CHAPTER XIV

WINTER STATIONS--WINTER SPORTS--HOW TO USE SKI

The awakening of the English--Switzerland the ice and snow rink of Europe--The high winter stations and the low--Principal sporting centres--Insular delusions--The Continental network of winter sport associations--Winter sports on ice--Tobogganing--The winter climate varies with the altitude--A classification of sporting centres according to altitude--The ski-runner is monarch of the Alps--How to keep one’s ski in good order--How to learn the gentle art of running on ski--Precepts and practice--The turns, breaks, and swings--_Point final_.

It is strange to have to acknowledge, that while in the high-lying valleys of the Alps the Swiss have basked for centuries in hot Christmas sunshine, the English, till within the last twenty years, remained ignorant of Alpine winter sports. Enlightened medical men first recommended the tonic properties of the Alpine climate in winter. Then came the spirited promoters of the Public Schools Winter Sports Club. Now Sir Henry Lunn’s winter stations stud the Alpine ranges from end to end.

These stations are typical of the best organisation hitherto devised to connect winter games known in England, such as skating, curling, and hockey, with the magnificent scenery and inexhaustible opportunities afforded by the Swiss winter climate. As compared with regions situated further north, the sporting advantages of Switzerland over, say, Scandinavia, consist in its central situation in mid-Europe, the closeness of its population, the immense accommodation for visitors, the short distances from station to station, the compactness of the road and railway system, and above all in the abundance of sunlight throughout the winter months. We need say nothing on the benefits of altitude. If air, sun and snow are ideal winter conditions for modern men and women, the higher we go, the more completely will those benefits be secured.

Be this as it may, stations under 5,000 feet are not so reliable for steady, continuous frost, as those situated above that level. This is a pity, because, from a social point of view, the lower stations are largely patronised. The winter sportsman likes to rise quickly. He knows that high peaks and deep valleys are nowhere so closely and attractively interwoven as in Switzerland. The two highest points permanently inhabited by a sedentary community are, in the valley of Cresta Avers, between the Maloja and Splügen passes, and at Chandolin d’Anniviers above Sierre, both at an altitude of about 6,000 feet. These places are above the forest zone and should in time become the flourishing winter sport stations which their situation entitles them to be. At the other and lowest extremity of the scale, but in the vicinity of Mont Blanc, and wanting but little energy to raise its potentialities to the level of the very best, should rank Megève, above Sallanches in the valley of the Arve. Unfortunately there has been hitherto in that part of the world but little disposition to act in an enterprising spirit.

The most important stations, so far, are those situated:--

1. In the Engadine and adjoining valleys (St. Moritz, Pontresina, Kampfer, Silvaplana, Sils, Maloja, Fex, Davos, Arosa, Klosters, &c.).

2. In the Bernese Oberland (Grindelwald, Beatenberg, Wengen, Mürren, Grimmi Alp, Kandersteg, Zweisimmen, Adelboden, Gstaad, Lauenen, &c.).

3. In the Vaudois Alps (Chateau D’Oex, Comballaz, Les Ormonts, Leysin--this latter with many sanatoria--Caux above the lake of Geneva, &c.).

4. In the Rhône valley (Chesières, Villars, Gryon, Morgins and Champéry, Montana and Vermala, Louèche les Bains, in German, Leukerbad), &c. Zermatt is accessible and may be most comfortably lived in in winter, but cannot be said to be as yet a properly opened up station. The same may be said of Saas Fée, to which the new Britannia hut of the Swiss Alpine Club, a gift of the British members of the club, should draw henceforth a large number of English ski-runners. The Simplon and St. Bernard hospices are open throughout the year.

5. In the St. Gothard district (Andermatt, &c.).

6. In the Jura range (St. Cergue sur Nyon, Les Rasses sur Ste. Croix, Mont Soleil sur St. Imier, &c.).

7. In the Mont Blanc district (Chamounix, St. Gervais, Le Planet, Finhaut, &c.).

The offices of the Federal Railways at Regent Street, 11B, London, S.W., deliver gratis an illustrated winter list of Swiss mountaineering resorts. Many of these have been founded by local enterprise only. Such, though quite commendable and moderately expensive, do not often afford the first-class skating facilities found in the Engadine, at Grindelwald, and in stations under English management.

