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SKI-RUNS IN THE HIGH ALPS
* * * * * *
SKI-ING FOR BEGINNERS AND MOUNTAINEERS
By W. RICKMER RICKMERS
With 72 Full-page Plates and many Diagrams in the Text
_Crown 8vo, cloth, 4s. 6d. net. (Post free, 4s. 9d.)_
Opinions of the Press
“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._
“Mr Rickmers has written a lucid book which, as regards
ski-ing, is cyclopædically exhaustive.”--_Illustrated Sporting
and Dramatic News._
“This book will be a great boon to those wishing to learn
the art of ski-ing. The illustrations are excellent and most
carefully chosen--in fact, the whole book from beginning to
end is full of useful knowledge, and is most interestingly
written. It will be enjoyed not only by the initiate, but by
the experienced ski-runner.”--_Pall Mall Gazette._
LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN
* * * * * *
[Illustration: SUNSET, FROM MONT DURAND GLACIER.
Frontispiece.]
SKI-RUNS IN THE HIGH ALPS
by
F. F. ROGET, S.A.C.
Honorary Member of the Alpine Ski Club
Honorary Member of the Association of
British Members of the Swiss Alpine Club
With 25 Illustrations by L. M. Crisp
And 6 Maps
T. Fisher Unwin
London: Adelphi Terrace
Leipsic: Inselstrasse 20
1913
(All rights reserved.)
[Illustration]
TO
MY DAUGHTER
ISMAY
HOPING SHE MAY NOT GO FORTH
AND DO LIKEWISE
PREFACE
In 1905, when nearer fifty than forty, had I not been the happy father
of a girl of seven I should have had no occasion to write this book.
I bought, for her to play with, a pair of small ski in deal, which I
remember cost nine francs. For myself I bought a rough pair, on which to
fetch and bring her back to shore if the small ship foundered.
No sooner had I equipped myself, standing, as a Newfoundland dog, on the
brink of the waves, ready to rescue a child from snow peril, than I was
born again into a ski-runner.
Since, I have devoted some of my spare time to revisiting--in winter--the
passes and peaks of Switzerland.
The bringing of the ski to Switzerland ushered in the “New
Mountaineering,” of which a few specimens seek in these pages the favour
of the general public.
The reader may notice that I never spell “ski” with an _s_ in the plural,
because it is quite unnecessary. One may stand on one ski, and one may
stand on both ski. The _s_ adds nothing to intelligibility.
Nor do I ever pronounce ski otherwise than I write it. There is in ski
the _k_ that appears in skipper and in skiff. Though cultured Germans say
_Schiff_ and _Schiffer_, the _k_ sound of ski is quite good Norse. It has
been preserved in the French _esquif_, of same origin.
The _i_ should be pronounced long as in “tree.”
So let us always say _s-k-ee_ and write ski for both numbers.
SAAS-FEE. _August 14, 1912._
[Illustration]
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
SKI-RUNNING IN THE HIGH ALPS 17
The different ski-ing zones--Their characteristics and
dangers--The glaciers as ski-ing grounds--The ski-running
season--Inverted temperature--The conformation of winter
snow--Precautionary measures--Glacier weather--Rock
conditions--Weather reports--Guides and porters.
CHAPTER II
WITH SKI TO THE DIABLERETS 34
_First Ascent_--The Bear inn at Gsteig--The young
Martis--Superstitions--The rights of guides.
_Second Ascent_--The composition of the caravan--Odd
symptoms--Winter amusements on the glacier--A broken ankle--The
salvage operations--On accidents--My juvenile experience--A
broken limb on the Jaman.
_Third Ascent_--The Marti family--The Synagogue once more--An
old porter--We are off.
CHAPTER III
FROM THE COL DU PILLON TO THE GEMMI PASS (DIABLERETS, WILDHORN,
WILDSTRUBEL, AND KANDERSTEG) 59
The range--Ski-runners’ logic--Itinerary--The Plan des
Roses--Untoward experiences on the Rawyl pass--Death
through exposure--The _Daily Mail_ and Mr. Arnold Lunn’s
feat--House-breaking--On the Gemmi--Perspective and
levels--Relief models of the Alps--My smoking den--Old Egger.
