The horses have been all set. The gamers have been prepared. As have been the spectators, lots of whom had arrived on the idyllic winter wonderland of St. Moritz, Switzerland, with tender fur coats and classy moon boots. Everything was in place for the Snow Polo World Cup.
But the climate didn’t play alongside.
Because of excessive temperatures, the frozen lake of St. Moritz turned too slushy and slippery for the horses to gallop. As a outcome, the occasion’s founder, Reto Gaudenzi, known as off all matches for the thirty ninth installment of the event, which was held from Friday via Sunday, and resorted to a few days of slower, extra stationary penalty shootouts as an alternative.
The occasion, which includes a variation of polo performed on packed snow atop the frozen lake floor, attracts hundreds of individuals to St. Moritz, a luxurious ski resort city, many from the best echelons of the 1 p.c. It is sponsored by corporations promoting non-public jets, unique retreats and top-shelf champagne, and included a gala dinner that the organizers described as “the hottest ticket in town.”
Organizers tried to maintain an upbeat tone: “With the weather gods smiling, perhaps delivering too much sunshine in St. Moritz recently, the ice depth is good and completely safe,” they mentioned in a press release. (While there was no danger of anyone falling via the ice, there was concern over horses falling on the ice.)
Temperatures had been nicely beneath freezing in current weeks, however the week earlier than the event they swung as excessive as 50 levels Fahrenheit throughout the day. At evening, temperatures dropped again beneath freezing, however not lengthy sufficient to stop puddles from forming on the frozen lake.
These temperatures have been unusually excessive, if not unheard-of, for St. Moritz, which is about 6,000 ft above sea stage.
“This is very mild for the mountain regions,” mentioned Lionel Peyraud, a forecaster at Switzerland’s climate service, MeteoSwiss. “The air is really quite warm.”
The snow polo event nonetheless had about 25,000 guests over three days, organizers mentioned, with lots of them wandering across the lake consuming meals, listening to music and ingesting champagne regardless of the truncated competitors.
“It’s the place to be,” Markus Berger, a spokesman for Switzerland Tourism, mentioned, including that a part of the explanation to attend was to “see and be seen.”
“It’s like a class reunion for many of them,” Mr. Berger mentioned.
Late January is excessive season for winter tourism within the Swiss Alps. At the tiny Engadin Airport, which caters to personal jets, about 25 jets landed and took off every day over the weekend, mentioned Christian Gorfer, the airport’s chief monetary officer and a local of the area.
“It’s crazy at the moment,” Mr. Gorfer mentioned. “As an airport we have to look at the balance of movement and the environment.”
The tourism business in Switzerland, which depends closely on the winter vacation season, is nicely conscious of local weather change. Communities at decrease altitudes, specifically, have been making an attempt lately to seek out completely different technique of revenue by attracting folks for actions apart from snowboarding.
But St. Moritz is excessive sufficient that the results of local weather change shouldn’t be felt as intensely but, Mr. Berger mentioned.
“I don’t know how the situation in St. Moritz will develop, if this is an exception or if this will become a new normal,” he mentioned.
While the Snow Polo World Cup often doesn’t obtain a whole lot of mainstream media consideration in Switzerland, the occasion’s issues have been nonetheless significant for the remainder of the nation, Mr. Berger mentioned, as a result of it was all a part of “the image of the Swiss winter.”
The subsequent occasion on the frozen lake of St. Moritz is scheduled for this weekend: the White Turf horse race. Thousands of individuals attend the occasion, which is greater than a century previous and is held over three Sundays in February yearly. But the White Turf may face the identical points that plagued the Snow Polo World Cup: Temperatures are anticipated to remain within the 40s Fahrenheit throughout the day this week, based on MeteoSwiss.
Despite the sunny skies and the comparatively heat temperatures, Dennis Schiergen, the pinnacle of racing for the White Turf, expressed optimism that the race could be held. “Now the temperatures are quite stable and the lake is recovering,” he mentioned.
On Friday, the primary day of the snow polo event, Alessandra Fenyves, who was in St. Moritz each as a polo fan and as a contract journal journalist from Italy, mentioned the environment was completely different than in earlier years. It was her seventh time there.
“It’s disappointing,” she mentioned in a telephone interview, including that she had seen folks go away the stands, that are often packed. “It’s like when you switch off the music at a party and the waiter comes and takes away the last chips on the table.”
Source: www.nytimes.com