Sir,
During the severe winter of 1950–51 snow fell in the alpine regions in quantities unprecedented within living memory. Evidence of the abnormal conditions was afforded by news of chalets and villages being swept away and many lives being lost owing to the irresistible rush of avalanches of proportions never before experienced and in places unaccustomed to the menace of such catastrophes. A normal snow deposition in the early winter was succeeded by extremely heavy falls at the end of February and through March and, indeed, there were still falls as late as May. These abnormal conditions caused extensive accumulations of snow in places where massing is normally much less, resulting in tremendous avalanche deposits, not only in the gullies down which the snow poured but also, in spread-out formation right down in the valleys below. Where only small streams of snow have previously been known to flow depositing quantities which have quickly disappeared in the spring or early summer, great masses were still lying after the middle of June and some of the passes were still closed to traffic in spite of the most strenuous efforts to make them available.
These unusual conditions caused some of the older inhabitants to shake their heads in doubt as to whether such exceptional masses would entirely disappear before another winter commenced to consolidate and add to their bulk. It would take a very hot or extremely wet summer, they said, to accomplish the complete dispersal of some of the larger accumulations.
These accumulations have been useful, however, in affording opportunity for observation of glacier formation from a slightly unorthodox angle. It is not difficult to visualize the results of a series of winters of similar severity. Not only would the retreat of the glaciers tend to be arrested but also very small new glaciers could form in ravines down which snow has poured in avalanche formation in such quantities that the subsequent summer’s rains and sun have been insufficient to effect complete annihilation.
30 July 1951