CHAPTER IV
THE SKI-RUNNER OF VERMALA 83
Vermala--The mysterious runner--The Plain of the
Dead--Popular beliefs--The purification of the grazings--A
haunted piece of rock--An awful noose is thrown over the
country-side--Supernatural lights and events--The Babel of
tongues--The Saillon and Brigue testimonies--The curé of Lens
and his sundial--The people’s cure--The Strubel--_Chauffage
central_--Did I meet the Ski-runner of Vermala?--My third
ascent of the Wildstrubel--A night encampment on the
glacier--Meditations on mountains, mountaineers, and the
Swiss--How to make _café noir_--Where to sleep and when not
to--Alpine refuges--The old huts and the new--The English
Alpinists and the Swiss huts--The Britannia hut.
CHAPTER V
THE BERNESE OBERLAND FROM END TO END 113
The Oberland circuit--My appointment with Arnold
Lunn--An Anglo-Swiss piece of work--An unbelieving
public--Switzerland and Britain--Geographical--Practical--We
start from Beatenberg--The Jungfrau ice-slabs--New
Year’s Day at Kandersteg--In the Gasterenthal--On the
Tschingelfirn--Foehn-effects on the Petersgrat--The Telli
glacier--The Kippel bottle-race--A church door--Theodore
Kalbermatten--The Loetschen pass--Burnt socks--Roped
ski-ing--The Concordia breakfast-table--Why we did not ascend
the Jungfrau--The Concordia huts--The Grünhornlücke--On snow
“lips” and cornices--An afternoon snooze--The Finsteraarhorn
hut--A guideless party--Ascent of the Finsteraarhorn--Our
next pass--A stranded runner--The Grimsel--Home life at
Guttannen--Our sleigh ran to Meiringen--A comparison of winter
and summer work--Memories and visions--Table of levels--How
to form a caravan--The pay of the men--Side-slip and
back-slip--Future railway facilities.
CHAPTER VI
THE AIGUILLE DU CHARDONNET AND THE AIGUILLE DU TOUR 181
The aspect of the Grand Combin--Topography--Weather conditions
for a successful raid--A classification of peaks--The Orny
nivometer--The small snowfall of the High Alps--The shrinkage
of snow--Its insufficiency to feed the glaciers--The Aiguille
du Tour--Ascent of Aiguille du Chardonnet--The St. Bernard
hospice--Helplessness of the dogs--The narrow winter path--The
monks’ hospitality--Their ski--The accident on the Col de
Fenêtre--_Ce n’est pas le ski_.
CHAPTER VII
THE GRAND COMBIN 197
The Panossière hut--Tropical winter heat--Schoolboys and
the Matterhorn--Shall it be rock or snow?--The Combin
de Valsorey--My third ascent of the Grand Combin--The
track home--Col des Avolions--Natural highways of a new
character--Twenty-three thousand feet ascended on ski.
CHAPTER VIII
ACROSS THE PENNINE ALPS ON SKI BY THE “HIGH-LEVEL” ROUTE 206
The “high-level” route--Previous attempts--My itinerary--Marcel
Kurz--The wise old men of Bourg St. Pierre--Maurice
Crettex--Guides with bamboos and laupars!--The snow-clad
cliffs of Sonadon--The Chanrion hut--Sealed-up crevasses--The
nameless pass--Louis Theytaz--The Pigne d’Arolla--The Bertol
hut--Why the Dent Blanche could be ascended--The lady’s
maid’s easy job--The dreadful summer slabs--We push past
two “constables”!--My cane--We bash in her ladyship’s white
bonnet--The Ice-Maid presses gently my finger-tips--The
cornice crashes down--A second night in the Bertol hut--The
Col d’Hérens--An impending tragedy--A milk-pail _versus_
ski--Dr. Koenig and Captain Meade--The real tragedy of
Theytaz’s death--Ropes and crevasses--Mr. Moore’s account--My
comments--The Mischabel range and Monte Rosa.
