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The first days of January are often the coldest of the year. Whilst the people of the lowlands are being driven to despair by the fog we have clear, though cold, winter weather. The sun does shine in the village, but not for long. In Eschen it cannot be seen at all for six whole weeks. In the Niderimatte the first sunrays do not appear until nearly noon, only to disappear again behind the mountains just before one o'clock. If you want to be in the sun you must take the cable car up into the mountains. The advent windows can be admired every evening until Epiphany (January 6th). As every one knows, finances are at a low ebb in January and this is also felt in Gimmelwald. Over Christmas every holiday flat is occupied, but after the first weekend in January our village is like a sinking ship. All day the Schilthorn cableway takes tourists from all over the world to Stechelberg. The car park is deserted and doesn't fill up again until February. Although the snow situation is often at its best in the second half of January, it's no help - the hotels remain empty. To make things better the 'Inferno' ski race was brought into being and so the hotels and holiday flats are again occupied for one of these January weeks.
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Whether or not it is due to the patron saint with horns has not yet fully been investigated, but for some reason harmless skiers suddenly degenerate into rowdies on the piste. In any case the 15.8km Inferno race is one of the longest and most spectacular in the world. When over 1500 amateur skiers defy death and launch themselves into the race there is plenty of entertainment for the spectators. The first-aid volunteers of Gimmelwald together with a doctor and one or two helicopters are on hand should they be needed. Most of the farmers work on one of the many ski lifts during the day. The animals must of course be looked after morning and evening. After retirement age the farmers stay in the village. For about a month during the cold period they can be seen making wooden posts for the alpine meadows. Hundreds of posts are made from large spruce trunks. First a large axe and several wedges are used to make the basic posts which are then sharpened with a smaller axe and a band-saw and finally they are stored in piles of a hundred. Last year I saw a thousand posts piled up at one farm. They then have to be kept dry until they can be used in spring.
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