Ski-running Part 11

Two or, better still, four Skis tied together, side by side, form an excellent sledge, which will travel straight downhill every easily.

It practically refuses to traverse a slope so that the case has to be slipped straight down to the bottom of the slope and along the valley or level below.

Skis usually have holes through the flat part of the tip in front.

A piece of strong wire should be threaded through these, care being taken that the Skis lie parallel their whole length and that the tips are not drawn together too much. A stick must be tied to the wire and the Ski tips to keep them in position and to take the pull when the sledge is drawn along. If there are trees about, a branch can be cut to serve this purpose. If not, a Ski stick must be cut in half and used. It should not project beyond the Skis on either side, or it will catch in the snow.

The other half of the Ski stick or another branch must be tied across the Skis, by the toe irons, to keep the Skis parallel there also, and to give solidity to the sledge. People sometimes tie a strap or string round the Skis, including their running surfaces, forgetting that this will soon cut through with the friction of the snow.

To finish the sledge, put some fir branches on it, the bushy part of which will make it more comfortable to lie on. The thick wood of the branch part should point towards the front of the Skis and be fixed there. If branches are not available, Rucksacks can be used for the injured person to lie on. He will probably be more comfortable going downhill if he can be laid head-first downwards on the sledge.

To draw the sledge along, join a lap thong or sealskin or rope or puttee to the outer Ski tips, and also to the ends of the stick across them. In order to prevent this from pulling these Skis forward too much it is well to tie a string to the inner Ski tips also and join them to the pulling rope.

Another rope or thong should be attached to the stick and centre toe irons, so that this can be held from behind to prevent the sledge travelling too fast downhill. Experienced runners will be able to travel on Skis while getting this sledge down, but beginners will do well to wade on foot, especially the rear man, who has to control the speed. Neither the pulling nor control rope should be attached to the body of the person holding it because a sudden jerk may pull him over and the sledge be stopped suddenly with a jar to the person hurt.

Most club huts are provided with excellent ambulance sledges, which may be used, and which should be conscientiously returned to the Rettungschef of the locality.

There is a Rettungschef in every mountainous district whose duty it is to help with accidents when these are reported to him. He arranges to send out Guides and porters with an ambulance sledge to the a.s.sistance of any party in trouble. If, therefore, your accident be a serious one, and you are far from home, the wisest plan may be to send one or two of the best runners down to the nearest village for help, while the remainder stay with the injured person. For this reason it is always unwise to go out with fewer than three in a party. Five or six are a better number on a long day's run.

Remember the people waiting at home, and when you have made arrangements for help to go to your party ring up your friends and tell them what has happened and what you have arranged. Having often seen the anxiety of relations and friends when their party comes home late, I know how important this is. Even if you are only delayed for some small reason such as a train being late, it is kind to ring up, and this is easily done, as there are telephones in almost every village.

While on this subject I would again like to urge that before going off on an expedition of any length the Concierge and someone should be told in writing the destination, the route, and the hour antic.i.p.ated for return. Then, if the party does not turn up and no news comes through, a search party can be sent out with some hope of finding them within a reasonable time. Time is very important in January and February, when the weather is cold, as people can be badly frost-bitten if benighted.

Search parties are expensive luxuries, as it is risky work for the Guides, who deserve to be well paid for it. I have only once followed a Rettungschef with his five a.s.sistants and their ambulance sledge, and shall never forget the pace at which their lantern went ahead of us, dancing like a will-of-the-wisp. A runner had come home at 5 p.m.

with news that one of the party had hurt his knee some four miles from home. This runner had already wisely rung up the Rettungschef from the first house he came to, and a party of Guides was being collected. I decided to go out with some friends in case the accident was a serious one and we could bring the remainder of the party home, and so save the Guides that duty. They were all beginners who were benighted.

We followed the lantern and saw it stop and knew the Guides had reached the people in trouble. When we caught up they already had the patient looking like a mummy, rolled up in blankets in a canvas bag on the sledge. I could hear him choking over the brandy which was being poured down his throat. He had only hurt his knee, but his friends, who were all real novices, had had a wearing time getting him down.

The way in which the Guides handled the job filled me with admiration and confidence. When they found we were ready to herd the party home, they shot off with their sledge and the lantern soon became a speck of light in the distance again.

I also had a lantern that night, and found it delightful to ski by, but doubt whether anyone else profited much by its light except as a guide to direction.

When a person is hurt and helpless at a high level, in winter, cold is the most immediate danger, and all spare clothing should be piled on him, and his limbs should be rubbed to prevent frost-bite. When he cannot be moved, a fire might well be lit if below tree level where wood is available, because, though the lighting of fires is forbidden in the Swiss forests, a breach of the law would surely be overlooked in case of danger to life. The heat of the fire would help to keep the patient warm, while its light would act as a beacon to the search party.

