Winter wizardry: Like in the evenings here in the Bregenzerwald... ...and during the days here in Mittelberg
But, it’s something wonderful, winter, and in Vorarlberg it’s even a bit more wonderful than elsewhere.There are forty-five designated skiing areas in Austria’s west ernmost federal state as well as: husky sledge tours (in Brandnertal), winter trekking with llamas (in the Montafon) and even torchlight hikes through an icy gorge (in Kleinwalsertal) – just to name a few things to do. And, of course, more cross-country ski trails and winter hiking routes than you could book winter holidaysin your entire life. And where is the village most assured of snow? Also in Vorarlberg. The snowfall in Damüls is the heaviest in all the world. While perhaps more snow does fall in northern Canada or in Greenland, there are no villages there.
Sometimes you ask yourself whether a word spoken out loud is not going to destroy the silent magic of the world A walk in the snow around Damüls is therefore pretty much the most beautiful thing you could do in Vorarlbergon a winter’s day (if you don’t fancy skiing or snowboarding). More snow piles up around you than you could ever imagine. It grows higher and higher. And then even higher, as if, over the course of winter, it was attempting to make it back up to that brightly scrubbed deep blue sky from whence it recently came. It’s in those moments that you catch yourself suddenly speaking in hushed tones. And sometimes you ask yourself whether a word spoken out loud is not going to destroy the silent magic of the world. Snow has the wonderful property of being able to dampen. It creates
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a sense of calm in the world because it makes it easier to grasp by making it smaller. It absorbs the noise and the roaring, it blocks valleys and roads, it drapes itself around the region like a big white cloth and creates its own small worlds. And silence – it creates that anyway. And with silence the realisation that it does not simply mean a lack of noise but rather the amplification of other sounds that suddenly become audible. The crunching of footsteps. The distant ringing of church bells. Your own breathing in and out. The whoosh created when a fir branch gives way and a lorry-load of snow comes down after it, when it whirls up the dust that then makes the whole world disappear in a swirl of white mist. As if it wasn’t important at all. As if it wasn’t even there.
All facets of winter: Discover even more experiences, activities, inspiration at www.vorarlberg.travel/winter-holidays