All clear!

It is five in the morning in February. Snow has been falling heavily for days. Providing the best piste, cross-country skiing and tobogganing conditions. Ruhpolding’s nature reveals its magical side wrapped in its thick, white blanket.

On the roads though, the riches from the sky can quickly cause obstructions, if it weren’t for the building yard workers. They get to grips with the snow with snow plough trucks, tractors and wheel loaders. They clear all the roads and car parks in the municipality. Their area extends north to Eisenärzt and south to Reit im Winkl. The team also ensures that holidaymakers, day trippers and locals find the best conditions on the walking and hiking trails even in winter. And Ruhpolding has around 50 kilometres to offer.

The winter road maintenance workers’ working day begins at four in the morning. When everything is quiet and still and dark and hardly anyone is out and about, they move out from the building yard grounds in a star formation. Everyone has their fixed route. Some lead through the village and the nearby housing estates, others up to the remote farms or along all the walking and hiking trails. Wheel loaders are perfect for this because they are much more capable off-road. From the Chiemgau Arena onwards, the walking trails are then no longer cleared but groomed, just like the cross-country ski trails. This is also the building yard team’s job.

Andreas is fighting his way up to the Steinberg Alm mountain inn, a popular destination restaurant with a beautiful view over Ruhpolding. It is situated at 1,000 metres above sea level, and the snow piles up here noticeably more abundantly than down in the village. Without the marker poles, it is difficult to see where the road begins and ends. The snow has swallowed up all the contours. Despite this, Andreas steers his orange tractor confidently uphill over the snow-covered road. It is cosily warm in the closed driver’s cab, soft music is playing and the windscreen wipers are swishing monotonously. Andreas knows every bend here, every piece of forest, every incline. The steepest part is 20 percent. He has to drive three times, up, down, up, until the full width of the road is cleared. Here there is enough space at the outer edges for the snow to pile up at the road- side. In the residential areas’ narrow access roads, the masses have to be regularly loaded and transported away. Otherwise, there would be no way through at some point.

On winter days like today, Andreas enjoys his work the most. The more snow, the better. He drove the Unternberg first early in the morning, he wants to do a second round there later. His tour is the longest at 42 kilometres. But now it’s back to the building yard for a short break and a briefing, where all the colleagues meet in the morning. On the way, Andreas fills up with road salt. The winter day is still long. All staff will continue to be on duty well into the evening. The snowfall is expected to continue.