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Yesterday's snow

Extreme and extremely beautiful are sometimes close together

by Steffen Kruse 01/25/2018
One man's sorrow is another man's joy, as the saying goes. This was also the case with the last PowderAlert, or rather the heavy snowfalls, which not only kept the avalanche warnings busy, but also the civil protection. The Davos department of the PowderGuide editorial team was evacuated due to the avalanche danger and had to leave their home. How do you feel when something like that happens? Steffen reports:

As far as joys and sorrows are concerned, I can only say from my side: there are two hearts beating in my chest. The power of two hearts, or as they say in the case of the indestructible Trabant, "the power of two candles" - but that's another topic and has only a limited connection with the actual snowfall. I'm always as happy as a child when it snows, even a lot, or even a lot, although that always means a lot of work.

Some people may have cursed under their breath when they couldn't keep the front door clear with their shovel, snow witch or serious snow blower. I felt the same way, at least in terms of the fact that at some point I capitulated and let nature take its course. Snow had reached the second floor of our house and the windows were naturally closed with white shutters.

In our case, due to the exposed location, we had already darkened the house and closed the shutters beforehand. The house that once stood in this beautiful location died in 1999, or rather the avalanche from the opposite side destroyed it. This knowledge didn't worry me too much at the time. But when the fire department called and told us to leave the house as quickly as possible, it was a different story. We had to gather up our belongings as quickly as possible, everything we could carry at once, because the car hadn't been near the house for a long time...

Lucky are those who have friends, so an extra big thank you to all those who offered us a warm place and heartfelt hospitality, which touched us with joy. All the calls asking "how are you?" and "can anything be brought to you?" have also shown us that there are always helping hands in a harsh climate. Thank you all so much!

Why is this such an extreme event now? Well, there's more snow than usual, but it used to be more normal to be cut off than to feel like spring in the middle of winter... The WeatherBlog can take a closer look at this!

It might be good for the residents to move closer together again, to help each other in a place where nature can take over very quickly. Why not borrow the neighbor's snow blower instead of envying him for it and shovelling it yourself with a small shovel? Why not bring your neighbor eggs, bread and beer since he can no longer go shopping? "Extreme situations" of this kind not only create additional work, which some people complain about loudly, they also show us where the limits are and what they mean.

What I haven't even mentioned yet: the World Economic Forum is currently taking place here in Davos, with the so-called elite from business and politics. I don't want to go into it in detail, but this event always means an enormous additional burden for the municipality, where you don't necessarily want a heavy snowfall. Those responsible in the municipality did the best they could this time and took great care of the people living on the outskirts of the town, we were even offered a warm place to stay by the municipality - thank you for that. Automatic calls kept coming in, which we had to confirm, as otherwise a larger search party would have arrived.

When the storm subsides, its legacy becomes apparent: some large avalanches with property damage, but fortunately no personal injury, houses whose entrances have to be searched for, municipal workers working overtime behind their snow clearing equipment and roads that are being reopened. When I leave the house today, only my thick shoes remind me that there must have been a lot of snow recently. But luckily my neighbor is coming over today with the big snow blower to help me clear these tracks too.

PowderGuide actually has to do with fun transportation of all kinds in the snow, so a word about that too. I'm sure my skis are more than dear to my heart and feet, but when I suddenly left the house with the important things (e.g. passport), they unfortunately remained in the house due to their unwieldiness. I'm actually sure that a few pieces of sliding wood are definitely part of the emergency equipment. But the same applies here: what do you have neighbors and friends for in such situations if not to borrow a pair of skis?

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This article has been automatically translated by DeepL with subsequent editing. If you notice any spelling or grammatical errors or if the translation has lost its meaning, please write an e-mail to the editors.

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