PETER Petras, keeper of Reinerova Chata, a mountain chalet in the High Tatras, has sculpted what is probably the biggest Easter egg of this season. The snow egg, is which more than two metres high, is complemented by a giant whisk measuring 37.8 metres long.
Petras has enjoyed creating snow sculptures for several years. This winter, children also can sit on the lap of a snow mountaineer or admire a nativity scene in a cave, all made from snow.
"I've built the nativity scene from snow and ice nine times and the Easter egg with the whisk probably six times," the 60+-year-old Petras told The Slovak Spectator.
An admirer of mountains and folk traditions and a legend among chalet keepers and mountain porters, the tall, wiry Petras and his wife renewed the neglected and ramshackle Reinerova Chata chalet.
The chalet, which lies at an altitude of 1290 metres, was built by Ján Juraj Reiner from Spišská Sobota in 1863 as a shelter for tourists. Nowadays, the chalet, which is a pleasant, less than half-hour walk from the upper station of the cableway on Hrebienok, houses a small museum of mountain porters. In addition to tea, coffee and other refreshments, it offers insight into the life of these men, who are able to carry loads weighing tens of kilogrammes to mountain chalets to supply them with food and other necessities.
