Corripo is the smallest village in Switzerland. There is just one Inn there. Called the Lars Muller. Folklore has it that if you meet the spirit of Lars Muller at night, beware the Avalanche.

For it was on his wedding night when the first Avalanche hit ..

Lars scrambled out of bed to join the rescuers. Maja begged him not to go, but Lars was the best mountaineer in the village. He had to go ..

‘We’ll be together forever’ promised Lars ..

.. as he hugged Maja. But Lars never came back. Nor was his body ever found.

Time passed.

Maja remarried, gave birth to son, Hans. . She worried about Hans, now 10 years old. He too was obsessed by the mountains. Like once Lars was . Even found old mountain boots that once belonged to Lars, and kept trying to fit into them. Maja’s husband didn’t mind. After all, Lars was a legend in the village.

Then the second Avalanche hit.

Maja screamed at her son, not to go. But her last glimpse of Hans was him running into the snow storm to join the rescue team. Just like her last image of Lars..

Hans! Hans!

Maja screamed as she and others desperately searched for Hans the next day. For he was not among the rescue team that returned. They had lost him.

‘I’m here’! They heard a shout in the distance ..

They found a desperate Hans frantically digging into the snow. And Meja gasped. For there was Lars’s body. His face perfectly preserved by the ice, looking as handsome as he did in their wedding night years ago ..

But what happened next startled Meja even more. For her 10 year old son Hans, hugged her, and said,

‘I promised you we’ll be together, forever’..

It was an adult Lars’s voice .. ###

What a wonderful folk tale I thought as I walked out into the cold night to get a breath of fresh air and a cigarette.

My matches were soggy and would not work. A man walked up to help. As his match struck I saw his face. It seemed familiar..

‘Hello’ He said in a sort of faraway voice

’I’m Hans Muller’

Suddenly In the distance I heard the roar of the coming of an Avalanche.