Part 7 (1/2)

Every good walker knows how tiring it is to go up and down across country when gullies have to be crossed. It is disappointing, having got up a certain height, to lose all that is gained by going down again. So it is even more with Ski-ing, when uphill work is really more arduous than walking. Mr. Caulfield gives a very helpful description of a good uphill track, and Skis tend to teach the beginner how to keep the angle as they slip so easily downwards the moment the uphill direction is altered.

When going uphill make up your mind what point you want to reach in the distance and what line will take you to it most easily and then go for it steadily, keeping the same angle all the way so far as is possible and choosing your places for turns very carefully before you reach them.

Following an experienced leader teaches a great deal about the art of setting an uphill track, and the criticisms of the rest of the party following, when the leader loses height soon make one want to avoid comment.

ETIQUETTE

In organized Ski-ing centres a perfectly good code of etiquette is growing up as the result of experience.

So many novices pour out on to the slopes with no knowledge of the game that notices are even posted on the boards in the hotels giving a few of the main points of the Law.

One such notice runs as follows:

(1) Ensure that you take your own Skis, sticks, etc. when you start out. It is wise to mark sticks, and they are safest kept in bedrooms.

(2) Never join a private party unless invited.

(3) Only join the advertised tours, the test for which you have pa.s.sed.

(4) The slower mover has the right of way. The faster mover must avoid him. Never call ”Fore,” ”Achtung,” etc.

(5) Always offer help to anyone in difficulties.

(6) Keep with your party. They might waste a lot of time looking for you while you run home because you thought their pace too slow.

(7) Never desert a runner who, for any reason, is unable to keep up with a party.

(8) Carry your own gear including spare clothing, Ski-ing necessaries, etc.

(9) Avoid stepping on the Skis of another runner. This caution is especially necessary for uphill work.

(10) Remember that wherever you leave a track others may follow.

Therefore only choose safe slopes. The snow is liable to slip on slopes of 25 or more, so that these are dangerous.

Ski-ing is a sport which can be made dangerous for others if individuals do not carry out the usual etiquette. It may seem extraordinary that people should need warning not to join a private party unless invited, but it is sadly true.

One day as I was starting off on a long run a stranger came up to me and asked if she might join us. I consulted the Guide, and he said he already had as many in the party as he could take charge of. I told the lady this, and said I was sorry that we could not accept her companions.h.i.+p. She at once replied cheerily, ”Oh, then I will follow you.” Nothing could prevent her from doing this. Switzerland is a free country, and there is a right of way anywhere over the mountains in winter. We started off and she followed. From that moment, of course, we automatically became responsible for her because one of the Laws is that you never desert a runner who is alone. She was a very poor performer and fell a great deal, so that for the whole six or seven miles' run, we were kept waiting for her. Of course, we were under no real obligation to look after her, but had we left her and anything had happened to her, we could never again have held up our heads as Ski-ers.

On another occasion a runner made a formal complaint to me about a lady who joined his party. In this case it was an experienced runner, who had presumably learnt the Law, and who might have read the notice on the board. First of all she said, ”May I go with you?” and the somewhat cold answer was that the party was complete. Then she followed asking questions about the route, etc. at every opportunity.

Of course, she had finally to be adopted and taken along much to the boredom of the party, which was a private one.

Where the Ski-ing is organized, tests are run and tours arranged for the different standards. This does not apply so much to 2nd or 1st-cla.s.s runners who, of course, prefer to make up their own parties, but, at any rate, these are protected from having the less experienced runner with them, except by invitation. By these means the organized tours only take runners up to the standard advertised, and no one need feel compunction at leaving members of their party behind in the village, because they know that the elementary runner will also get a chance of a run.

Yet even under these arrangements, I have found a beginner sitting huddled in a corner of the railway carriage when we have started before dawn for a big tour. ”Where are you off to?” I said, thinking he was out with a Guide. ”With your party,” was the reply. What could I do? It is not easy to turn a person out of a train at 5.45 a.m. on a cold morning. I said weakly, ”Did you not see the notice which said this was a run for 3rd-cla.s.s runners only?” He said, ”Yes, but I thought I could keep up.” So there he was, and we took him through and though he was very slow uphill and kept us all back in this case, he ran down without delaying us. People often put their own capacity higher than do the people they want to run with and it is very difficult to be tactful.

Again most people would not think it necessary to warn runners against deserting their party. Yet they often do and it is not usually the beginner who is the culprit here. Perhaps he cannot run quick enough to get away! I shall always remember a run in charge of a tour when I was with a lot of novices. Another experienced runner accompanied me officially to help. I chose what I thought the easiest way to start, and he wanted to try another route at the top and went off saying he would join us below a wood. When we reached the part where I thought we should rejoin, I waited and shouted, but he did not appear. So we went on to another post where we had lunch, and then I began to get anxious as this runner never turned up. Anything might have happened to him. He might have gone over a rock or into a tree or even only be tied up in one of those tangled falls when it is practically impossible to extricate oneself. It was no good our trying to look for him then, so after about two hours' delay, I took my party down to the valley and the first person who met us in the village was our lost companion. He chaffed us for being so late as he had run down very quickly and had had his tea ages ago.

No party going beyond the Nursery slopes should consist of fewer than three. One to go for help in case of need, the other to stay with the third runner, who may need help. Needless to say, people who know the mountains well, go off alone with impunity. When I asked one of these lonely runners what would happen if he hurt himself and was benighted, he told me he always carried sufficient morphia to put him out of his agony in case of need. This was, no doubt, all right from his point of view, but what of the people who might go out to look for him among the infinite possible runs with Ski tracks in every direction.