It smells of wood and a little trapped in the bar in the middle of the party ski resort Ischgl in Austria. The owner Bernhard has let us in. In here, many Swedes, Danes and Norwegians have been toasting and singing full throats in their Nordic languages, he says with a smile.

World renowned whistle

It was also here that a now-famous whistleblower used to wander around among the guests. Until someone in the staff was infected by the new, and then still unknown, virus. And the rest is a story told all over the world.

It's really unfair, Bernhard says. Had the virus started in the summer, it would have been the beaches that had been blamed. Now it is the ski resorts and especially afterskin.

Now that the ski slopes in Austria's glaciers are allowed to open again a few weeks before the season is over, the bars are still rebounding. And there is a big question mark around if and when they can get open. And if so, how?

The party was the target

Most people with whistles can live without it. But who wants to go to a bar where you have to keep a distance of at least one meter? Or wear mouthguards? The point, Bernhard says, is to meet new people. Expand their views. Many are the couples who just met at a bar.

I talk to Bernard about a form of social interaction that risks being lost in the wake of the epidemic.

Of course, many people do not like après-ski, who do not like partying and skiing belong together. Therefore, Austria's perhaps most festive ski resort Ischgl became an easy target this time. The virus spread in many places in the Alps during the sports holiday.

But the most exciting thing was to report on the Ibiza of the Alps and the wandering whistle that is now silent.