TOBOGGANING
To descend an ice-run like the Cresta at St. Moritz is no doubt a most
thrilling and skilled adventure, but the vast majority of people who say
(with perfect truth) that they enjoy tobogganing would sooner think of
ascending in an aeroplane than descending the Cresta, and would freeze
with fright at the thought of embarking on it. On the other hand, the
skilled Cresta runner would no more think that the quiet descent of
snow-covered roads on a Swiss luge was tobogganing in his sense of the
word, than the aeroplanist would allow that a man practising high jump
was flying. From which we may rightly infer that there are various sorts
of movement which are covered by the word tobogganing.
As a matter of fact there are, commonly practised in Switzerland, three
broad and widely differing species of tobogganing. They are as follows:
(i) Proceeding--quickly or leisurely--down frozen roads or
artificial snow-made runs.
(ii) Proceeding--as quickly as possible--down artificial ice-runs.
(iii) Bobsleighing (or bobbing)--as quickly as possible--down roads
or artificial runs.
The number of folk who practise the first of these immensely outnumbers
those who practise the other two; for everybody in Switzerland in the
winter is guilty of the first practice, from the small Swiss native,
aged perhaps eight or under, who marches up to school with its books
tied on to its luge, and gaily and jauntily returns home seated on it,
steering and guiding with its ridiculous little feet, and shouting
“Gare” or “Achtung,” according to the canton, up to the skilled racer on
the skeleton who carries off the Symonds bowl in the race on the
Klosters road at Davos. But all these, different as their performances
are, are going on snow-runs. The snow may in places, it is true, where
it has thawed and frozen again, intimately resemble ice. But the ice-run
is different in kind from any snow-runs.
For ordinary travel, let us say from your hotel down to the rink, where
there is no question of racing, but just getting there, the toboggan
generally used is the Swiss toboggan or luge. It is a high wooden frame
(high, that is, compared to the skeleton) with two runners shod with
steel or iron, and you sit on it exactly as is most comfortable--it is
never very comfortable--and tie your lunch and skates on to it, and push
off. If you want to turn to the right, you put your right heel into the
snow, or dab with your hand on the right side; if you want to go to the
left, you perform the same operation in a sinister manner. If you want
to stop, you put both heels into the snow. If you want to go quicker,
you, while still sitting down, walk with both feet simultaneously. This
sounds complicated; but it is quite clear the moment you feel you want
to go quicker--it is done instinctively. Finally, if you are going fast,
and must make a sudden stop,
[Illustration: “ACHTUNG!”
_From the Drawing by Fleming Williams_]
owing to some obstacle in the shape of an old lady or a sleigh
immediately in front of you, you turn into any convenient snowbank at
the side of the road, and having picked yourself up, look injured, which
physically you are not. Or, if there is no convenient snowbank, you fall
off to one side or the other, and often observe your malicious luge
proceeding calmly on its course without you. In fact, you do anything
that occurs to you at the moment, except upset the old lady or charge
the sleigh.
The foregoing is a complete compendium of all that it is necessary to
know or do, when tobogganing on an ordinary road. It is as simple as
walking and generally quicker. The same, in the main, applies to the use
of luges on an artificially-made run. But every artificial run implies
the idea of racing, and thus the object is to get down it as quickly as
possible. But every artificial run has turns in it, and the idea is to
get round these turns without capsize and with as little loss of speed
as possible. The outside of these turns is therefore banked up (_i.e._
if the turn is to the right, the left side of the track is banked up,
and _vice versa_), so that you do not (if you manage properly) run out
of the track, but climb the bank and descend again into the track. But
if you do not manage properly, one of three things will happen to you.
(i) You go over the bank and are heavily spilled. This is fatal if
you want to win a race, unless everybody else does the same.
(ii) You upset on the bank. This is not necessarily so fatal,
unless you entirely part company with your toboggan, which then
finishes triumphantly without you.
(iii) In excess of caution, you diminish your speed so much before
you get to the bank that you merely crawl round the bend. This is
moderately fatal.
But we need not waste more time over artificial snow-runs. They are only
a compendious form of road-running, and what is necessary in the way of
steering and judgment of pace on them, is equally true with regard to
such fine natural runs as the Klosters road. Here there are no
artificial banks to keep the runner in his course. He has to get around
the corners by judicious steering, and crawling when necessary, and,
above all, by adjustment of weight. On the ordinary luge or Swiss
toboggan there is little adjustment of weight that can be made, but it
is a very different affair when you negotiate the same road on racing
toboggans, namely skeletons, which are also used on ice-runs.
