Pontresina -- Life in the High Alps of Switzerland. Wood Dominates The Scene -- In Pontresina (and throughout the country) wood is the most important raw material. It is used for housing, furniture, fuel. Luckily, the country has practically inexhaustible supplies in its vast mountain forests. Resources are however most carefully husbanded, and excess feeling during the war (when no coal at all could be obtained from abroad) is now being made good by considerable restrictions. Here, a heavy plank is carried into a joiner's workshop. Work, work, work could be the Swiss national motto. January 22, 1948. (Photo by Pictorial Press).