UKC

An estimated 4 million cubic m of rock came off Piz Cengalo. According to the post I nicked this from "There is no access to Val Bregaglia. The village of Bondo may have been badly affected."

http://www.rsi.ch/news/ticino-e-grigioni-e-insubria/Pizzo-Cengalo-una-frana...

In reply to davidbeynon:

Bloody hell! I'm not sure I'd have stood where either of those two cameramen were.

In reply to davidbeynon:

I was camped in bondo at the bottom of the Val Bregaglia this morning when we heard the rock fall and noticed the cloud of dust fill the valley. The bridge in bondo has been destroyed as well as a couple of houses with the mud flow about 4m high in Bondo. I would assume no access up the Bregaglia valley via either the road or path for the time being with the bridge over to Piz Badile most likely gone also.

In reply to davidbeynon:

Wow, that's really scary. We saw a rockfall in the Ecrins some years ago that took out the path up to the hut (the Carrelet hut I think) and put us off our intended route but it was nothing compared to this.

In reply to Tim Harper: I'm assuming there is no access to Laret or the Sciora hut path currently...?

In reply to Yossarian:

Yea the Sciora Hut shares the same access road so I would assume no access. The path up to the Sciora hut is out of the rockfall danger zone though according to the signs in the valley so should be ok once the road re-opens.

Looking at the film clips it looks like Laret doesn't exist anymore!

In reply to davidbeynon:

Absolutely bonkers. Never seen anything like it! I wonder if this has had something to do with the incredibly warm winter and summer?

In reply to beardy mike:

Let's hope it doesn't dam the main valley and flood everything above it - like the huge rockfall in the Zermatt valley that flooded Randa in the 90s.

In reply to Yossarian:

Was up at the Sasc Fura a week back and I thoughtbI saw as much to say Sciora wasn't open currently due to the previous insane rockfall anyway.

In reply to Tom Last:
The path between Sciora and Fura has been closed since the last rock fall in 2011. The board at the car park for the walk up to both huts had a very detailed description about the instability of Cengalo. They were monitoring it and it said a rock fall of at least the scale of 2011 was due at any point and there would be seconds of warning. It marked the area that was considered in the danger zone. That did not include the Sciora hut, possibly because it was expected that the flow of rock would go straight down the valley I was wondering if the footage was taken from Sciora. .

In reply to abbeywall:

Pretty sure that footage is from Sciora as you say, just wasn't sure it was open, but then my Italian isn't exactly perfect! Yeah, saw those signs with the big red catchment area, pretty sobering. A fair few properties in there.

In reply to davidbeynon:

That really is huge, hope everyone in Bondo is ok.

In reply to Wood for Trees:
Police report that 8 people are currently missing.

https://www.thelocal.ch/20170824/eight-people-missing-after-graubnden-rockf...

In reply to davidbeynon:

Absolutely epic. Have a trip planned to the area in 10 days time. Plan was to do Nordkante on the Badile. Guess we should plan an alternative now.

In reply to davidbeynon:

that is an absolutely massive rockfall.

In reply to davidbeynon:

Very impressive evacuation - astonishing that there weren't more people missing.

In reply to pneame:

I'd just got a good Rock 7 in behind a flake, and gave it a good tug when everything went dark...

In reply to jon:
Well that's a relief - UKC is accessible from the afterlife. I won't get totally bored.

I am, of course, cruising around on Google Earth and wondering how long it will take the flora and fauna to recover. Knowing Swiss efficiency, probably not long. I've never, to my great regret, been to Bregaglia. Bondo looks to be a wonderful place and clearly has an impressive monitoring system
https://www.geopraevent.ch/project/debris-flow-monitoring-val-bondasca/?lan...
Very cool indeed.

edit to add more stuff for the armchair avalanche watchers:
From the very appropriately named "The Watchers"
https://watchers.news/2017/08/23/another-major-landslide-at-piz-cengalo-aft...
And a webcam where the cloud of dust is rather visible in the historic data:
https://www.tourispo.com/webcam/val-bregaglia-val-bregaglia-soglio.htm

OK, back to work.....