CHAPTER IX
THE PIZ BERNINA SKI CIRCUIT IN ONE DAY 245
Old snow well padded with new--Christmas Eve in the
Bernina hospice--The alarum rings--Misgivings before
battle--_Crampons_ and sealskins--A causeway of snow--An
outraged glacier--The Disgrazia--A chess-player and a
ski-man--Unroped!--In the twilight--The Tschierva hut--Back to
Pontresina--Hotel limpets--Waiting for imitators.
CHAPTER X
FROM AROSA TO BELLINZONA OVER THE BERNARDINO PASS 256
The Arosa Information Bureau--The hospitality of sanatorium
guests--The allurements of loneliness--Whither the spirit
leads--Avalanche weather--The Spring god and King Frost--The
source of the Rhine--The post sleigh in a winter storm--The
Bernardino pass--Brissago.
CHAPTER XI
GLACIERS--AVALANCHES--MILITARY SKI-ING 264
A legacy from the past--The formation of glaciers and
atmospheric conditions--Forests and glaciers--Our deficient
knowledge--The upper ice and snow reservoirs--What is
the annual snowfall and what becomes of it--How glaciers
may be classed--Mechanical forces at work--Moraines and
_séracs_--Avalanches--Periodic avalanches--Accidental
avalanches--The general causes--The statics of snow--What
happens to winter snow--_Strata_--How steep slopes may be
classed--Excusable ignorance of strangers to the Alps--Those
who write glibly in home magazines--Unsafe slopes--Avalanches
when running across slopes--The probing-stick--Avalanche
runs--Military ski-ing--The St. Gothard and St. Maurice
districts--Military raids in the High Alps--The glaciers as
military highways--Riflemen on foot as against marksmen on ski.
CHAPTER XII
THE MECHANICS OF SKI-BINDINGS 282
The shoe--The original bindings--The modern bindings--The
foot--The hinge in the foot--Different functions of the
toe-strap and heel-band--The parts of the binding--Faulty
fasteners--Sketches of faulty and correct leverage--A schematic
binding--_Critique_ of bindings in use--Suggestions--Cheeks and
plates--A whole blade--Cause of strained feet--Steel wire in
bindings.
CHAPTER XIII
RUDIMENTS OF WINTER MOUNTAINEERING FOR SKI-RUNNERS 294
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.
CHAPTER XIV
WINTER STATIONS--WINTER SPORTS--HOW TO USE SKI 300
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_.
[Illustration]
ILLUSTRATIONS
SUNSET, FROM MONT DURAND GLACIER _Frontispiece_
FACE PAGE
THE WILDSTRUBEL HUT 21
OBERGABELHORN, FROM THE DENT BLANCHE 29
SPORT ON THE ZAN FLEURON GLACIER 42
FROM THE DENT BLANCHE, LOOKING WEST 50
MOVING FROM THE TOP OF THE FINSTERAARHORN 60
DESCENT INTO THE TELLITHAL, LOETSCHENTHAL 70
ON THE TOP OF THE FINSTERAARHORN 80
ABOVE RIED, LOETSCHENTHAL 90
WILDSTRUBEL AND PLAINE MORTE GLACIER 100
KANDER GLACIER 123
GASTERNTHAL 130
CONCORDIA PLATZ 149
BREAKFAST ON THE FINSTERAARHORN 163
ADOLF ON THE FINSTERAARHORN ARÊTE 178
THE VALSOREY GLEN 190
THE SONADON CLIFFS 214
ON THE DENT BLANCHE, WITH MATTERHORN 230
TOP OF DENT BLANCHE 234
ON THE STOCKJÉ, LOOKING EAST 238
FOOT OF STOCKJÉ, LOOKING EAST 243
UPPER SCERSCEN AND ROSEG GLACIERS 253
THE SONADON GLACIER 266
AT THE FOOT OF THE COL D’HÉRENS 279
THE BRITANNIA HUT 302
MAPS.
