The 2026 Winter Olympic Games came to a halt in the freestyle and snowboard hub in Livigno on Monday.
This postcard-perfect valley, already surreal in its beauty, was turned into a snowy paradise as over a metre of the white stuff settled gently over the town.
The comfortable silence that came with the snow was welcomed: following a wonderful weekend of Australian medal-winning performances, a slower, quieter morning was probably best for everyone.
Organisers had planned for this, too.
Both the men's and women's snowboard slopestyle qualification heats were moved a day earlier in anticipation of the inclement conditions.
Interestingly enough, the men's slalom competition in Bormeo, a little over 40km away, did take place as planned — although 53 of the 95 starters did not finish, with three additional disqualifications.
Of those DNFs, 49 were in the first round, including giant slalom gold medallist Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, while leader after that first round Atle Lie McGrath crashed out in the second.
"I wouldn't say it's the course itself. It's the conditions," Eritrea's Shannon Abeda said.
"Then everyone is pushing the line and that's what happens in slalom."
Delays and cancellations for snow are surprisingly common in snow sport events — it even happened at the 2022 Beijing Games when blizzards stopped play in the mountain resort of Zhangjiakou.
Moving the freeski qualifiers was not to everyone's pleasing.
Chinese skier Eileen Gu was "disappointed" to miss out on a session of halfpipe training, as that was moved to the same time as her big air final.
"Daring to be the only woman to compete in three events should not be penalised — making finals in one event should not disadvantage me in another," Gu wrote on Instagram.
"What kind of message does this send to future athletes who love skiing for its essence and want to compete in every event? This was a totally avoidable issue and I am saddened by the hardline stance FIS has chosen to take."
Others simply rolled with the change.
"I was pretty stressed when I found out that they were going to bring qualis a day forward," New Zealand's Sydney-born snowboard star Zoi Sadowski-Synnott said following qualifying.
"But those changes come with our sport.
"We deal with the weather so much, so we just had to roll with it. Again, so grateful that we got good weather to ride in."
As snow poured from the sky all morning on Monday, it was easy to see why.
This level of inclement is not unusual and gives rise to one of Livigno's most unusual features.
Although now a tourism hub in both summer and winter, in the past Livigno has been beset by poverty in part as a result of its isolation from the rest of the world.
There are only two routes in and out of Livigno that are open — one to Italy via the gorgeous Foscagno Pass and one to Switzerland via the Munt la Schera Tunnel. The other, via the Forcola di Livigno, is only open in summer.
As a result, Livigno was given a special tax status by the Austrian Empire — a status it still enjoys under Italian rule.
It means there is zero value added tax on many consumer goods — including alcohol — but income tax is still paid, which means it is not a tax haven.
It means that when you leave Livigno, you have the unusual situation of passing through a customs checkpoint.
Visibility was incredibly low around the valley as the snow fell, the glorious mountains surrounding the village completely obscured by the low cloud.
Plenty of the holiday-makers and fans that descended into Livigno, swelling its population from a non-peak 7,000 to over 30,000, braved the elements to hit the slopes.
And that was probably the most sensible way of getting around at all.
Conditions for those who did venture outside without appropriate footwear were incredibly treacherous.
Compacted snow made the ground slick and footing precarious.
Arguably more dangerous was the army of heavy trucks whizzing around the icy streets, clearing a path for the locals.
A variety of machines and men contributed by piling snow into large piles, which were taken away by truck.
Livigno has cemented its place as a superb location for adventure sports over the past few years, its 1,800m of altitude making it a perfect training base for several world tour cyclists — ABC Sport is told Australian Michael Matthews had a house here and regularly attended the local speciality coffee shops, one of the only places in Italy where you can get a quality flat white — and liked it so much he signed a jersey and left it on the wall.
But Livigno doesn't stop with the snow, even in summer.
Astonishingly, the town hosts a 1km cross-country ski sprint up the centre of the town in the middle of August, peak summer season.
How?
Well, according to officials in Livigno, snow is stored in the central plain of the village in a so-called snow farm.
It is covered with sheets of sawdust to thermally insulate the snow and then covered with a geo-textile sheet to reflect the sun's rays.
There was so much snow that sliding down the main street — by design or otherwise, be it in skis or boots — was not a problem today.
And it won't be a problem when competition resumes tonight, with the women's freeski big air competition at the Livigno Snow Park.