The following is the code of signals in use among the Alps:

_The Alpine Signal of Distress_--

(a) By Day.--The waving of anything (a flag or stick with an article of clothing attached) six times in a minute, repeated after an interval of one minute without signals.

(b) By Night.--A light flashed six times a minute, repeated after an interval of one minute without signals.

(c) By Sound.--Six sharp calls, or whistles, in the minute, repeated after an interval of one minute without signals.

_The Answering Call_--

(d) Anything waved, a light flashed, a sharp call, or whistle three times in the minute, repeated after an interval of one minute without signals.

If a Ski runner does not remember the exact signal any regular signal repeated a definite number of times in a minute, with a minute's interval, should prove sufficient. Similarly, if you hear a signal repeated at short regular intervals, you should always suspect a call for help.

An ordinary whistle is hardly loud enough for the sound to carry any distance and a siren might be better. Newspaper could be used for a flare if the party does not possess a lantern or electric torch, but it would not last long.

Finally, may I suggest that everyone who takes up Ski-ing seriously, and who carries gear to be used in emergency, should be proficient in the use of such gear and not wait till it is needed to find out how to fit it.

To experiment in making an ambulance sledge while an injured person lies beside you and when your fingers are cold and people are buzzing round you with suggestions, which may or may not be better than your own ideas, is a bad plan. It is wiser to have made the experiment at home and to have got someone to drag you down a hill on the result, and then you will know something about it. A new game for the Nursery slopes, and what fun for the spectators who already think all Skiers mad!

I would like to add at the end of this chapter on accidents that during the many years I have enjoyed Ski-ing, and with the hundreds of beginners I have helped, I have never met with a single really serious accident.

One or two knees and ankles twisted and now and then a cut or severe bruise have been among the worst cases I have come across.

THE ATTRACTIONS OF SKI-ING

Though some runners are content merely to enjoy the actual practice of Ski-ing with all the difficulties to be overcome and the various turns to be perfected, the greater proportion probably ski mainly on account of the exhilaration obtained, the freedom enjoyed, and the wonderful beauty of the places reached.

The amazing thing is that Skis were not used sooner among the Alps.

They have already in less than thirty years entirely altered the life of the young people in far-away villages, who used to be practically shut up during the winter months, but who can now ski from one place to another on Sundays and holidays, enjoying the companionship of their friends and widening their outlook by mixing with strangers.

This will probably have a very good effect on the population of the High Alps, who will be less inclined to leave their homes in order to get away from the monotony of the long winters. So much is this appreciated that Ski-ing is now part of the school curriculum in some districts, often taking the place of gymnastics during the winter.

It is amusing to watch the cla.s.ses of children out on the Nursery slopes with their teachers. While we foreign women Ski-runners are provided with elaborate costumes, including breeches or trousers, the little Swiss girls ski in frocks and cotton pinafores without cap or hat, and often without gloves. Led by their teacher they wearily climb up the slopes, and then comes the mad career home to the midday meal.

Twenty or thirty little girls all dashing down together practising turns as they go, or making as straight down as they dare in their effort to outpace their rivals.

The boys carry the sport still further and most local Ski-jumping compet.i.tions start with a demonstration by the boys, who often do not look more than 10 or 12 years old, and who go over the big jump as straight as their elders and usually a good deal more gaily, as they have not begun to appreciate the dangers. The smaller boys line the sides of the jump and pour out at the word of the judge on to the steep landing-slope like a lot of little goblins, jumping on their Skis horizontally to flatten away any track or hole made by a jumper who has failed to jump perfectly. Little chaps of seven or eight run through the woods on these occasions, sw.a.n.king their turns through the trees and putting most grown-up runners to shame by their nimbleness.

At Pontresina one winter I was much amused by one of these small children wearing a British third-cla.s.s test badge which he must have picked up. I asked him where he got it, but he hurried away for fear I would claim it, and his Christianias through the big trees made me very envious.

Many of the children ski to school and back, getting endless practice all through the winter months.

May I here appeal to British runners who may have old Skis, even broken ones to throw away, to offer them to the local branch of the Swiss Ski Club as there is an organization which mends them or cuts them down for lending or giving to the school children, who are too poor to provide themselves with Skis.