DIABLERETS--WILDHORN--WILDSTRUBEL--GEMMI PASS 64
KANDERSTEG--FINSTERAARHORN--GRIMSEL 114
FERRET--ENTREMONT--BAGNES 182
THE PENNINE RANGE FROM GRAND ST. BERNARD TO ZERMATT 208
MISCHABEL RANGE AND MONTE ROSA 240
PIZ BERNINA CIRCUIT 248
[Illustration]
Ski-Runs in the High Alps
CHAPTER I
SKI-RUNNING IN THE HIGH ALPS
The different ski-ing zones--Their characteristics and
dangers--The glaciers as ski-ing grounds--The ski-running
season--Inverted temperature--The conformation of winter
snow--Precautionary measures--Glacier weather--Rock
conditions--Weather reports--Guides and porters.
In a chapter like this, a writer on the High Alps may well abstain from
poetical or literary developments. His subject is best handled as a
technical sport, and personal experience should alone be drawn upon for
its illustration.
Little more than ten years have elapsed since men with a knowledge of
summer mountaineering began to explore the Alps in winter. Not only
are the successes, which have almost invariably attended the winter
exploration of the Swiss ice-fields, full of instruction for the novice,
but also the accidents and misfortunes which, sad to say, ended in loss
of life or limb, have conveyed useful lessons.
In this chapter the writer has nothing in view but to be practical and
pointed. His remarks must be taken to apply exclusively to the Alps. He
has no knowledge of any other ski-ing field, and is conversant with no
other experience but that gained in the Alps by himself and members of
the Swiss ski-ing clubs, which count in their membership thousands of
devotees.
It is necessary to distinguish the zones of meadow land and cultivated
fields, forest land, cattle grazings, and rocks.
In the forest zone the snow presents no danger except, perhaps, in
sharply inclined clearings where its solidity is not sufficiently assured
either by the nature of the underlying ground or by the presence of trees
growing closely together at the foot of the incline.
Above the forest belt the zone of pastures is a favourite ski-ing ground.
This zone is wind-swept, sunburnt during the day, and under severe frost
at night. As a general rule, it may be laid down that snow accumulated in
winter on the grazings frequented by cows in summer affords a safe and
reliable ski-ing ground, at any rate in all parts where the cows are in
the habit of standing. When in doubt, the ski-runner should ask himself:
Are cows, as I know them, likely to feel comfortable when standing
on this slope in summer? If an affirmative answer can be given in a
_bona-fide_ manner, the slope is not dangerous.
Alpine grazing lands being selected for the convenience of cows, they
are almost throughout well adapted to ski-runners. It is, of course,
understood that gorges, ravines, and steep declivities will be avoided
by Swiss cows just as much as by those of any other nationality. The
ski-runner should leave those parts of the grazing alone on which a herd
would not be allowed to roam by its shepherds.
The deepest and heaviest Alpine snows lie on the grazings, and the
avalanches that occur there in spring are of the heaviest type and cover
the most extensive areas. These are spring avalanches. They are regular
phenomena, and it is totally unnecessary to expect them in midwinter.
Above the grazings begin the rocks. They are either towering rocks and
walls, or else they lie broken up on slopes in varying sizes. In the
latter case the snow that may cover them is quite safe, provided the
points of those rocks be properly buried. As a rule, wherever there is a
belt or wall of solid rock above a grazing (which is practically the case
in every instance when it is not a wood), the loose stones at the foot
of the rocks give complete solidity to the snow surface resting on them.
The danger arises from the rocks towering aloft. If these are plastered
over with loose snow, the snow may come down at any moment on the lower
ground. One should not venture under such rocks till the snow that may
have gathered in the couloirs has come down or is melted away.
Avalanches are a matter belonging more particularly to snow conditions
in the grazing areas, but they need not to any degree be looked upon as
characteristic of this area. Their cause has to be sought in the weather,
that is in the rise and fall of the temperature, and in the wind. There
is quite a number of slopes at varying angles, where it is impossible
that the snow surface should be well balanced under all weather
conditions, and these are the slopes where mishaps do occur. The easiest
method to avoid accidents is to keep on obviously safe ground, and it is
also on such ground that the best and most steady running can be got.
The glaciers of Switzerland are a magnificent and absolutely unrivalled
ski-ing ground.
The months appointed by natural circumstances for ski-running in the
High Alps are the months of January and February. This period may quite
well be taken to include the whole month of March and the last days in
December.
There are reasons for excluding the first three weeks in December, and
the last three in April.
