Today was overcast again with some snow. So we stayed below the tree line but still got some good skiing in.

In the evening there was an organised (well as organised as they get around here) event. It included the usual collection of people wandering around wondering what was happening, a torchlit descent and a demonstration by the safety services. The torchlit descent uses LEDs these days, rather than the actual dangerous flaming things they used last time we did one of these…

By far the most interesting piece of the rescue display was how they get people down from the lifts in the very rare occurrences that they stop and cannot be restarted. Although this almost never happens in practice, they have to train for when it does. They stopped a gondola above our heads, and showed how they get someone down the cable to it, and winch down the occupants. In this case one of the occupants was one of their rescue dogs!

The next demonstration was of avalanche rescue. They had buried someone in a huge pile of snow (would this happen in any other country?) and first of all searched for him using the latest clever electronics… no result. Then they demonstrated the traditional method of using long poles, until finally, the star of the show, the rescue dog, reappeared and dug out the (we assume willing) volunteer!

Finally a demonstration by the Piste bashers… those things that rid of all the troublesome bumps overnight. You don’t want to get this close when they are working….

All in all an entertaining and impressive display… finished off with some fireworks.

Hoping for better weather tomorrow!