Valais

On Thursday, road and rail routes were cut off into the resort of Zermatt in the southern canton of Valais and tourists and residents were told to stay indoors in the French resort of Tignes.

In Valais and Bernese Oberland, tourists heading for ski holidays were hit by the disruption.

Road and rail routes were cut off into the resort of Zermatt in the southern canton of Valais; power was cut throughout Thursday and mobile phone networks were badly disrupted.

The Alertswiss app warned of the risk of avalanches and falling trees in Valais as well as major disruption to transport.

A prior study had modeled historical biomass removal in the Valais region of Switzerland for similar activities and a roughly comparable sheep-to-land ratio.