In night temperature, but in night temperature only, the passing from
summer to winter, upwards of 9,000 feet may indeed be said to have fully
taken place long before the end of the year. This passage is marked
by the regular freezing at night of all moisture, and by the regular
freezing over of all surfaces on which moisture is deposited by day.
Still, the first fall of a general layer of snow, which will _last
throughout the winter_ on the high levels, may be much delayed. Till that
first layer has covered the high ground, the ski-runner’s winter has not
begun.
[Illustration: THE WILDSTRUBEL HUT.
To face p. 21.]
The first general snowfall, if it mark the beginning of the ski-runner’s
winter, does not yet mark the setting in of the ski-running season. For
a time, which may extend from November to near the end of December,
moisture proceeding from the atmosphere, that is rain and _vapours_
(warm, damp winds), is not without effect at the altitudes which we are
considering. Such a damp condition of the air and any risk of rain are
quite inconsistent with ski-running. But everybody should know that if
such risks must be taken throughout the winter by a ski-runner residing,
for instance, at the altitude of Grindelwald, they may practically be
neglected by a sportsman whose field of exercise is that to which the
Swiss Alpine Club huts afford access.
There, from Christmas to early Easter, the only atmospheric obstacle
consists of snowstorms, in which the wind alone is an enemy, while
the snow entails an improvement in the conditions of sport each time
it falls. The November and December snowfalls prepare the ground for
running, and running at those heights is neither safe nor perfect as
long as the process goes on. In January and February any snowfall simply
improves the floor or keeps up its good condition. It may be taken that
during these months the atmosphere is absolutely dry from Tyrol to Mont
Blanc above 8,000 feet, and that a so-called wet wind will convey only
dry snow. Any moisture or water one may detect will be caused by the heat
of the sun melting the ice or the snow. It is a drying, not a wetting,
process; it leaves the rocks facing south, south-east, and south-west
beautifully dry, and completely clears them, by rapid evaporation, of the
early winter snows or of any casual midwinter fall accompanying a storm
of wind.
Such are the atmospheric reasons which help to determine the proper
ski-running months in the High Alps.
There are others which are still of a meteorological description, but
which are connected mainly with the temperature. We shall begin by
giving our thought a paradoxical expression as follows: it is a mistake
to talk of winter at all in connection with the High Alps. According
to the time of year, the weather in the Alps is subjected to general
rain conditions or to general snow conditions. Under snow conditions
the thermometer falls under zero Centigrade, and the temperature of the
air may range from zero to a very low reading; but the sun is extremely
powerful, its force is intensified by the reflection from the snow
surface. The temperature of the air in the shade is therefore no clue to
the temperature of material surfaces exposed to the rays of the sun. The
human frame, under suitable conditions of clothing and exercise, feels,
and actually is, quite warm in the sun, a violent wind being required
to approximate the subjective sensations of the body to those usually
associated with a cold, damp, and biting winter’s day.
This is a general characteristic of the Alpine winter, to which must be
added an occasional, though perfectly regular, feature, namely, that
the Alps may offer, and do offer every winter, instances of _inverted_
temperature. This name is given to periods which may extend over several
days at a stretch, and which are repeated several times during the
winter months. These are periods during which the constant temperature
of the air--that is, the average temperature by night and by day in the
shade--is higher upon the heights than in the plains and valleys.
As a general principle, the winter sportsman may be sure that in the
proportion in which he rises he also leaves behind him the winter
conditions, as defined, in keeping with their own notions and experience
by the dwellers on plains, on the seaside, or in valleys. When travelling
upwards he reaches a dry air, a hot and bright light, and maybe a higher
temperature than prevails in the lower regions of the earth which lie at
his feet.
We said a little while ago that in January and February any snowfall
improves the floor. In the preceding months the high regions pass
gradually from the condition in which they are practicable on foot
to those under which they are properly accessible to the ski-runner
only. Time must be allowed for the process, and till it is completed
ski-running is premature and consequently distinctly dangerous. The
Alpine huts should not be used as ski-ing centres before they can be
reached on ski, and one should not endeavour to reach them in that manner
as long as stones are visible among the snow.
