Avalanches: Making and Exporting Swiss Snow Science, 1867-1994

In the nineteenth century, the construction of train infrastructure and e arrival of mass tourism rapidly transformed the Alps. Access to and use of the mountains was, however, threatened by avalanches, one of the magnificent spectacles of alpine nature. In the 1860s, the Swiss state began to invest considerable resources in science and technology to contain this danger. In 1867, a new type of structure, a “paravalanche” or “Verbauung,” was first erected in Grisons to prevent the formation of avalanches. Over the next century, almost a thousand kilometers of such structures were built in the Swiss Alps, and the foundation of the Institut für Schnee- und Lawinenforschung in the 1930s made Switzerland the global center of avalanche research. In 2018, UNESCO recognized avalanche risk management as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity. This project uses archival sources to understand the creation of Swiss avalanche management, which has successfully dealt with natural disasters. The coordination of snow scientists, state officials, and mountaineers was crucial for developing, applying, and disseminating avalanche knowledge and control technologies nationally and internationally. At the same time, scientists’ evocation of the wild nature of avalanches that was unpredictable by science played a crucial role in mobilizing publics and galvanizing politicians into action. This project integrates history, geography, and science and technology studies to produce the first book about this history, which will challenge researchers and policymakers to consider the importance of practices of creating scientific and broader understandings of nature concurrently.