Snowlands Subcontinent

NOTE: THIS ARTICLE IS UNFINISHED. ESTIMATED FINISH DATE: JANUARY 1ST 2014

File:Snowlands complete

Snowlands. Click for large

Snowlands is a Subcontinent located in Sansara. It is not the only place on the grid where Snow & Snowlands are found, but certainly is the largest one and the most known. Hundreds of pages have been written about Sansara and its snowlands. This article is written from a strict Geographic point of view. It reflects the situation of Snowlands in December 2013 and also it is written in a similar way to a touristic guide.

Geography

Altitude map for Sansara

Snowlands cover a large surface and have one of the most interesting Geographic structures. Also, there are some transition areas. Here are all peaks higher then 200 meters on Sansara.

Main Snowlands

This includes the permanently ice-covered land. Everything here is white. It can be divided in 3 separated places: Chamonix, North snowlands and South Snowlands.

Chamonix is a peninsula to West, formed of 6 sims. It is a winter village.

North Snowlands are built with interesting Geographic features. There are many rivers. Interesting is that water is actually coming from Sutherland Abyss (see Dams for more information) and water altitude drops from sim to sim, creating waterfalls. Part of this water is navigable, part not. In Zermatt sim water is complete frozen, so you can walk along it. Altitude is usually lower, but that is not a rule. Declivity is very high. In fact, many mountain peaks have more then 200 meters high (see Altitude for a list). These very sharp peaks were detected by the drone that made altitude maps for Sansara. Results were unexpected, in contradiction with average values found anywhere else on the continent. There are also many lower places. Geographic fragmentation is very high.

South Snowlands are less differentiated and have some common features with all South Sansara. Large part is a high plateau. Altitude is high, but never reaches 200 meters. Average altitude is higher in South then in North, even if highest mountains are found in North and not in South. There are not many rivers. In South, oceanic shore can be visited (but it is not a good place for sailing).

Transition Land

This includes places close to the snowlands.

Tundra is found in East and in North. It is a place that is covered with permafrost. Vegetation is less developed and the influence from colder snowlands is visible. Usually, the tundra is in contact with river or oceanic water. Altitudes are high.

North Mountains are a a high natural obstacle between cold air from snowlands and warm air from the old world. They are the highest mountains in Sansara. Even if they are not covered with ice, they are strongly influenced by it.

Ice Sea is an inland sea, North-East to central snowlands. Icebergs are free-floating on its surface. It is a good place for sailing, but beware. You know what happened to Titanic.

Transportation

There is a large network of roads in North, less developed in South. Also, sailing is possible on limited surfaces. ONSR is a strategic railway in South. In some places, skilifts are present. There is an airport and flying is possible, by plain or by wings.

Sometimes, this is not enough. To visit other places, walking is required. Walking and flying are the only ways to visit high mountains.

Land Status

Snowlands have much Protected Land in North, while in South they have more Abandoned Land. Tourists must beware of Land With Restricted Access. Ban lines are present, but the real nightmare is the presence of aggresive entity orbs in some places. Even so, about 70% of all Inhabited Land has no restrictions.

Tourism

The following material contains proposed touristic routes.

• Tourist Route 1 - along the ONSR
• Tourist Route 2 - from ONSR terminal station to Ganymede dam
• Tourist Route 3 - up to mount Tethys
• Tourist Route 4 - close to the South oceanic coast and then to Chamonix

Tourist Route 1

This is the most documented route and the only way we can go by train. Then, we continue a bit to South, by foot.

The ONSR is a historical and strategic railway. It starts in Wangen sim, near an airport and an infohub, then it goes South. Automated trains circle along this rail every 10 minutes, but you can also rezz your own train. Also, you can walk by foot or by car for a small part of the railway. Wangen railway station is a major orientation spot and the starting point for many tourist routes. Altitude is 92 meters.

A bit to North from the railway, there is Zermatt sim, with its frozen lake. But, we will talk about it in tourist route 2.

