Switzerland Winter Frasco (b/w photo)

In addition to Airolo, the small Ticino village of Frasco in the Verzasca Valley, which was inhabited by around 40 people in winter, was hit by a terrible avalanche accident in the winter of 1950/51. The picture shows an avalanche that descended just beside the church of Frasco and destroyed several houses. Fifty years ago, in January and February 1951, avalanches thundered down in various regions of the Swiss Alps, causing death and devastation. It was the prelude to a series of catastrophes that would go down in history as the 'avalanche winter 1950/51'. A total of 98 people lost their lives in the United Kingdom at the time.