The new year’s still young, but Granny Trude’s feeling almost summery. Barely any snow, the sun’s shining, the first pollen’s flying around triggering allergies. Whatever’s happening to the climate? Ice-skating and skiing are off the agenda, the grandchildren are unhappy. But luckily Granny Trude and her family always have good ideas for any situations in life.
My dears,I wish you all a wonderful 2020! I hope you had a fantastic start to the now not-so-new year. Me – I very much enjoyed spending time with my family over the festive season. And from now on I’m waiting for my beloved summer. You’d think it’s nearly upon us: the sun’s shining, and unlike most winters hardly any snow has fallen.
Off to the mountains on the train
Of course my family felt sad when they visited at Christmas – the garden was resplendent in green instead of white. The little ones especially had hoped they’d be able to zoom down the snow-covered hill behind Granny’s house on their sledge. David, the three year-old son of my grand-daughter Miri from Hamburg, was the most disappointed. But then we jumped on the train and headed to the mountains for a big family day out, to say Hello to the snow. That put everyone in a good mood again.A sledge in our luggage
Well, there’s certainly snow about two hours away from here. We don’t even need to go as far as Austria. It’s quite sufficient to travel to the area around Germany’s highest mountain, the Zugspitze – to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It was absolutely marvellous! And the children do love riding on the train. We packed our toboggans and bobsleds, and had lots of fun together.Artificial snow – oh dear
Of course we met quite a few skiers, even while we were still on the train – it’s a good job they were on the train, because the environmental footprint gets worse for skiers if they arrive by car. By the way, I’m sceptical about skiing, and for different reasons nowadays. For us it always was an expensive business. Lift passes for four children and two adults, plus the kit – we just couldn’t afford it. Instead we used to build igloos and walls of snow behind which to hide during snowball fights. But these days it’s the artificial snow that gets me. All the energy that has to be used so that someone can ski down a white piste. And it’s often right next to a bright green meadow, how absurd! They say that 2100 gigawatt hours are consumed every winter season in the Alps to create fake snow – in total that’s about the amount of electricity needed to power more than 500 000 households for a year. It’s unbelievable, don’t you agree?Snowfarming – for fun on the slopes in October
They even farm snow. Did you know that? I had to laugh when my grand-daughter Viola told me that. Of course I thought she was joking! With this technique known as “snowfarming”, they store up some of the last snow of spring in a snow depot ready for the autumn. So that the first skiers can get straight back on the piste as early as October. Crazy, isn’t it? How much energy must that use up? Admittedly, if the snow is “just” covered up, the environmental footprint isn’t quite as bad, or so they claim. But that’s pretty resource-hungry, as you can imagine, and they need lots of plastic for the cover sheets.As long as it’s cold, as long as there’s fresh air
If “real”, natural snow has fallen, why not try a spot of cross-country skiing? Moving around in the fresh air, absorbing Vitamin D from the sunlight – it’s relaxing and it’s healthy. My chum Inge used to love cross-country skiing back in the day, it’s a great alternative to Alpine skiing. These days we both go for regular walks in the winter. And the colder it is, the better and healthier we feel. Inge even goes a step further and has cold showers. She’s been doing it almost her whole life. And she’s never ill, it’s fascinating! I want to give it a try this year as well, so now you know what my resolution is for 2020. Why don’t you have a go as well – remember Sebastian Kneipp, the father of cold water therapy.A better environmental footprint: ski touring and snowshoe hiking
Two of my sons have now found an alternative to downhill skiing: after a really heavy snowfall they strap animal skins under their touring skis and walk up the mountain. It’s not always a cheap hobby – and in ecological terms it’s controversial too, but it is a bit kinder to the environment. But I made them both promise me not to go off-piste and encroach on that last sanctuary of the animals. Incidentally they sometimes pop on a pair of snowshoes, which is a really old-fashioned method of being able to walk on snow without sinking in. My goodness, the children live in Munich and Augsburg. I can understand them being attracted to the mountains in their free time.Now let’s just wait and see whether winter decides to visit us after all. I would quite like a bit of snow in the garden. We wouldn’t want the song “Winter ade, scheiden tut weh” (in English: Goodbye winter, parting hurts) by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben to become a sad old evergreen.
My dears, have a lovely time and enjoy the winter however it is! Look after yourselves on the slopes, roads and skating rinks.
Love and best wishes,
Granny Trude
January 2020