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The horses had been all set. The gamers had been prepared. As had been the spectators, a lot of whom had arrived on the idyllic winter wonderland of St. Moritz, Switzerland, with tender fur coats and trendy moon boots. All the pieces was in place for the Snow Polo World Cup.
However the climate didn’t play alongside.
Due to excessive temperatures, the frozen lake of St. Moritz grew to become too slushy and slippery for the horses to gallop. Consequently, the occasion’s founder, Reto Gaudenzi, known as off all matches for the thirty ninth installment of the event which was held from Friday by means of Sunday, and resorted to a few days of slower, extra stationary penalty shootouts as a substitute.
The occasion, which contains 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’s sponsored by firms promoting personal jets, unique retreats and top-shelf champagne, and included a gala dinner that the organizers described as “the most popular ticket on the town.”
Organizers tried to maintain an upbeat tone: “With the climate gods smiling, maybe delivering an excessive amount of sunshine in St. Moritz just lately, the ice depth is nice and fully protected,” they mentioned in an announcement. (Whereas there was no danger of anyone falling by means of the ice, there was concern over horses falling on the ice.)
Temperatures had been effectively beneath freezing in latest weeks, however the week earlier than the event they swung as excessive as 50 levels Fahrenheit through the day. At night time, temperatures dropped again beneath freezing, however not lengthy sufficient to stop puddles from forming on the frozen lake.
These temperatures had been unusually excessive, if not unheard-of, for St. Moritz, which is about 6,000 ft above sea stage.
“That is very gentle for the mountain areas,” mentioned Lionel Peyraud, a forecaster at Switzerland’s climate service, MeteoSwiss. “The air is absolutely fairly heat.”
The snow polo event nonetheless had about 25,000 guests over three days, organizers mentioned, with a lot 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 rationale to attend was to “see and be seen.”
“It’s like a category reunion for a lot of of them,” Mr. Berger mentioned.
Late January is excessive season for winter tourism within the Swiss Alps. On 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 loopy in the intervening time,” Mr. Gorfer mentioned. “As an airport we’ve to take a look at the steadiness of motion and the atmosphere.”
The tourism business in Switzerland, which depends closely on the winter vacation season, is effectively conscious of local weather change. Communities at decrease altitudes, specifically, have been attempting lately to seek out completely different technique of revenue by attracting folks for actions apart from snowboarding.
However St. Moritz is excessive sufficient that the consequences of local weather change shouldn’t be felt as intensely but, Mr. Berger mentioned.
“I don’t understand how the state of affairs in St. Moritz will develop, if that is an exception or if it will develop into a brand new regular,” he mentioned.
Whereas the Snow Polo World Cup often doesn’t obtain a variety of mainstream media consideration in Switzerland, the occasion’s issues had been nonetheless significant for the remainder of the nation, Mr. Berger mentioned, as a result of it was all a part of “the picture of the Swiss winter.”
The following occasion on the frozen lake of St. Moritz is scheduled for this weekend: the White Turf horse race. Hundreds of individuals attend the occasion, which is greater than a century outdated and is held over three Sundays in February yearly. However the White Turf may face the identical points that plagued the Snow Polo World Cup: Temperatures are anticipated to remain within the 40s Fahrenheit through the day this week, in accordance with MeteoSwiss.
Regardless of the sunny skies and the comparatively heat temperatures, Dennis Schiergen, the top of racing for the White Turf, expressed optimism that the race could be held. “Now the temperatures are fairly steady 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 whenever you change off the music at a celebration and the waiter comes and takes away the final chips on the desk.”
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