The train starts going, a modern, high-tech design maglev. We go South. The railway is close to the road. This is a large valley, surrounded by mountains. We can only guess how high these mountains are. But, today we don't climb them, we are here only to take the first contact with this ice-covered land. The river is at some distance from us.

And so, we arrive to Eagan sim. Here, the road passes over the railway on a high bridge. The railway is under the bridge. Then, we are between the road and the river. Here, the railway is so close to the water, that walking becomes dangerous. And if we look up, we see the top of some mountains higher then 200 meters.

Ohno sim is an important place. Here, the railway gets on the other side of the river. Then, it returns closer to the road. Ohno is the sim where the river enters from East, from the great Sutherland Abyss. You can come from Sutherland to here by sailing.

From here, we continue our jurney on the valley of a tributary river, to its water source. So, we arrive to Okemo Gorge sim. This station is the place where the road leaves to right and the river ends. We enter the Okemo Canyon. Altitude is 91 meters. From here, the railway is the only way forward. It is a wild place. This canyon separates two plateaus. Altitude starts decreasing slowly, while the railway stretches through this sharp valley, that gets larger when we reach the Okemo Canyon station and even larger in Nakiska.

Then the railway has to go down to Smithers Bluff. The train continues forward until it comes to a stop, then it goes backwords on another line. Then, at another end, it cnahges again forwards, to enter an even lower line. Finally, we arrive to Smithers Bluff railway station, close to ocean water level. A coast light is here. This station is also an orientation spot on our touristic guide. We walk along the water shore. Soon, we see a high mountain in front of us. This is the highest point in the area (95 meters) and allows us to see far around. The South oceanic coast is in front of us. All the buildings in the area are visible. This place is more populated then others in South, thanks to the railway.

Tourist Route 2

This is a good way for road lovers. Almost all this route is accessible by road.

We start our jurney at Wengen railway station, start point of the ONSR and tourist route 1. We follow the road and the river. A second road is visible on right. We enter Zermatt depression. There is a large plain to right. The river then vanishes for a few seconds and reappears completely frozen. We are now in the center of Snowlands. This large ice-covered lake is visible on every map. It is an excellent place for skating, even if a sigh warns us about thin ice. Nobody will stop you from having fun here. Also, this is an obstacle for navigation. Ships can arrive here from Sutherland Abyss, but there is no way forward. Anyway, even if one day the ice will vanish, there are waterfalls downstream. An island, in the middle of the lake, is a rezz zone and also a good place to see how high the mountains around us are.

There is another intersection. We continue forward, to enter a canyon. In fact, the road climbs up to the top, while the river almost vanishes. This is a populated area, with many buildings along the road. We enter Garmisch sim. Near the exit of this sim, two things catches our interest. First, in front of us there is mount Enceladus, one of the highest mountains on the grid. Second, at the sim border there is a small concrete dam that creates a waterfall.

At this point, we enter Arlberg sim. We are now in the tundra. Snow vanishes and all land is covered with permafrost. At the next intersection, we go left. Mount Tethys, the highest mountain in Sansara, is just left to us. To right, the river is close to us. We keep the river on our right.

We enter Tehtys sim. A set of massive rock buildings are visible all around us, on both sides of the road and on both sides of the river. The valley is a deep canyon. Then, once we enter in Mimas sim, we notice the presence of a waterfall. The valley becomes larger. We meet a high bridge, but don't cross it. We keep following the riger, through the tundra. There are more and more buildings and even gardens. We continue forward at the next intersection. Soon, the river flows into a lake and then we see a dam. This is Ganymede dam, our exit point from the microcontinent. From here, land is green and climate is temperate.

There is a similarity between Ganymede dam and Brighton dam in Sharp Continent. Even the canyon in Tethys has the same ground texture with the canyon in Svecia sim, even if it is much larger (see Mountains Of Sharp Continent for comparation).

