After Srinagar, residents and tourists in Shimla awoke to a beautiful, snow-covered morning, following surprise snowfall in the wee morning hours, and brilliant sunshine subsequently Friday.

Even as office goers and school children trudged over 30 cm of snow in the morning, tourists here were thrilled.

"We were so surprised to see snowfall in the morning after the clear night yesterday," said Nikunj Puri, a tourist from Delhi.

Hill stations Chail, Dalhousie and Manali received a fresh spell of snowfall. And near-arctic conditions prevailed in the tribal belt of lahaul, Spiti, Pangi and Dodra-Kwar.

In the Spiti valley, temperature hovered between minus 15 to minus 26 degrees Celsius.

In Shimla, after the morning snowfall set off by a blizzard, there was bright sunshine as the day wore on.

But amidst all the picturesque vista, residents had a lot to complain.

Life was thrown out of gear in Shimla as many water pipes were frozen. There was widespread power failure, and roadblocks affected traffic flow at various places.

Vehicles travelling on the NH-22 - the Hindustan-Tibet national highway leading to the resorts of Kufri and Narkanda were clogged, and thin traffic resumed on the 90 Kalka-Shimla highway only around noon.