Stations which may boast of a large and well-kept skating rink, a curling pond, well-laid toboggan and bob-sleigh runs, a rink for hockey, and plenty of good ski-ing slopes, with hotel accommodation for an unlimited number of visitors of either sex, are a modern achievement of no mean order in primitive out-of-the-way Swiss mountain villages, buried under anything from 3 to 9 feet of snow.

There is a marked difference between the stations patronised by the English--or visitors from the capitals, whatever their nationality--and the stations frequented by the local people for sport or holiday purposes. Those two classes avoid each other very effectually, though unconsciously for the most part, and without any pointed intention so to do.

The former class depends on “central heating” for comfort. So exclusively do they depend on this and so steadily do they flock to the best accredited stations, that they often fondly imagine themselves to be the only sportsmen active in winter. How often has the writer been asked, at Villars, for instance: How is it that we English are alone seen on ski in Switzerland? This mistake is easily accounted for, because those who get that impression do not go far enough afield to correct it. If they did, they would soon find out what an extremely small proportion of those who run on ski are English. A little thought will show that this is quite natural.

Ski-running facilities stretch, as it were, in an unbroken line from Scandinavia through central Europe straight down to the Maritime Alps, and from the Vosges and Dauphiné in the west to the Carpathians in the east. The number of ski-runners recruited over this immense area is immeasurably larger than anything the British Isles (where there exist no ski-ing facilities worth mentioning) can produce.

The whole of Central Europe is, as it were, caught up in the meshes of a huge net of Alpine associations and skiers’ clubs. These hold periodic competitions and meet in international congresses, commanding a degree of public attention and drawing to themselves an interest the magnitude of which passes quite unnoticed in the United Kingdom.

In a rather ill-considered manner, winter visitors to Switzerland like to crowd the resorts which have become famous for their suitability in summer. This is not quite the way to set about the thing. Winter stations should be sought out for their own characteristics. Several low-lying centres are not nearly so suitable in winter as in summer. Besides, many which could be favourably reported upon by specialists, have hitherto failed to be introduced to the public.

Winter sports may be divided into two classes:--

1. Those which depend upon nature alone.

2. Those which depend upon nature artificially aided.

Among the latter class, skating and curling are foremost. Running on ski ranks first among the former.

It would be out of place here to dwell upon skating, curling, and hockey. These are most congenial pastimes under the blue skies and amid the magnificent scenery of the Alps, but they are distinct from mountaineering. Scottish and Swiss curlers vie with each other in such stations as Kandersteg. Curling stones are imported from London, and ponds are now made in all centres favoured by players of the game.

Skating rinks are a much more costly affair than curling ponds. Patrons of the sport are apt to forget how valuable and extensive is the land that has to be purchased and prepared in the vicinity of the hotels. A staff of professional skating rink builders is in request, with an army of sweepers under their orders. In the middle of the day the great heat of the sun has often to be kept down by filtering the rays through huge pieces of stretched-out sacking or canvas. As the supply of electricity for lighting purposes is seldom scarce, night _fêtes_ are a great feature upon the Alpine rinks.

The social life is indeed sometimes a little excessive, and may interfere with the steadiness of one’s nerve. When Englishmen, by way of amusement, use the Swiss military rifle at the local range in friendly rivalry with the peasantry, the Swiss team has hitherto been invariably victorious, no doubt because the British marksmen are called out “for social duty on the station” at too close intervals.

The toboggan, or _luge_, and the sleigh are usual vehicles with the Swiss. A sight deeply indicative of manly power and grace, is that of Swiss woodmen steering heavily laden sleighs round jagged corners and down precipitous ice cliffs. A run on one of these is an introduction to a new set of sensations.

But the “common herd” toboggan and bob on well-defined roads or tracks, or buzz down runs purposely laid out for their use. According to the lie or curve of the land, and with a view to accelerated speed, artificial runs are scientifically built up in lines and bends carefully designed beforehand. The banks are made of snow piled up with a shovel, and often hardened into blocks by pouring water upon the snow.

The Alpine climate, whether the Swiss, French, Italian, or Austrian Alps are considered, varies with the altitude. It is at its worst in the region of towns, lakes, and rivers, wherever the altitude is under 1,500 feet.

