Winter was not admitting defeat easily this year. It came with unprecedented amounts of snow, unusually cold weather, and lasted well beyond its sell-by date. When I visited Heiligenblut, the tiny, Austrian ski resort at the foot of Großglocker (3,798m) at the end of April, the battle with spring was not yet decided. On one side the still-three-metre thick armoury of snow, a firm frontier retreating only a few inches per day. On the other side, beyond the debris of this winter’s avalanches – a no-man’s-land of uprooted forests, smashed fences and damaged houses – spring, a… Continue Reading