Here, instead of this little high wooden platform on which you sit,
there is a very low framework supported on round steel runners, blunt
nosed in front, and instead of sitting on it you lie on it, face
downwards. The runners, sharply bent upwards in front, return and form
the support of the low frame, and you grasp these with your hands, and
lie down with arms bent or extended as required. But the cushion on
which you recline moves backwards and forwards in the manner of a
sliding seat, so that you can lie with legs right out behind the base of
the machine, and can use great part of your weight, inclining it to one
side or the other of the toboggan, in order to get it round curves.
Similarly, the hands have an immense leverage behind them, and with one
foot lying out behind and raking the snow, a curve can be made at high
speed, which it would be impossible to get round on a Swiss toboggan
without heavy braking and great loss of velocity. When riding a
skeleton, the toes of the boots are fitted with toothed irons, so that
they can be used together as brakes, or singly, in order to make the
toboggan curve in the required direction. The runners of these toboggans
are not rectangular like those on luges, but of circular shape, thus
producing the minimum of friction on their travelling surface. Even on
snow-tracks these are capable of tremendous speed, though that speed
does not approach what they compass on frozen ice-runs, where they
travel almost frictionless.
Apart from the “storm and stress” of racing, there is a wonderful
pleasure, if the track is smooth and trafficless, in this swift gliding
over frozen snow, and one of the most romantic of experiences in all the
gamut of motion is tobogganing by moonlight. Never will the writer
forget one such night on the Klosters road. We had sleighed up from
Davos, a party of friends, to Wolfgang, on one of those magical nights
when no breath of wind stirred the lightest jewels of hoar-frost on the
pines, when the moon was full, and the stars burned like diamonds
aflame. All the way up, after dinner, there had been talk and laughter,
and standing ready to go, we arranged that there should be two minutes’
pause between the despatch of the toboggans, and one by one we slid off
into the unspeakable silence of the Alpine night. It so happened that I
was the last to go, and for two minutes I waited at the head of the
track in a stillness that is unimaginable. When I started there was in
all probability not a living soul within half a mile, and the nearest
was sliding swiftly further away every moment. For a little way the
track lay open to the full blaze of the zenithed moon, but soon it
plunged beneath the impenetrable canopy of pines. It was possible to see
the white glimmer of the road ahead, otherwise there was nothing
visible. Then, with the suddenness of a curtain withdrawn, the blackness
became a celestial and ineffable glory of close burning constellations,
with the full disc of the moon shining imperially among them. Far below,
distant and dim, I could see the lights of Klosters, and half-longed to
reach them, in order to get out of this awful and burning and frozen
solitude, half-longed that my travel might be lengthened into an
eternity of wheeling stars and flying road. Sometimes it seemed that I
was rushing headlong through space, sometimes it seemed that I was
stopping absolutely still, and that it was this unreal world of trees
and road and bridges and banks that hurled itself by me, and that the
stars and I were the steadfast things. Once the sudden roar of a stream
over the bridge of which I passed sounded loud and menacing, but in a
moment that was past, and the hissing spray of frozen snow coming from
the bows of my toboggan was the only sound audible. And then the lights
of Klosters gleamed larger and nearer, and this wonderful swift solitude
was over.
(As a matter of fact, I had an awful spill by the cabbage garden corner:
but though that was very vivid at the time, there remains nothing of it,
except the fact, in my memory. It would have been more romantic, but
less realistic, not to have mentioned it.)
_Ice-runs_
There is one Mecca: there is one St. Peter’s: there is one Cresta. As is
Mecca to the Mohammedan, as is St. Peter’s to the Catholic, so is the
Cresta run at St. Moritz to the tobogganer. It is _the_ ice-run. There
may be others, and there certainly are, but what does the Cresta care?
It has a _cachet_ which no other possesses.
The Cresta was first engineered, I believe, in the year 1884, and its
chief architect was Herr Peter Badruth of St. Moritz. From that time
onwards it has yearly been built up with as much thought and care as is
lavished on a cathedral; every yard of it is staked out, and the angles,
curves, and shaping of its banks and corners most accurately calculated.
It is built up from the bottom upwards, so that the lower part of it can
be used while the construction of the upper part is still going on, and
the whole run is generally open not until after the middle of February.
Every winter is this amazing architecture in crystal planned and carried
out under the direction of Mr. W. H. Bulpett, who has for many years
been chief architect.
