normally has a population of about 300, were evacuated after geologists determined that they were threatened by the risk of rock and ice fall. Still, Matthias Ebener, a spokesperson for local authorities in the canton of Valais, said one person is missing, Reuters reported.

The collapse destroyed several homes in the village and, according to swissinfo.ch, generated an earthquake measuring 3.1 on the Richter scale.

Footage shared of the avalanche shows a deluge of snow, ice, and rock roaring down a Swiss mountainside. Thick brown plumes of debris erupted around the slide. Tap or click the embedded video below to watch the collapse unfold.

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Karin Keller-Suter, the president of Switzerland, acknowledged the glacial collapse in a post on X.

“It's terrible to lose your home,” she wrote. “In these difficult times, my thoughts are with the residents of Blatten."

Es ist schlimm, wenn man seine Heimat verliert. Ich fühle in diesen Stunden mit den Bewohnerinnen und Bewohnern von Blatten. pic.twitter.com/BArZbIAQSn
— Karin Keller-Sutter (@keller_sutter) May 28, 2025

The natural disaster at Blatten follows another incident when, in 2023, residents of the Swiss village of Brienz were forced to leave their homes as the mountains above them deteriorated, the BBC reported.

Reuters reported that, according to experts, the link between the collapse of the Birch glacier and climate isn't yet clear.

Still, a changing climate has accelerated global glacial recession and, according to a fact sheet published by the Swiss Academy of Sciences, global warming can destabilize rock faces previously supported by glaciers or permafrost, heightening the risk of rockfalls and landslides.

In an interview, Daniel Farinotti, a glaciologist at ETH Zurich, said a portion of Switzerland’s glaciers could be preserved if “we manage to cut global greenhouse gas emissions quickly.” However, Farinotti added that if greenhouse gas emissions aren’t reduced, all of the Swiss glaciers could vanish by 2100.

That prospect doesn’t just threaten an increased prevalence of natural hazards—it also puts Swiss summer skiing destinations at risk.

Across the country, seven of the nine ski resorts that offered glacier skiing have ceased summer operations, according to a paper published in the Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights. Today, only Zermatt and Saas-Fee's summer glacier skiing offerings remain.