When peoples disappeared "as a punishment from God"

Snow is a good thermal and sound insulator thanks to the air it contains, which is why igloos are a good invention for spending cold nights. In fresh snow, the air proportion reaches 90%. The Snow Museum (Musèu dera Nhèu) dedicates a good space to the scientific aspects of snow, whose germ is curiously hexagonal. This center is located in the small municipality of Unha, near Baqueira, the homeland of downhill skiing in the Aran Valley. The museum's manager, Montse Ademà, who guides me through this space just a stone's throw from her home, is precisely from Unha.

The museum tells us about avalanches, an aspect that is not insignificant in this beautiful valley for a double reason – yes, aran means valley – which looks towards France. "Aran is a high mountain territory where 51% of the surface is potentially affected by avalanches". This is a piece of data provided by Jordi Gavaldà, from the Centre Lauegi d’Aran, which is dedicated to avalanche prediction and mountain safety when there is snow. I am surprised – positively – by this precision, which certifies that they have it very well studied. It is not half, but a little more than half. If a partner in a company with 51% of the shares has absolute control, then snow has absolute control of the Aran Valley. "Avalanches have affected villages, forests, and communication routes for centuries, and for some years now, mountain sports enthusiasts and off-piste skiers have been added to this", he tells me. "Is off-piste skiing allowed?", I ask him. "Yes, but you need to have good preparation, training in snow and avalanches, carry the basic safety equipment for avalanche terrain – and be trained in its use – and be well informed about the weather conditions and the snow you will be treading on", Jordi tells me. "And what is the basic safety equipment?", I ask him. "It consists of the avalanche victim detector (DVA) – an electronic device that allows you to locate a person buried under the snow – a probe, and a shovel", details Jordi, who skis like he walks, with extraordinary ease. Skis have been incorporating elements that make them more effective and safer. The museum allows you to get an idea of how the skier's equipment has evolved. In the beginning, everything was extremely rudimentary: the main material was wood and safety measures were non-existent.

Jordi knows very well how avalanches are triggered. "Taking into account the cohesion of the snow, avalanches are classified into two types: slab and point-release. Slab avalanches occur when a cohesive snow layer resting on a weak snow layer experiences a sudden overload, such as the weight of a person, breaks, and slides downhill. They are the most dangerous for mountain activity practitioners," Jordi specifies. "Regarding point-release avalanches, the fracture begins at a single point near the snow surface, and the avalanche incorporates snow during its descent," he explains. "They are not usually as large, but they can also cause accidents.

The first written reference to avalanche impact in our region is found in the 1925 book Memòries de Casa Lobato. It took place in 1444 in the small Aranese village of Gessa. "The entire village disappeared due to a punishment from God, because of the snow that came down from the mountain and changed the river's course".In the year 1600, a large part of the village of Unha was devastated by an avalanche. Fifteen people died there, who had gone to another house to be safer. And the village was reborn a little further up. They took advantage of the 12th-century monastery to build the new church there. The large house where the Snow Museum, Çò des de Baile, is located, from the 18th century, which preserves the Renaissance facade, was built after that tragedy.In 1758 a poví (an avalanche of powder snow) affected gravely the village of Garòs and destroyed its church's bell tower, which was rebuilt with donations from parishioners. And in 1855 – in April, after winter! – an avalanche in the village of Era Cassenhau, in the Toran valley – one of the most unknown and best-preserved places in the Val d'Aran – caused sixty fatalities. This has been the deadliest avalanche in Catalonia and the Iberian Peninsula.

If you go to the Vall d’Aran, don't miss the Snow Museum, which transports you to the extreme harshness of winters in this mountainous territory, where snow posed a challenge for survival. On several occasions, the people of Aran had to leave their homes through the first-floor window because the front door had been blocked by heavy snowfall. Or they would place the wine jug near the fire because otherwise the wine would freeze. Before the Bonaigua pass (opened in 1923) and the Vielha tunnel (opened in 1948) existed, the valley was often completely isolated by heavy snowfalls. It was even difficult to get around within the valley. One of the oldest pieces in the museum is a beautiful, quite large sled that transported bread through the Vall d’Aran, pulled by horses.

Twelve people have died from avalanches in the Pyrenees in the winter of 2025-26 On January 31, 2003, after heavy snowfall, there was an episode of high avalanche activity. One of them fell on the Baqueira plain and affected a significant number of houses. It was the spark for the creation of the Centre de Lauegi d’Aran, which, from the first snowfalls of autumn until well into spring, daily studies the state of the snowpack and publishes avalanche danger bulletins, following the guidelines of the EAWS (European Avalanche Warning Services), of which it is a member.

Avalanche accidents occur mainly during winter mountain sports (ski touring, snowshoeing...) or activities around ski resorts, such as freeride, off-piste skiing and snowboarding. Particularly concerning have been the accident data for the winter of 2025-26: in the Pyrenees as a whole, twelve people have lost their lives in avalanches in nine accidents.