To begin with, the snow is trampled down, after the manner of making the
foundation of an ice-rink, so as to form a firm solid base, and where
the banks are to be built snow is brought in sleigh-loads, shovelled on
to it, and beaten down. More snow will then be still required, and again
more, till the whole of the banks are solid and of the necessary height
and curve. Then the banks and the rest of the course (the straights) are
sprinkled with water and again beaten down, and the glazed ice surface
begins to be made. When this has frozen, water is again sprinkled on it,
and again and yet again, till the whole section has become, banks and
course alike, a surface of smooth hard ice. Down each side of the narrow
racing track (except at its banked corner it is only a few feet wide, a
riband of ice) are little walls of firm built snow, also iced, so that
the runner, if he is going moderately straight, cannot leave the track,
though he often comes into slight collision with these walls. But even
slight collisions when travelling at a speed that sometimes exceeds 70
miles an hour are not experiences to be encountered unarmed, and the
elbows and knees are thickly protected by felt pads, while on the toes
of his boots are toothed rakes made of steel, which are used to guide
the runner round the bank and to check his speed if it is so excessive
that, unchecked, he would run over the tops of the banks.
A very high degree of nerve, skill, and judgment is required on such an
ice-run as this. The rider’s object being to cover the course in as few
seconds as possible, he must clearly take his banks (_i.e._ get round
the curves) with as little loss of speed as possible, and he will only
use his brakes when his judgment tells him that if unchecked he would be
carried over the top of them. On the other hand, he does not want to
brake unless it be necessary, and you will often see him with his top
runners within an inch or two of the edge of these huge sloping
ice-curves. At Battledore and Shuttlecock, the two biggest banks on the
Cresta, he enters the second immediately after coming out of the first,
and the two form a great S curve. Lower down again, before he threads
the
[Illustration: ON THE CRESTA RUN
_From the Drawing by Fleming Williams_]
arch of the railway bridge, there is another called Bulpett’s corner,
designed to protect him from running out to the left of the course, and
then a headlong descent takes him to the winning-post, which is at the
bottom of the hill. Passing this he snaps a thread with an electric
connection, which registers the exact fraction of a second at which he
passes it. Then, on his run out, he whirls up a steep ice-covered slope,
for if this were not iced too, his speed would be so abruptly checked
that he and his toboggan would be bowled over and over like a shot
rabbit, and comes to a stop just outside the little village of Cresta.
But even with this steep slope to check him after his race is over, the
momentum acquired is so great that, if he does not brake heavily all the
way up this hill, he will, on reaching the level ground at the top,
shoot high into the air, toboggan and all.
Some idea of the speed at which toboggans travel on the straight reaches
of the course may be gathered from the average speed at which the course
can be run. It is over 1300 yards in length, and has been traversed in a
shade over 60 seconds! This means that the highest rate of speed must be
well over 70 miles an hour. This on a pair of steel runners, head
foremost, with your face a few inches above the solid ice, with nothing
to check you except a small-toothed rake on the toe of each boot! Yet so
wonderfully skilful is the construction of the run, so cunningly is it
built to safeguard the headlong traveller, that accidents are very few.
Two fatal ones, indeed, there have been, but of these one had nothing to do
with the course itself, but was owing to the fact that a rider started
from the top before one of the barriers across the course, which show
that it is not open for racing, had been removed. In the other, the
rider ran over a bank and his toboggan fell on the top of him. One of
the great difficulties which the builders and managers of this run, in
company with other ice-runs, have to contend against, is the power of
the sun. It is, of course, absolutely necessary that the icing of the
run should be so solid that there is no chance of the runner of a
toboggan going through it, which would naturally mean a bad spill. But
it is also necessary that certain of the banks must have the sun blazing
into them all day long, which would cause them to lose ice faster than
it could be made by the sprinkling which goes on when the sun is off
them. At such points, therefore, big canvas screens are put up, which
shade the bank from the direct rays; also tobogganing is never permitted
to go on all day. It starts early in the morning, when the run has been
recuperated by the night of frost, and is closed when, in the opinion of
the management, the sun has so softened the banks that there is danger
of a toboggan cutting through the crust.
_Bobsleighing (or Bobbing)_
This charming form of the sport may be described as combined
tobogganing, and in bobbing races teams of four enter against each
other. The form of toboggan used is, of course, immensely larger than
that employed in single tobogganing, since it will hold five or six
persons, and its construction is altogether different and most
elaborate. It consists of a long, low platform some 10 feet in length,
and is mounted, not on one pair of runners, but on two. The pair that
supports the fore part of the bobsleigh is a sort of bogie-truck,
pivoted under the platform, and it can be turned to the right and left
in order to direct the course of the bob round curves. This turning of
it is done by the captain, who sits first at the bows of the sleigh, and
is worked by ropes, which he holds in his hands, or by a wheel which
controls its movements. In long runs, as on the Schatz-alp at Davos, the
wheel is far better than the ropes, since it entails so much less strain
on the hands of the steersman: on a short run the ropes are as good.
