25 years after the avalanche

White death brought the blackest day in Galtür

The search teams found a trail of devastation in Galtür. With tireless efforts, they fought their way through the masses of snow with shovels and probes in the hope of recovering as many buried victims as possible alive.(Bild: HBF)

Despite weeks of snowfall, the mountain village of Galtür in the Tyrolean Paznaun Valley was considered safe from avalanches by human standards. But then the inferno descended from the Grieskogel and devastated large parts of the village. 31 people - locals and tourists - died. Governor Anton Mattle, as mayor of Galtür, was the head of operations during the avalanche disaster in 1999. He looks back in an interview with "Krone".

"Krone": Where were you when the avalanche fell on Galtür?
Anton Mattle: I was in my office in the municipal office and had prepared a circular in which I wanted to talk about sticking together and helping each other out in the event of bottlenecks. I didn't finish the letter. It suddenly got dark because the snow dust from the avalanche was pressing against the windows.