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Know
your snow with the Stelvio webcams
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| Seven
high-altitude webcams keep you posted on all the
latest from the peaks. So you can suss out the slopes
from the comfort and warmth of your own home |
 For
all-year snow you can do no better than the Stelvio
Pass on the eastern border of the Alps Retiche
which separate Lombardy
from Trentino-Alto
Adige and Switzerland. Famous for its summer
skiing it is almost off limits during the winter
season. Think we're exaggerating? Seeing is believing
- just take a look at the these
pages kindly hosted by the Bergamo CAI
(Club alpino italiano) and sponsored by the Banca
popolare di Sondrio. Thanks to a series of
high-altitude webcams you can feast your eyes
on a veritable winter wonderland just over 100 kms
from Milan.
Indeed the weather conditions can become a problem
- just ask the guys who run the site . . . One bitterly
cold but very sunny day in February 2000 they were
forced to jump from their helicopter onto the pass
in order to fix a power failure at the computer
centre, which was hidden under some six feet of
snow! Indeed the road that runs through the pass
- the strada statale 38, is Europe's highest
and is usually closed to traffic between October
and June.
But worry not as the magnificent webcam
team has thought of everything in order to avoid
repeating the adventure too often.
However it's not as easy as it may seem to keep
the seven webcams up and smoothly running.
After all they are installed between 2757 metres
at the pass and 3174 m at the overlooking Livrio
refuge. The difficulties arise, not as you may think
from setting up the computer system but, from weather-proofing
it. Take a close look at the computerised
station set up to carefully track weather
conditions and you'll notice the electrical
circuits devised to prevent ice formation on crucial
parts of the system's apparatus.
Thanks to the team's untiring efforts over the past
four years the site now boasts more than 50,000
hits per day. The most popular pages are those dedicated
to the views on Mt.
Ortles and the
Peak of Spirits at 3,467 metres. Also popular
are the views of the snow gathering on the street
and the balcony
of the Pirovano hotel. Visit the hotel in summer
and you'll be able to make use of the same balcony
to work on you tan, or sit in the evening sun while
digesting a plate of the local speciality pizzocheri.
If you're unlucky and hit the site during a particularly
bad snowstorm then click the site's archive
to get the best possible view.
And last but not least, the team is preparing a
short film for the net to give cyber skiers the
chance to feel as if they are schussing down the
slopes themselves!
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| by
FRANCESCO
TUTINO |
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Dec.
7th, 2001
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THE SURVIVOR'S 
