Ski-running | Page 2

top of some peak or pass, basking in the blaze and imagining the run down cool slopes. No Ski-runner, who has not been out in late February or March, realizes the joy and comfort of late Ski-ing. The hotels will remain open as long as clients stay to make it worth while, and all the mid-winter amenities will be kept up if they are wanted.
In recommending places and equipment, I intend boldly to confine myself to the places I have been to and to the equipment I have used, or of which I have had reports from people I trust. This is a somewhat risky determination as there is great competition among the various centres and business firms which cater for Ski-runners. My reason is that the endless advertisements must be extremely confusing to the novice, who does not know what to believe, and who may sometimes be let down by a glowing description of some place or gear, which proves to be quite unsuitable.
The old hands will find nothing new in this book. Not even controversy about the nomenclature of turns or as to which foot should carry the weight in a Christiania. My own view of Ski-ing turns is that they are a means to an end, and not an end in themselves, and that the Ski-runner, who is content to spend weeks on the Nursery slopes, perfecting one turn, has wasted almost weeks, when he might be enjoying what Skis enable one to reach among the mountains above. At the same time every beginner should be content to devote two or three of his first days to the Nursery slopes, learning the elements of good Ski-ing before dashing off on an excursion. As I know from painful experience, there is much to unlearn in what one has picked up by the light of Nature. Scrambling down a run, crashing and sitting on one's Skis, may be great fun the first day, but is tiring and humiliating as time goes on. It is infinitely preferable to learn the knack of Ski-ing tidily, and thereby keeping dry and, in a few days, running well enough thoroughly to enjoy a day out with its slow climb to the top of some peak or pass, and then the slide down under control.
This is where tests are so valuable. Most people undoubtedly enjoy competition and, if the passing of the turns is made a necessary qualification for the timed run of the 3rd class test, most beginners will determine to learn them and then to try the Run and, having successfully passed that, wear a Badge. Badge-hunting, like pot-hunting, may not be a very worthy object in itself, but if it encourages people to become proficient in a beautiful sport, let us give our weakness of character free play and achieve the results it leads to. The tests of the Federated Ski Clubs of Great Britain have done more to raise the standard of our running than anything else imaginable.
The beginner is wise, who chooses a centre where the Ski-ing is well organized, and where he can be certain of getting coaching as well as excursions suited to his standard, as nothing is lonelier than going to a place where he is dependent on his own initiative; neither is anything more irksome to the good runner than to be asked to admit a stranger to his party, who may keep him back and spoil his run. This will be further alluded to in the Chapter on Etiquette, and if a beginner wishes to be popular, I advise him strongly to adhere to the "Law." A strict code has been adopted, mainly as a result of the suffering from pertinacious runners, who put their standard higher than is admitted by others.
Where the Ski-ing is organized, tests sort different individuals into their different standards and Runs are planned accordingly, so that the novice is not over-strained and the experienced runner is not hindered by too big a party.
The beginner should also choose a centre where there is a railway to help him. A great deal of precious time and energy may be wasted in a short holiday when all climbing has to be done on skis. The first runs are tiring enough without the additional fatigue of climbing, and going up in a funicular or railway opens up numbers of runs which would be far too energetic for most people who are not in training.

CONTENTS
PREFACE
HISTORY OF SKI-ING
COST OF A SKI-ING HOLIDAY IN WINTER
SKI-ING CENTRES
CLOTHING
EQUIPMENT
CARE OF EQUIPMENT
THE ELEMENTS OF SKI-ING
ETIQUETTE
SNOW AND LIGHT
FALLS
TESTS
GUIDES AND SKI INSTRUCTORS
MAPS AND FINDING THE WAY
AVALANCHES
ACCIDENTS
THE ATTRACTIONS OF SKI-ING
SUMMER SKI-ING
APPENDIX: REGULATIONS OF THE BRITISH SKI TESTS
INDEX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
From photographs by E. Gyger, Adelboden, Switzerland
ACHIEVEMENT!
MAP OF SWITZERLAND
THE UPHILL TRACK
POWDER SNOW
SPRING

SKI-RUNNING

HISTORY OF SKI-ING
Very little is known of the early history of Ski-ing. Doctor Henry