Sure enough, the villagers battled their way through the thick snow and well into the mountains, found their sign. High on a ridge above a narrow part of the road, they saw an impossible bank of snow seemingly unsupported by rock or ground. It hung over the narrow path like a hulking shadow, threatening to crash down in a deadly avalanche at any moment. The villagers were afraid to proceed and were ready to give up the poor padre as lost and return home when a light broke over a ridge to the east and fell on the gravity defying snowbank.
There, on the surface of the snow, swore the transfixed villagers, was the perfect image of the Madonna. They took it as a sign of God's grace and proceeded on to find the near frozen Father Galuppi holed up in a cave less than a hundred yards down the path. As they carried the frostbitten Father back down the road past the balancing snowbank and tried to show him the Virgin Mary's face, the entire side of the mountain rumbled and collapsed, carrying everything in its path as it crashed to the valley below.
After hearing the story, I wondered if he had a bit of a problem with the coca plant closer to home. In any case, apparently the Vatican felt in need of some new ammunition in its competition with the local drug culture because Madonna of the Balancing Snow was declared a grade A number one miracle.