  We demonstrate the detectability of snow avalanches using Distributed
Acoustic Sensing (DAS) with existing fiber-optic telecommunication cables. For
this, during winter 2021/2022, we interrogated a 10 km long cable closely
following the avalanche prone Fluelapass road in the Swiss Alps. In addition to
other signals like traffic and earthquakes, the DAS data contain clear
recordings of numerous snow avalanches, even though most of them do not reach
the cable. Here we present two examples of snow avalanche recordings that could
be verified photographically. Our results open new perspectives for
cost-effective, near-real-time avalanche monitoring over long distances using
pre-installed fiber-optic infrastructure.