The distinctive feature of the ski-runner’s floor is that it is free
from stones and from holes. The stones should be well buried under
several feet of snow, and the holes filled up with compressed or frozen
snow before the ski-runner makes bold to sally forth, but when they are
he may practically go anywhere and dare anything so far as the ground
is concerned, provided he is an expert runner and a connoisseur in
the matter of avalanches. Of course, our “anywhere” applies to ski-ing
grounds only, and our “anything” means mountaineering as restricted to
the uses to which ski may fairly be put.
The floor of the ski-runner is a dimpled surface consisting of an endless
variety of planes and curves. It is a geometrical surface upon which
the ski move like instruments of mensuration that are from two to three
yards long. Snowfalls and the winds determine the geometrical character
of the field upon which the long rulers are to glide. This, the only
true notion of the ski-ing field, means that the _detail_ of the ground
has disappeared. It presents a continuity of differently inclined, bent,
edged, or curved surfaces, all uniformly geometric in the construction
of each. Any attempt at ski-running upon this playground before its
engineers and levellers (which are snow and wind) have achieved their
work in point of depth, solidity, and extent, is unsporting and perilous.
The continuous figure or design presented by the upper snow-fields of the
Alps in January, from end to end of the chain, is broken by prismatic
masses, such as cones, pyramids, and peaks, on the sides of which the
laws of gravity forbid the establishment by the concourse of natural
forces of snow-surfaces accessible with ski. The runner who has been
borne by his ski to the foot of those rock masses--such, for instance,
as the top of Monte Rosa as it rises from the Sattel--will continue his
ascent as a rock-climber. He will probably find the state of the rocks
quite as propitious as in summer, and often considerably better.
To sum up, the characteristics of the ski-running season are: stability
of weather, constant dryness of the air, a uniform and continuous
running surface, windlessness, a constant body temperature from sunrise
to sunset, at times a relatively high air temperature, solar light and
solar heat, which must not be confused with air temperature and present
an intensity, a duration most surprising to the dweller in plains and on
the seaboard; last, but not least, accessibility of the rocky peaks with
climbing slopes turned to the sun.
A real trouble is the crevasses. The ice-fields form such wide avenues
between the peaks bordering them that a ski-runner must be quite a fool
if an avalanche finds him within striking distance. But the crevasses
are quite another matter. In summer the protection against falling into
crevasses is the rope and careful steering between them. In winter
mountaineering the ski, properly speaking, take the place of the rope.
The longest traverses in the Alps have been performed by unroped
ski-runners. At the same time, the usefulness of the rope, in case of
an accident actually occurring, cannot be gainsaid, though it cannot be
maintained that the rope, which has been known to cause certain accidents
in summer, may be called absolutely free from any such liability in
winter. Of the use of the rope we therefore say, “Adhuc sub judice lis
est.”
There are two golden rules for avoiding a drop into a crevasse: firstly,
keep off glaciers or of those parts of any glacier where crevasses
are known to be numerous, deep, long, and wide; secondly, if called
upon to run over a glacier that is crevassed, use the rope, but use it
properly--that is, bring its full length into use, take off your ski,
and proceed exactly as you would do in summer by sounding the snow and
crossing bridged crevasses one after another. It is absurd to mix summer
and winter craft; they are distinct. When the rope is used under winter
conditions, let it be exactly according to the best winter practice.
If going uphill you find yourself landed on ice, take off your ski and
gain a footing on the ice by means of the heavy nails on your boots.
Never attempt glacier work with unnailed boots or short, light bamboo
sticks. If any accident happens suddenly to your ski you are helpless
and hopeless without nails; you probably will not have time to take your
climbing irons off your rucksack and bind them on to your feet.
Accidents to ski generally happen when one is on the move on difficult
and dangerous ground. It is absurd to expect that the difficulty or
danger will abate while you take off your rucksack, sit down, and strap
on your climbing irons. Remember that you are on the move and that your
impetus will carry you on, if not immediately checked by nails gripping
the ice. That, too, is the reason why a short, light bamboo will not do;
it is a fine-weather weapon and quite the thing on easy snows. On rough
ground you want something with a substantial iron point, a weapon of some
weight and strength which can support your body and help in seeing you
home should your ski be injured. A good runner would never put his stick
to unfair uses, such as riding and leaning back.