In reply to davidbeynon:
That's unbelievable - Bondo is miles from Cengalo. Such a nice place devastated...The affected area far exceeds that which was suggested by the warning signs. If there was anyone at the car park at the end of the road, they would have had a scary time or worse... Hope they find the missing and good to hear Bondo got evacuated in time. Anyone know how this compares in volume to the big Dru rockfalls?

In reply to Julesthe1st:

Go to the Italian side of the Badile, great routes & huts

In reply to davidbeynon:
Presumably the Nordkante and Cassin, etc. will still be accessible anyway via passes from the Italian side, though I guess the Sasc Fura will close for now. All rather immaterial anyway - the climbing that is - compared to the devastation and human cost down valley.

In reply to Tom Last:
Indeed, climbing access is not a big issue in the scheme of things but good point about the Italian side and I'm sure the hut there will be glad to see people as I suspect a lot of their traffic is people coming off the Cassin and North Ridge. Important to still go to places to support the local economy as long as you don't get in the way of rescue and reconstruction efforts.

In reply to Tom Last:
Apparently - according to Swiss media (SRF and Blick), people have been evacuated from the huts if they wished to do so, but some people remained - it was up to them. The huts are unaffected . All people from Bondo are evacuated until further notice. The damage is extensive ( I watched some footage on Swiss TV). Massive. I have bivied/dossed in the car park at Bondasca valley a few times, last time with my wee boy a few years ago...it doesn't bear thinking about. I also nearly got wiped out with my husband approaching the Bügeleisen quite a few years back with car sized rocks falling from exactly the place where this massive rock fall occurred now. Hmm, geology in action...I feel for this lovely place and the community of Bondo.

In reply to davidbeynon:

This is probably a permafrost level issue; the zero degree temperature level has been steadily increasing in the alps over last few years and temp rise is said to be +3 degrees, not the +1 degree rest of world is experiencing. As a member of SAC I get reports in their magazine, Les Alpes.

Val Bregaglia is my favorite area of all in the Alps, a cultural mix of Swiss and Italian. Bondo my favorite village or Soglio on opposite side, safe and out of way. have great memories of routes on Badile, Cengalo, Allievi and others. Should have been there 3 weeks ago, but injured out right now.

In reply to davidbeynon:

We got evacuated down from the (closed up) Sciora hut this morning. We climbed over last night from the Albigna side over the Cacciabella pass, intending to do a route on Torre Innominata and then go back out that way. But a helicopter woke us up this morning and suggested they took us back down to Bondo later on. The devastation was huge, but amazingly the 20odd cars at Laret weren't touched.

In reply to Yossarian:

Jesus! Glad only 8 people are missing but fear for their safety. Whole north face of Cengalo must be considered unsafe. Wonder if Flatiron and Badile are at risk too. Flow of debris down to Bondo is extraordinary.

In reply to Chris_Mellor:

I wouldn't have wanted to be on the Flatiron at the time... I think I will give the climbs in this area a wide berth for a (long....?) while. To think how often I have camped / bivied / parked in Laret and Val Bondasca and also climbed on these hills...It's one of my favourite areas, I feel really bad for the Bondo-people who are lovely.

In reply to Albert Tatlock:

Thanks for the advice. I'll look into it. We are desperately looking for an alternative objective to the North Ridge. Given the fitness levels of me and the missus the North Ridge fitted the bill perfectly (ie long route but not too technical).

Thanks

In reply to Julesthe1st:

Do the north ridge. Walk round to the Swiss side from Italy over the two passes then bivvy. Climb the route the following day and descend into Italy. We met a couple doing it that way when I was there a few weeks back

In reply to Julesthe1st:
When we were there in late July the Italian hut guardian strongly recommended not walking over the col back to hut after a nasty accident on the unstable path the week before, would be worth chatting to the guardian about the conditions.

In reply to Julesthe1st:

Not the same quality but how about Punta Albigna in that area? Or a bit of a drive away, S ridge of the Salbit?

In reply to davidbeynon:

Article now on the BBC about this and a wider issue re land stability:-

Switzerland landslide: Are the Alps melting? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41049827

In reply to HimTiggins:

Thanks mate. I'll look into those options

In reply to Bootsy:

I fear we're going to get a lot more instability like this on the steeper rock peaks in the Alps.