The winter months begin to wear their characteristic aspect in places ranging from 3,000 feet and upwards. But climate must not be confused with general suitability for sport, and stations between 3,000 and 4,000 feet, however excellent in every other respect, are not yet high enough to show a thoroughly reliable winter climate. South-west winds, recurrent thaws, rain, and fog may affect sport seriously in such places for the whole of any one week out of three.

But, upwards of 4,000 feet, a steadily dry winter climate sets in early in December, and may be relied upon to last until the end of March. There is sure to be some thawing now and then, under the influence of mild weather or as an effect of long exposure to the sun, but the dry, cold air, and the torrid rays of an almost tropical sun, are the prevailing features of the sporting season.

As, upwards of 7,000 feet, no winter stations have as yet been thrown open, the useful range of Alpine climate is as follows:--

1. Under 3,000 feet (such as Mont Pélerin, above Vevey, and Ballaigues, above Vallorbes).

2. From 3,000 to 4,500 feet (these stations are the most numerous and the most frequented).

3. Between 4,500 and 6,500 feet (at this altitude some people begin to experience breathing and heart troubles, mental excitability, and insomnia).

Stations situated in this last and highest zone afford excellent sport. Such are, for instance: Mürren, Montana-Vermala, the whole of the upper Engadine, Arosa, Davos, &c. They are the ski-runner’s paradise. Pontresina, particularly, is one of the very finest centres for long excursions on ski. But, while some other parts are rather too flat, the Pontresina district does not abound in short, easy runs.

At from 7,000 feet and upwards, the climate is that of a glorified North Pole; alternative spells of beautiful blazing sunshine, and of stormy, snow-laden, piercingly cold winds. In winter the temperature of the air is always low and, practically speaking, there is frost above the snow-line every night even in summer. But, in the coldest January weather, the sunbeams are poured forth in such arrays, for weeks at a time, from cloudless, windless skies, that one’s sensation of bodily heat, between sunrise and sunset, may be quite overpowering.

All those allurements would perhaps, as in former days, still count for little, but for the transportation of the ski from their dull, northern home to that house set on high which opens its southern frontage, as a balcony 200 miles long over the plains of Italy.

This chapter would not be brought to a fit conclusion if its last lines were not the means of enabling the reader to make himself proficient in the bare rudiments of the ski-ing craft which brings the High Alps in their winter garb within reach of human gaze.

The beginner should purchase ski made of ash, and somewhat shorter than the reach of his arm when extended above his head. He will find the Huitfeldt binding most convenient, with the improved Ellefsen clamp patented under the name of Aspor.

Previously to using your ski, oil them repeatedly at intervals of a week, and give the oil (if possible hot linseed) plenty of time to sink into the wood. Then rub lightly some dry paraffin-wax into the grain of the wood. Each time after using your ski, clean them and rub them down with an oily cloth or sponge.

Warm feet are the royal road to health and comfort: there must be room enough in your boot to leave freedom of motion to each toe.

First learn to move about on the flat, without any support of any kind. If you have followed our advice as to oiling and waxing ski, the under surface of yours will be perfectly smooth and very slippery. So, next, choose the most gentle slope you can find to glide upon. Let it be an easy slant leading on to a flat piece of snow.

Practise going down steadily and slowly, holding in each hand, if you like, a light bamboo or hazel-wood stick. These are to be used only to pick yourself up. Never practise with a single stick, or a stout, heavy stick, or a long stick.

Put the right foot foremost, then the left. Then go down on one foot alone, alternately using the right and the left.

Go through these preliminary exercises with extreme patience. In nothing so much as in ski-running is it fair to say “The more haste the less speed.”

The beginner who raises his ski off the snow surface falls into a serious mistake. He should glide his ski along the surface of the snow when moving uphill as well as on the flat. Ski were not made to be lifted, like feet, but to be pushed along, like a drawn-out wheel. A sensible learner never forces his way up a slope, but, as soon as he feels himself sliding back, he eases off to the right or left. He should always keep his ski close to each other, whether his course be upwards or downwards. The knees, too, should be held close together when descending. The body should not stoop from the waist but lean forward from the ankle-joint, so as to be well balanced over the middle of the ski, the limbs remaining loose and easy throughout.