When the beginner has learnt the elements of straight running and turns and begins to go off among the mountains the real interest of Ski-ing is begun, with the slow climb up in single file, first of all through woods and then out on to the open slopes. This is usually a silent game as breath is needed for the climb, and it is dull work keeping up a conversation with the back ahead. Sometimes, as one inadvertently steps on the Skis ahead, a gruff word is flung back and the trespa.s.ser is wise who stops, pretending to attend to his binding, or to look at the view--the view is usually worth looking at, too, as there is usually something to see. If it is not a distant view of the Great Alps or of the valley below, it is of trees or rocks, which, if examined carefully, usually show some sign of life. I remember being snubbed by an ardent Ski-er because I ventured to ask "What are those black birds?" "Who wants to know about birds when he is ski-ing?" was the answer. I did want to know, and I found out that they were Alpine choughs and I still want to know when I see the inhabitants of the mountains or their tracks.

Most of the wild animals use old Ski tracks as highways now, even finding it worth while to follow the zigzag of an uphill traverse.

Foxes, hares and roe deer all use them, the roe deers' feet showing so much tinier than the chamois, who leaves a deep rough track as they usually run in each other's footsteps. The hare's track when running is two holes abreast and then two single ones. The fox runs rather like a dog. The squirrel hops two feet at a time, often leaving a slight ruffle on the snow as he swishes his tail. Among the cembra trees in the Engadine the snow may be sprinkled with the nuts out of the cones. They are delicious eating, being very like the Italian stone pine nut, or pinelli, and they attract the squirrels as much as they do the nutcracker bird.

Martens and pole cats leave distinct footmarks. Weasels, also, and these are easily recognized as they usually start from a hole under a bush or a rock. One day when a party of us were silently traversing a slope above Murren a tiny brown ball came rolling down, which, when picked up, proved to be the warm dead body of a mouse. Looking up we saw a weasel peering out of his hole anxious as to the fate of his dinner. A mouse's track also usually starts from a tiny hole and the two feet go abreast, while the tail leaves a line all the way.

We nearly always see chamois and roe deer when ski-ing in the woods at Pontresina as it is a protected area and they are not shot and therefore become very tame. The chamois are driven down into the woods in search of the lichen which hangs like a beard from the branches of the cembra trees. On Muottas Celerina this winter we saw four chamois below us in the wood. Without a word our guide, Caspar Gras, dashed down the slope after them and very nearly caught one round the neck, as they were surprised, and knowing there was a precipice beyond the scrub below them, they could not make up their minds which way to go.

The roe deer sc.r.a.pe away the snow below the trees in search of alpenrose or bear berry leaves or dry blades of gra.s.s. They suffer more than the chamois after a heavy snowfall because they are not so strong and cannot scamper through it. At the beginning of this season, Klosters had a snowfall of some two metres and the roe deer were driven down to the villages where the peasants fed them in stables till the weather improved. Four were caught on the railway, having got on to the line at a crossing and being unable to spring out over the high banks of snow.

Ibex are being let loose in order to re-establish them where they were exterminated a few years ago. They can usually be seen through the telescope at Bernina Hauser above Pontresina, and also opposite Murren. The ibex, or steinbock, is used as the Coat of Arms of the Canton of Graubunden, and is familiar to Ski runners as the badge of the local Ski Club of Zuoz in the Engadine.

After some controversy eagles are being encouraged to increase, having been almost exterminated. We saw a beauty sailing over the Muottas Muraigl Valley one day. There is even talk of trying to get bear back, but the peasants obstruct this as they were so destructive to sheep.

As a child at Davos I saw three bears brought in dead by hunters, and remember with pride, mixed with disgust, tasting a bear's paw. A peasant told me of how as a boy he looked after the village sheep near the Silvretta Glacier, and of a bear who used to come and kill a sheep and then bury it in the ice for future eating.

Ski runners shudder at the idea of meeting a bear while on a run, but they need not worry as the bears roll up and sleep through the winter so that unless the Ski-er took an unusually heavy fall into the bear's hole, he would be safe enough on the surface. Besides which it is said that a bear cannot traverse down a slope, so that the Ski-er could easily get away unless the bear rolled to the bottom, and then ran along and waited for him. As there are no bears in Switzerland now, perhaps it is waste of time to start a controversy about the best turn with which to circ.u.mvent a bear. Cows are much more dangerous. I was pursued down the village street at Pontresina by a playful cow, who had been taken to the pump to drink. She put down her head and stuck up her tail and I wasted no time in pushing away from her.

Another animal which hibernates through the winter is the marmot, and I often think of them sound asleep under the snow as I pa.s.s along the slopes of some high valley. They are said to have breathing holes, but I have never seen them, unless this was the explanation of some holes which puzzled me on the Schiltgrat above Murren. I was traversing uphill a long way ahead of my party and noticed some isolated holes in the snow, very like Ski stick holes, but with no Ski tracks near. As I pa.s.sed a grey hen flew out of one of the holes, and, looking back, I saw several black c.o.c.ks and grey hens flying away. It is more likely that they had made their own holes to shelter in rather than that these were marmot holes.