Izza jumped excitedly, she couldn’t hold her horses. Izza and her family were going on the cable chair up the mountains to explore the snow-capped areas over there. She couldn’t wait. It would be the first time ever that she’d see snow.

As her parents collected the tickets, they started walking towards the gate and saw a long queue, which made Izza frustrated because she could not wait any longer.

She was so eager to get on to the cable chair that when their turn arrived, she quickly jumped into the chairlift, followed by her parents and brother. As soon as they were seated safely, the guards closed the door and they were trapped inside.

But it wasn’t scary —it was exciting! Just as the car started moving, Izza started to scream with excitement and when the car reached the end of the tunnel, it picked up speed and zoomed upwards. Izza squealed, enjoying the view.

It was so amazing! In front of them was the beautiful view of ranges of mountains. Their rocky and brown structure perfectly contrasted with the beautiful colour of the sky. Izza could see people trekking up those mountains. However, she could see snow nowhere yet and so was a bit disappointed. But she was also hoping to see some as they moved upwards.

There were three stations where they could stop, station 2, 5 and 7. Izza and her family chose to go to station 7, which was the highest.

At station 2, they showed their ticket and were allowed to move ahead to station number 5. It was a bit further away as compared to station number 2, but the view was just exquisite. They could see clouds at a distance with towering mountains all around them. They were now at a great height from land. They would wave at the people coming back down in the adjacent cable chairs.

After a while they reach station 5. Izza was so excited to jump onto station 6 and move up to station 7. As they changed their car, Izza’s brother noticed something in the distance. Something was sparkling in the sunlight.

Even though he immediately knew it was snow, he didn’t tell Izza so she could see it herself when they went upwards. As they settled in the next cable car, Izza started praying, hoping she could get to see the snow.

Suddenly, as the cable car crossed the apex of one mountain, Izza saw a view she had longed for. And for the first time in her life, she was finally able to see what she always wanted to see — snow!

She stared at the huge snowy patches on the rocky mountains and couldn’t wait to touch them. When she glanced down, she could see in the snow the footsteps of professional trekkers who had come all the way up. Izza and her brother were shocked at their strength and determination.

Izza couldn’t wait any longer. She wanted to get out and touch the snow. The moment they crossed the final apex, Izza was so bewildered she didn’t know what to say. The whole area was covered with snow — wherever they’d look was covered in a blanket of white. It was such a breath-taking view.

The cable car stopped and they jumped out. Izza came down the wooden stairs onto the last landing and realised how she was just a step away from snow. She took a deep breath, laughed and jumped directly into the snow! She laughed with excitement.

They moved ahead and started throwing snowballs at each other. Izza called her brother to chase her and ran up a slope, but as her brother tried to follow her, he slid back down. He laughed and told Izza how fun it was. So they started climbing up the snow, sliding and tripping, and laughing. It was pretty cold too, so they stopped for a while to have some hot coffee.

The snow was also very funny, at some places it would be really hard and at other places it would be so soft that their feet would sink deep inside. As they moved forward, they saw another huge slope and there were so many people skiing, skating and snowboarding there! There was also a chairlift that went all the way down, where there was a really nice restaurant. The chairlift allowed only two persons at a time so Izza sat with her father, and her brother sat with their mother and they had a very slow ride down the slope.

On reaching down, they had to jump off get out of the cable car. The kids played outside for a while, then they went into the restaurant and had some chicken soup and a slice of yummy chocolate cake. It was so tasty that Izza knew she would never be able to forget that taste.

As they moved out, the wind started blowing really hard and it was literally freezing outside. Thankfully, the wind did stop after a while and they went up the chairlift again into the snowy area and started sliding and playing. They took lots of pictures and selfies, and even made videos of each other and it was a very memorable event.

Soon the visiting time ended and the sirens started blasting, asking people to exit from the area. The people started going back down by the cable cars. Izza was sad to leave, but also happy that she got such an amazing experience. She couldn’t wait to come back!

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, January 5th, 2022