Galteur

Jim Frankenfield; snowman@csac.org; 1-877-604-0166

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On June 18, 2004 I was invited to a big reception in Galteur for the opening of an exhibit called "Die Lawine" ("The Avalanche") in the new Alpinarium. The exhibit was on the 1999 avalanche in which 31 people died in Galteur (and 7 more down the valley in Valzur the next day). The Alpinarium is actually inside a new avalanche dam which protects a part of the village where several buildings were destroyed in 1999. That space is still empty. As far as I know this is the first and only multi-purpose avalanche dam with exhibit and conference space inside it. The opening in June was quite an event with speeches by officials, music, food and drink, and a traditional Tyrolean dinner that went on until late at night. The location of the village. In the photo on the right there is a deflecting wall visible to shield several buildings. The Alpinarium and avalanche dam, with the exhibit board in the center photo. The right photo shows the open space across the street where several buildings were destroyed. A more panoramic view of both the Alpinarium and the open space. The right photo shows the slopes above and the dam below in winter, on the left side. The right side is where the church is. In July, 2004, I was returning to Munich after a Snow Engineering conference in Davos and I briefly revisited Galteur to look for the cemetary memorial and take some photos of various defense structures. The memorial to the 1999 victims in the corner of the courtyard of the church. Some stone wedge-shaped mitigation on the uphill side of a home.

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