Behind the captain sit the members of his crew in line, with the loops
of rope just outside the framework of the sleigh, in which they fix
their heels. Last of them all sits the brakesman, at the stern of the
sleigh, who has in his control a powerful steel-toothed brake, which
crosses the sleigh behind and is worked with levers. But it is the
captain who is in command of the bob, and the brakesman and other
members of the crew only perform his orders. The word “bobsleigh” is
derived from the movement of leaning or “bobbing” forward, which is done
by all the crew together, to get up speed or increase it. They come
forward quickly with a jerk, and go back again slowly and steadily, and
this without doubt accelerates the movement of the sleigh.
As in all other forms of tobogganing, braking is employed to diminish
speed in coming to corners, where otherwise the momentum would cause the
whole concern to leave the track altogether. So also, just as the
ice-tobogganer inclines his body inwards in a similar position, the
captain and crew lean to the inside of the track when going round a
corner so as to help the toboggan round it, while the inclination of the
front pair of runners is directed to the same end. By strong leaning
inwards, combined with the inclination of the bogie-pair of runners,
quite considerable curves may be taken at high velocity without the use
of the brake at all, and the consequent loss of speed. But all this is
left to the judgment of the captain, who has to decide whether by
direction of the bogie-runners alone, or by that in conjunction with the
leaning inwards of his crew, he can safely negotiate a corner without
calling for the use of the brake. And the responsibility is entirely in
his hands. At the same time much depends on the prompt obedience of the
crew to his orders, for it is easily possible that a corner might have
been safely coasted round if they had obeyed his call to lean inwards,
which would spill them all if his call was not immediately responded to.
How great the effect of this inward shifting of the weight can be, if it
is thoroughly carried out, may be guessed from Plate XXXI. In this same
photograph the inward direction of the front pair of runners may also be
seen assisting the work of the crew. And it is this “teamwork,” the
sense of working in unison under orders, which gives much of its charm
to bobbing. Everyone feels--rightly--that much of the success of the run
depends on his individual work, even though his individual work is only
to lean as far as possible out of the bob without parting company with
it altogether.
Bobbing can be practised on an ordinary road covered with hard snow, or,
_in excelsis_, on runs constructed for this express
[Illustration: TAILING
_From the Drawing by Fleming Williams_]
purpose. Of these the two most famous are the St. Moritz bob-run, which
starts by the Bandy rink and finishes side by side with the Cresta
ice-run, after passing under the railway bridge, and the Schatz-alp run
at Davos. Previous to its construction, not many years ago, bobbing at
Davos chiefly took place on the Klosters road, which was the same track
as that used by the ordinary toboggan, but now each has its own course.
These artificially constructed bob-runs are engineered with the same
care and nicety as ice-runs for the single toboggan, and at corners
curved banks are built solidly of beaten-down snow. The track is then
iced, for no snow could stand the continual passage of the heavy bobs
over the same banks and narrow course without speedily being worn into
ruts that would entirely spoil the going and upset the goers, and the
ice is then sprinkled over with loose snow to prevent the toboggan
skidding. But the greater part of bobbing is done on the public roads,
which are frozen and hardened by the passage of sleighs. At most Swiss
winter resorts there are facilities for this delightful form of sport.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXI
THE BUILDING OF THE CRESTA--“BATTLEDORE”]
[Illustration:
PLATE XXII
THE TOP OF THE CRESTA, ST. MORITZ]
[Illustration:
PLATE XXIII
STARTING ON THE CRESTA]
[Illustration:
PLATE XXIV
CHURCH LEAP, CRESTA RUN]
[Illustration:
PLATE XXV
CHURCH LEAP, CRESTA RUN]
[Illustration:
PLATE XXVI
“BATTLEDORE” CORNER, CRESTA]
[Illustration:
PLATE XXVII
CROSSING THE ROAD, CRESTA]
[Illustration:
PLATE XXVIII
NEAR THE FINISH ON THE CRESTA]
[Illustration:
PLATE XXIX
BOB-RUN, ST. MORITZ: IN THE LARCH WOODS]
[Illustration:
PLATE XXX
ROUNDING SUNNY CORNER, ST. MORITZ BOB-RUN]
[Illustration:
PLATE XXXI
BOB-RUN, ST. MORITZ]
[Illustration:
PLATE XXXII
THE STRAIGHT FROM THE BRIDGE, ST. MORITZ BOB-RUN]
[Illustration:
PLATE XXXIII
ST. MORITZ BOB-RUN]