The Four-Star Constellation will be shattered, and the crystal buried!
Millions of cubic meters of rock crash down onto the Birch Glacier within a few days. Under the immense additional weight, the glacier loses its stability and eventually collapses.
On May 28, 2025, at 3:24 p.m., massive rock and glacial masses crashed down from the Kleiner Birch Glacier onto Blatten at speeds of up to 280 km/h. The debris and ice masses rolled uphill for about 260 meters on the opposite slope, burying two houses in the hamlet of Weissenried; several other buildings were damaged. The hamlet of Ried, located at the bottom of the valley, was completely buried and is no longer recognizable today.
In the municipality of Blatten, 96% of residential buildings were destroyed as a result of the landslide. Around 260 buildings disappeared forever. Only the district of Eisten remained largely unscathed by the disaster.
The resulting debris cone covers an area of about 2.5 km² at the bottom of the valley, including approximately 75 hectares of valuable farmland and over 100 hectares of forest. Eight farms, three hotels, a village store, a chapel, about three kilometers of road infrastructure, and numerous other facilities were lost. Even the gallery at the village entrance was destroyed by the forces of nature.
Despite the immense scale of the disaster, the municipality managed to reconnect the buildings in Eisten and the remaining parts of Blatten, as well as the utility lines to the alpine pastures, to electricity, water, and sewage systems by the end of September 2025. This made it possible for some residents to return temporarily in October 2025.
In May 2026, almost exactly one year after the disaster, the first residents were able to return to their homes permanently.
A key factor in this success was the approximately 5.2-kilometer-long emergency and rescue road via Netzbord, Weissenried, Gassun, Blatten, and Erlstäg, which the municipality commissioned immediately after the landslide. It not only provides access to the affected areas but also creates the conditions necessary for the population and the agricultural sector to return in the summer of 2026 to the undamaged parts of Blatten—namely, Tellinalp, Fafleralp, Gletscheralp, and Guggialp.
A PostBus minibus will serve the route between Lauchernalp and Fafleralp. In addition, the Hotel Fafleralp will once again welcome guests and open its doors from July through October.
In this way, life is gradually returning to the upper Lötschental. Furthermore, the temporary cable car between Tänn and Weissenried will help relieve traffic on the emergency road in the future and ensure winter-safe access to the reoccupied parts of Blatten.