The whole secret of straight and easy running may be further summed up in the following simple golden rules:--

1. Stand upright on your ski, keeping your body at a right angle to the slope down which you run.

2. Keep ski, feet, and knees together.

3. Then practise lunging with each foot alternately, with the forward knee bent each time as far as it can go.

4. While lunging bring the weight of the body to rest alternately on each ski.

5. Practise thrusting back each leg alternately as far as it can go, with your body resting on the forward bent knee.

6. Then bring both ski close to each other again, and let yourself be borne downwards along hangs of increasing steepness.

7. Then let yourself fly down the whole length of a long slope, first on one foot, then on the other, till you can move along on each ski, without bringing the other into play.

8. Practise dragging each ski alternately behind the other, setting the hind ski free from your weight, then raise the front ski in the air and transfer all your weight to the back ski.

Having got so far one may begin trying swings to the right and left.

1. To do a Telemark swing to the right, push your left ski forward, and bring the weight of your body well above your fully bent knee. If you then incline your body slightly within the curve you wish to describe in the snow to your right, the forward ski, left, will begin to glide in sideways. The inner ski (the right ski) will follow within the curve, provided you keep your right leg well extended behind, and keep the weight of your body off it.

2. To do an Alpine swing to the right, turn the beak (or head) of your left ski towards the right ski, while laying the weight of your body on the left ski, placed lowest on the slope. The left ski will then swing downwards and sideways, and, under the pressure of your foot, come round the head of your right ski, accomplishing the turn. In this swing the heels (or back of the ski) fly apart.

3. To do a Christiania swing to the right, start with ski even and close together. Advance slightly the right ski, get up speed sharply and then throw your weight somewhat backwards by a side thrust inward, ranging from the left hip to the right. The heels of the ski will slip together away from your body, behind you, to the left, and the heads of both ski will point to the right.

The Christiania is reputed a difficult swing, but here is the “straight tip”: Old ski, with edges worn down at the heel, feather round beautifully.

Beware of learning those turns in deep or heavy snow, lest you sprain or wrench an ankle. Hard, ridgy snow is even more dangerous.

This is not the place to teach how, at the altitude of 7,000 feet and upwards, begins High Alp ski-running, in which the Swiss are past masters, because this phase of sport is not for beginners. On the other hand, consummate runners with good guides and inured to every kind of hardship, might well be trusted to add to this book many a page showing, much better than the present writer can, how the High Alps in winter have infinite pleasure in store for the bold, cool-headed, and strong.

UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON

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SKI-ING

FOR BEGINNERS AND MOUNTAINEERS

By W. RICKMER RICKMERS

With 72 Full-page Plates and many Diagrams in the Text. Cloth, 4/6 net. (Inland Postage 4d.)

There are few who can look back on so many years of strenuous ski-ing as Mr. Rickmers, and, save one other man, nobody has had so large and successful an experience of teaching it to beginners. This volume is especially valuable as containing the advice of a mountaineer. It is “short and sweet,” embodying everything the beginner must know in order to learn as quickly as possible. The second part gives him due warning and sound advice, once he has mastered the elements of ski-running and sallies forth on short tours to be followed by long expeditions into the wintry mountains. Mr. Rickmers’ idea throughout is to teach and tell only what has stood the test of time and what is strictly necessary, thus saving from much indecision the ski-tourist who is to be.

The book will be found to be the most complete introduction to the subject in English.

“A fascinating book on the most delightful of Continental winter sports. Not only is Mr. Rickmers a strenuous and accomplished ski-runner himself, but he has had years of experience as a teacher of the art, and his handy volume embodies everything that it is essential for the novice to know in order to become an efficient ski-runner in as short a time as possible.”--_T. P.’s Weekly._

“He is a teacher of vast experience, who has studied every defect in style that a beginner can possibly fall into, and has learned how to cure them all. If the novice with the aid of this book studies his every posture and action, practising the right and with pains correcting what he learns is wrong, he is on the high road to becoming a first-class runner.”--_Scottish Ski Club Magazine._

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T. FISHER UNWIN, 1 Adelphi Terrace, London.