Snow Ball

Polo isn’t just a summer sport. Polly Bryan charts the history, development and unique skill set of the winter game, played in dramatic locations at high altitude

- Polly Bryan

OF all the variations of polo that have developed over the years, snow polo is, arguably, the most fascinating. The game has been played on snow for more than 30 years, since Swiss hotelier Reto Gaudenzi came up with an idea many at the time considered improbable — to launch a high-goal polo tournament on the frozen lake in St Moritz, in the stunning Swiss Alps. But the St Moritz Snow Polo World Cup has since grown into the most high-profile snow polo tournament in the world, attracting top players and huge sponsors, including Cartier and Maserati, and inspiring a new discipline within the sport of polo.

“St Moritz is the Palermo of snow polo,” says Jan-Erik Franck, a polo player, coach and regular snow polo commentator, likening St Moritz to the world’s most spectacular grass polo venue in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“The competition is taken incredibly seriously — Reto is the godfather of snow polo after all — and at around 1,800m above sea level it is one of the highest polo events on earth,” adds Jan-Erik, who played there in 2014. “The Engadine valley in which St Moritz is situated is just stunning, and everything is run to a very high Swiss standard, attracting more and more people every year.”

As the concept of snow polo grew, and proved a hit with spectators and players, tournaments popped up in Alpine locations including Cortina, Klosters, Verbier, Val d’Isère, Livigno and Courchevel, although St Moritz remains the only event played on a lake. Further afield, Aspen in Colorado, USA, hosts a tournament each December. And, from 2011 to 2017, the Federation of International Polo ran a sanctioned Snow Polo World Cup in the somewhat unlikely location of Tianjin, China.