Authorities have issued access and travel bans for certain areas of Switzerland’s Säntis mountain due to an ‘unstable rock face.’
The mountain, straddling the cantons of St. Gallen as well as the two Appenzells, is famous because a gigantic Swiss flag – the world’s largest, in fact – is hang each year (weather permitting) on its rocky north slope to mark Switzerland’s National Day on August 1st.
READ MORE: Watch how a giant Switzerland flag is hung on the side of a Swiss mountain
Now, however, the unstable rock face on the same north slope of the 2,500-metre high mountain is under risk of a massive collapse.
What is happening?
In a press release on September 3rd, Appenzell-Ausserrhoden authorties warned of an “increased risk of rockfall in parts of the Schwägalp.
The volume of the unstable rock mass is estimated at 10,000 to 15,000 cubic metres.”
They added that the section of the road within the danger zone “remains closed to pedestrians until further notice. It remains open to cars and bicycles, as the risk to these users is considerably lower due to the shorter time spent in the danger zone.”
This official photo indicates where the risk of collapse is greatest.
Canton Appenzell-Ausserrhoden
A growing phenomenon
Unfortunately, such events are becoming more frequent in Switzerland, due to global warming: experts say that heatwaves will become more frequent, hotter and last longer in the future, due to climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
Various studies show that due to melting snow and unstable rock faces, Swiss glaciers (and mountains in general) “are at risk of collapse.”
According to Markus Stoffel, a University of Geneva specialist in mountain disaster risks, “melting glaciers, shrinking snow cover and thawing permafrost are destabilising mountains, triggering more rockfalls, debris flows and cascading hazards that threaten communities and infrastructure.”
Not just the Säntis
Currently under the risk of collapsing is the Weisshorn glacier, located at an altitude of 4,505 metres near Zermatt, which could tumble down into Randa, a town lying at the mountain’s foot.
Local authorities have alerted its residents to the risk of the broken fragments falling off, calling the mountain ‘unstable’.
Then there is Kandersteg, a village in the Bernese Oberland which is scenically but precariously surrounded by glaciers.
According to media reports, “a mountainside rock formation called Spitze Stei, part of a mountain landscape increasingly affected by thawing permafrost, threatens to collapse into the valley.”
READ MORE: What are the risks of glaciers collapsing in Switzerland?
