CHAPTER XIII
RUDIMENTS OF WINTER MOUNTAINEERING FOR SKI-RUNNERS
The new “Alpinism”--A re-statement of elementary principles--Ski-runners _versus_ summer pedestrians--The experiences of an eminent physician--How to walk in snow--Put not your trust in sticks--Keep your rope dry--Stand up on your feet--Ski-sticks as supports--Winter clothing.
Till within the last one hundred and fifty years mountaineering as a sport was undreamt of in Europe. The high Swiss valleys were then visited by a few scientific and geographical explorers or by people whose means of livelihood and business occupations stood in some connection with the valleys, their produce and inhabitants.
During the nineteenth century, poetry and literature fostered summer mountaineering, and commercial enterprise was not slow in following in the wake of the intellectual and emotional admirers of mountain scenery. The High Alps were frequented by others than mere trans-Alpine travellers.
But it was reserved for the present generation to invent winter sports. By them, the Alpine winter has sprung into international life. Thanks to them, winter mountaineering is now fast adding a new branch to Alpinism.
In the light of this new age, even the most elementary principles of the mountaineer’s art have to be re-stated. Within the compass of the most modest pretensions, the present chapter aims at so doing--for winter sport lovers of either sex, whom the perusal of the foregoing chapters may further fire with zeal. General readers--ladies particularly--we would not rudely expect to be at pains to supplement, by incurring a course of severe trials, their deficient opportunities and brevity of experience. They will not regret their patience if they read these pages, which, roughly speaking, cover a ground beyond which few of them ever are likely to push their investigations.
None can safely and properly use ski in the Alps but they who have become acquainted with a mountainous country as summer pedestrians. But many now visit the Alps in winter only. As these have no previous acquaintance with the conditions of mountaineering, let them here take heed and be warned.
For want of minding these hints, you might fare like a famous physician of our acquaintance who, coolly, in mid-January, after an early breakfast, left his hotel, at Beatenberg, with a sandwich in his pocket, a few drops of whisky in his flask, and accompanied by his son, lightly clad and lightly shod like himself.
They went merrily along in the snow, on gently sloping ground bathed in the rays of the sun, till they found themselves by midday above a somewhat tall and far-stretching wall of rocks. The heat of the day and the weariness of the flesh promptly brought about the disappearance of the whisky and sandwiches. But the sun would continue to burn above and the snow to be deep below. Hot heads, icy feet, worn limbs. To trudge back seemed uninviting. So the tourists at sundown took to the steep rocks with trembling legs. Their hands were numb. They slipped on wet snow. They got no grip on the ice. They fell into snowdrifts. Their heads were dizzy. Their feet froze. To reach quickly the happy end of a sad tale, it was three o’clock in the morning when they were snatched from the edge of the grave by a party of peasants bearing lanterns and drawn to them by their despairing cries.
Like cases are well-nigh of daily occurrence.
So, if you would be a mountaineer, you may learn here a few things which probably you think you know already, but perhaps do not:--
1. _How to Walk in Snow._ Wear heavy socks and stockings, put on boots of stout leather with nailed soles and broad low heels.
To go uphill, set your feet down lightly but firmly in the snow, putting your weight upon the ball of the foot. Then raise yourself on your foremost leg by a forward swing of the body, to bring it well above your bent knee. This will set your hindmost foot free to step up in its turn, quite lightly. You must not raise yourself by means of a push away from the ground, you would merely glide out of your step, backwards.
To go downhill, put your foot flat in the snow, heel and all, keeping your heel straight, to build a foundation. But do not thump your foot down. There is frequently, under the snow, a slippery surface of stone or ice.
Put not your trust in sticks. As you do not know very well where the point will rest when thrust through the snow, it will often cause you to stumble. Your body should be well supported and well balanced on your legs alone.
2. If you use a rope in snow do not let it drag. Insist on your guide keeping it dry by coiling it up in his hands when it would be inconvenient to keep it taut. A rope that has over and over again been frozen and wetted is slippery under any condition and may snap under sudden stress.
3. When climbing rocks or steep grass slopes in winter, it is safest to assume that they are frozen over. Wear strong gloves and use them to hold on with, but do not lay your full weight, through your hands, on to jutting pieces of rock. Such supports are indispensable in climbing, but likely to break away. So use them as supports only. The weight of your body must rest on your feet and be raised by your legs to its next resting-point. Frozen ground, frosted grass, iced rocks are always extremely dangerous.
When letting yourself down frozen rocks, as a rule with the help of a rope, stand upright and in most cases with your back to the rise of the hill. You may then let yourself down on your bent elbows while your feet settle in their next hold.
4. The winter mountaineer has such a preference for ski-running that he has but little opportunity to use the instrument called _pickel_, _piolet_, or ice-axe. However, when compelled to remove his ski and sling them across his shoulders to pass a difficult piece of ground, he will hold his sticks together and use them in guise of an ice-axe for support.
When going down a sharp incline on foot, hold your sticks together, with both hands resting on them. Let the point end rest on the high ground well behind you, but do not lean back. You would find your feet running away from under you. When going uphill, plant the point ends of your sticks somewhere on the ground in the middle of your stride, but somewhat higher on the rise of the hill than the ground you stand on. It is a common mistake to plant one’s sticks down the slope, a sure way of running into danger. In case of a slip, the place of hands and sticks is on the higher ground, while it is the business of the feet to seek alone a fresh hold lower down. They are thus partly relieved from the weight of the body, and this is kept upright.
5. The clothes of the winter mountaineer should be strong and warm. When moisture-laden, the air is more trying than when it is dry, though colder. Thaws are not unknown in winter, and rain in the valleys is an experience to be prepared against. Boots and leggings should be weather-proof. One should wear wind-proof knickerbockers or breeches, a chamois leather waistcoat, a short but wide and easy coat. Rough woollen material collects the snow. Such should be reserved for underwear. Outer garments should present to the snow a smooth, closely woven surface.