What a day yesterday was! We kept a close eye all day on the internet to check on the situation on the roads and rail line out of Andermatt. The kids were press-ganged into packing and helping to clean the flat so that we could leave at a moment’s notice. The weather, which had been fairly quiet in the morning, started to deteriorate again and it really looked like we might be stuck for a good long time. On top of that, there was constant noise from helicopters and explosions all day trying to move loose snow and trigger avalanches.

At 10am, we were told to check back at 11, then at 1pm and then 2.30. Suddenly at 1 we heard that there would be five trains leaving in the afternoon, but still no news on the road situation. At that point I decided to send our visitors home on the train – although I suspect that they may have preferred to stay and be snowed in and unable to go to school on Monday! So visitors dispatched, the rest of us prepared to sit it out, when suddenly we were informed that the road would be opening at 2.30pm.

Not knowing how long it would stay open there was then a frantic push to finish cleaning and packing and hit the road by then. I knew I couldn’t drive the Mini – it’s a stick shift and small, so involves a lot of (now impossible) knee bending, but luckily I could manage in the Volvo – which is automatic and I could have the seat far enough back that my left leg was fairly comfortable. So my dear husband set off in the Mini (without chains!) and I followed behind.

We joined a long slow convoy out of town and down the mountain. There was a lot of evidence of avalanches that had come down and pretty scary-looking snow masses that looked like they would come down any moment. The road itself had been cleared really well, so at the first parking spot people were frantically removing their chains – but not my psychic husband!

I can only say that it was a very strange experience, driving down and hoping to goodness that the experts knew what they were doing and that we weren’t about to be engulfed in an avalanche. Part of the road is under a big canopy and I’m sure I only drew breath once I got to those sections. Otherwise it was a slow and steady trail of cars that made their way to the valley floor and I guess every one of us sighed with relief when we got there.

So now I’m home and trying to rest my leg as much as possible. Our house is hopeless for anyone with mobility issues as we live on 4 floors – and you know what it’s like when you come home from vacation anyway!!!

School starts again tomorrow and then it really will be back to normal(ish) life again.

Helen

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 8th, 2012 at 4:32 pm and is filed under Places. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.