Tourist Route 3

This route is for alpinists and it will take us up to the highest peak of Sansara. Before this , we must know that on the top of this mountain there is an entity orb that will not allow us to make a longer visit. Also note that it is impossible to climb to the top of this mountain. Wings are needed.

We start our jurney in Alberg sim, at the road bridge. From there, we start climbing in a straight line. It is very difficlut, declivity is very high and the terrain is anything but smooth. There is no path, just a general up direction. After a lot of climbing, we reach 246 meters in Davos. To left, not far, another peak is visible. It has also 246 meters high and is in Davos sim too. Gigantic Tethys mountain is forward and to right other mountains are visible too.

To continue our jurney, we go forward to Tethys. This will take us down to 210 meters. There is a deep hole in front of us, looking like a volcanic crater. Its depth could not be measured, it is too thin for an avatar to enter to its bottom. It separates sims Davos and Tethys and is the sharpest canyon on the whole grid.

At 231 meters high, we cannot climb further. We have to stop. From here, we start going to left, until we finally reach a more softer place to climb. That place is almost on the other side of the mountain. We continue climbing until reaching the top of Davos side of the mountain. Most probably, we get to 288 meters high, to a plateau named Anima Session. Tethys mountain is forward, separated by the very sharp canyon. We can go higher on a peak to left. We are at 301 meters high.

Here, we have to open our wings and get on the other side. We enter in Mimas sim. A good landing place is somewhere we see 3 trees on the mountain top. We are at 297 meters high. There is no way to climb up to here by foot, flying from Davos is the easiest way. We can get closer to Tethys mountain only until we reach the sim border. Ban lines block our access through and if we fly higher in air, an entity orb will certainly block us. Altitude is estimated at 315 meters high. We don't have measured this peak to its real size thanks to access restrictions.

From here, we continue our jurney to West, along the mountain range in Mimas and then we fall down North-West to the highway. If we don't have wings, a parachute is needed. The main risk is to fall in the canyon between Tethys and Devos, continued also between Mimas and Cortina.

Tourist Route 4

This is a way to visit the South coast. In the first part, there is no road.

We start from Smithers Bluff railway station. We follow the railway over two bridges until we get inside the trainyard. There, the rail ends at a sign under construction. This is the sign for us to go forward.

We continue going forward over the snow. There is no road. No touristic marks can be seen and we are free to select the way. The best and only orientation sign is the ocean that always must be to left. When an obstacle is in front of us, we turn right and climb higher in the plateaus.

All the area is an alternation between inhabited land and abandoned land. There are a few parcels that use ban lines or entity orbs, not many. There is enough unused land for us to keep on walking. At some point we find a valley, then, inside a forrest, another valley is in front of us, with a stream flowing to the ocean. This is a long and exhausting walking adventure.

In sim Auschnar Run, at an altitude of 82 meters, we meet a road. To right, an avalanche closed the road. To left, this is our way out. Two ice arcades show us the way to go. This is Amundsen Road and it takes us away from the ocean shores. We keep on climbing. Finally, at 115 meters high, we are on the top of this frozen plateau. We follow this road until the next intersection. A sign tells us that if we go left, we reach Chamonix City. This is the route we fill follow to find a warm place for our frozen legs.

To get to the city, first we get down from the plateau and then we pass over a long bridge. Many welcome signs are all over the road. Then, once we enter, luminosity change to a dark blue, similar to the polar day-in-night. The road takes us through a forest and then we enter the town. Buildings are close one to the other and always close to the road. The town is big and interesting. Sure we can find a warm place here and some warm food, even a place to sleep. But first, we continue our route. The road ends in Cross Check,where we enter a park. Now, we see that the city is placed in a depression. When we leave the city, we enter the Chamonix low mountains. We are in Breakaway sim, near a frozen lake, the best place to play hockey. There is a campfire just on ice surface, near an ice house.

See Also

Second Life Geography

Mountains Of Heterocera

Mountains Of Sharp Continent

ONSR

Sansara