About us

Wyssen Avalanche Control is a 3rd generation Swiss family company based in the Bernese Oberland. We develop and build avalanche towers, software and detection systems for avalanche prevention. With our innovative and sustainable solutions, we protect human lives and infrastructure worldwide. The company sets the state-of-the-art technology and services in the branch, thanks to its innovative solutions. Examples for this are the new operating software WAC.3^® for Avalanche Towers or the variety of avalanche detection systems, which are indisputably regarded today as state-of-the-art. In the meantime, the company has subsidiaries in Austria, Norway, Canada, USA and Chile.

Wyssen Avalanche Control has installed over 800 Wyssen avalanche towers and 100 detection systems worldwide by 2023. The systems and software tools are operated via the WAC.3^® information platform by over 500 active users.

Wyssen

Our employees

Our teams at the front as well as in the background consist of top motivated and best qualified people, who are very happy to fulfill the customers’ wishes with a lot of heart and professionalism. As a team of friends, we trust, respect and inspire each other. We live our passion for nature and technology. The fact that we protect human lives and infrastructure worldwide with our systems is a great incentive for us to give our best every day. This is how our excellent products are created, something we are very proud of.

All-in-House

As an original mechanical engineering company, today we have the complete value creation at our company headquarters in Reichenbach i.K.. We develop software and electronics, design our machines ourselves, as well as production, storage, project management, marketing and service are located in Reichenbach.
This allows us to manufacture our solutions with the highest quality, functionality and safety, and to provide the customer with uncompromising service and professional advice around the clock.

Since 2023, our company has been ISO 9001: 2015 certified and our management system meets the requirements of the normative bases listed.

A look at history - A Swiss family company

The history of the company begins in 1926, when Jakob Wyssen, barely 20 years old, starts to operate a sawmill on his own. It was his pioneering spirit that led him to revolutionize the way logs were brought out of the forest, namely at breakneck speed with a lot of damage to the raw material and the forest floor (see film). He invented the cable crane – a material cableway that can lift and carry away loads at any point along its cable line. As early as the early 1940s, he began to mass-produce rope winches and trolleys for rope cranes. The quality and durability of Wyssen rope crane systems still set the standard today and are in use in over 60 countries worldwide. Wyssen is also a pioneer in the field of avalanche safety. In 1974, one of the first bomb tramways were installed by Wyssen at the Weissfluhjoch in Davos.

The foundation of Wyssen Avalanche Control AG

In 2000, Sam Wyssen († 2020), the founder’s great-grandson, created the Wyssen Avalanche Control division. It was the invention of the Wyssen Avalanche Tower, which he developed together with Hansueli Gubler, AlpuG Davos to provide the most operationally reliable and effective remote avalanche control system in the market. This was a milestone in the history of the company.

In just 5 years, the company became the market leader in Switzerland, Austria and Norway. Meanwhile, Wyssen avalanche towers are also used in Canada, the USA and Chile to protect ski resorts, important traffic routes and for mines.