BLATTEN - Most of Blatten in the Loetschental disappeared under ice, mud and rock after the Birch glacier collapsed. A large section of the Kleines Nesthorn had come down onto the glacier. The ice could not carry the extra load. The mass ran into the valley, dammed the Lonza and left a lake against what remained of the village.
About 300 residents had been evacuated after monitoring showed the slope failing. That fact is the only mercy anyone in Valais is willing to name. Photographers were asked to keep their distance. Funerals, when they came, were for a place as much as for people.
Climate in the debris
Glaciologists, including teams linked to ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich, later described a chain: a thinner glacier, warmer permafrost, less firn on the rock. None of that turns a disaster into a slogan. It does mean other villages are checking their maps again.
Switzerland already spends heavily on protective structures. Officials privately say true protection, if it exists, costs several times more. The political argument would surface again in climate votes and in the 2026 framework.