A Complete Blizzard

It is snowing hard in Lugano. So hard, that they've canceled classes for the first time in 25 years. There is already 4 feet of snow on the ground and it's expected to reach 8 feet by tomorrow morning. That will be a record for this tropical, Italian portion of Switzerland. The locals are constantly emphasizing I am getting the wrong impression about their resort town.. Outside, Palm Trees are covered in puffy white, light precipitation and Audis buzz by with little chains covering their tires, which grip worse than those of an F1 race car.

Much has happened since I last posted. I visited Milan, Italy. Then went Skiing in Adermatt, a large snow covered mountain with hardly anyone on it. At the base was fog and snow, and at the top 10,000 feet above the clouds it was clear skies. Andermatt is one of the first Swiss-German towns you reach after getting through the Gotthard tunnel. Skiing in Switzerland was incredible, conditions were impeccable. Snow is light and dry. The air is always crisp. There is powder if you want it, and packed trails if you want that too. Avalanches only happen in the "bowls" between mountains after fresh snowfall with no previous tracks. I'm actually goign skiing tomorrow with the school, so I may actually enouncter such places. But powder skiing is challenging, espcially in 10 foot drifts. What is so pleasurable about skiing in Switzerland is how wide and long the trails are; no trees. The turns are gentle, there are rolling hills going down. There are few obstacles and few people. And there is an abundance of packed snow. At the end of the day you will still see the tracks from the packing machines, where skis have not yet wandered. Finally, there is the delightful view, something that always looks like a painting. Mountains are so massive and so far away, they just don't look real. The alps look like a background out of a 1980's ninendo game, where your race car curves around, and they're always the same size in the same location. 

With the fresh snowfall now, everything is so beautiful and so romantic. The regulars here rejoice in the beauty, as this is a first for them as well. Foreigners along with the locals, appreciating something new and wonderful. I will post more on this later... as I have something else occupying my mind.

NJO: Originally posted on the blog Feathers of Steel at liberabit.blogspot.com.