If on going downhill you find yourself landed on ice, the essential thing
is to be able to keep on your feet first, to your course next. A stout
stick with a sharp point will then be sorely needed, and if you have been
careful to fasten on to your ski-blades an appliance against skidding or
side-slip, you will find it much easier to steer and keep to your course.
On the whole, it is wiser on iced surfaces which are steep--and these are
generally not extensive--to carry one’s ski.
There ought to be an ice-axe in the party, but this ice-axe should be
carried by a professional and used by him. Nobody can cut steps or carry
safely an ice-axe without some apprenticeship, and this it is impossible
to go through in severe winter weather.
The principal glacier routes of Switzerland have been proved over
and over again to be free from any particular risk or danger arising
from winter conditions. The _ratio_ of risk is the same as in summer.
Consequently, select the best known routes, which are also the most
beautiful and ski-able. Take with you, as porters and servants rather
than guides, men who have frequently gone over those routes in winter
with some Swiss runner of experience. This is important, because many
guides, particularly the most approved summer guides, are creatures of
routine, and will take you quite obdurately along the summer routes, step
for step and inch after inch. Now, this is wrong and may lead to danger.
The ski-runner must dominate the snow slopes. His place is on the brow,
or rather on the coping, not at the foot of the slopes along which the
summer parties generally crawl.
When going uphill for several hours consecutively, as it is necessary
to do in order to reach the Alpine huts, an artificial aid against
slipping back is indispensable. When going uphill the ski support the
weight of the runner and keep his feet on, or above, the snow. But they
do not distinguish between regressive and progressive locomotion. The
whole of the work of progression falls upon the human machinery. Under
those conditions the strain put on the muscles by continuous or repeated
backsliding is objectionable. The use of a mechanical contrivance is made
imperative by the steepness of the slopes and their great length.
Another point is that when running downhill, say, from the Monte-Rosa
Sattel to the Bétemps hut, it is never advisable to pick out the shortest
and quickest route, which means the steepest run possible. High Alp
ski-running demands the choice of the longest course consistent with
steady progress and with an unbroken career along a safe line of advance.
The watchword of the good runner will always be--at those heights and
distances where so much that is ahead must remain problematical--move
onward on curves, so as to approach any obstacle by means of a bend,
admitting of an inspection of the obstacle, if it is above the surface,
before you are upon it, and which, if it is the running surface which
presents a break, even a concealed one, will prevent your hurling
yourself headlong into the trap.
[Illustration: OBERGABELHORN, FROM DENT BLANCHE.
To face p. 29.]
The influence of wintry weather upon exposed and lofty rock pinnacles is
practically the same as that of summer weather, but still more so, if
such a paradoxical way of expressing oneself can be made clear. At the
height of 10,000 feet above the sea-level and upwards the winter weather
is glacier weather. This is not the weather that prevails in the depth
of the Swiss valleys or on the Swiss tableland. The snowfall upon the
glaciers is not so great as one might expect. The snow that does fall
there is dry, light, powdery, and wind-driven. Those characteristics
are such that only some slight proportion of the snow driven across
the glacier actually remains there. Most of it is carried along and
accumulates wherever it can settle down--that is, elsewhere than on
wind-swept surfaces.
The winter sun is so powerful that it very soon clears the high ridges
from a kind of snow that is in itself little suited to adhere to
their steep, rocky sides. Therefore the position is as follows: the
ski-runner can gain access to the peaks with great ease. The so-called
_Bergschrunde_, in French _rimaie_, are closed up, and the rocks towering
above are practically just as climbable as in summer, with the help of
the same implements too--rope, ice-axe, and if one likes, climbing-irons.
The start is made much later in the morning, but, on the other hand, one
need not be over-anxious as to getting to one’s night quarters by sunset.
Running on ski at night over a course that has been travelled over in the
morning, and therefore perfectly recognisable and familiar, is, in clear
weather, as pleasant as it is easy. That is why the ascent of a rocky
peak is, to my mind, an object which a ski-runner who does not take a
one-sided view of sport will gladly keep in view.
The risk of frost-bite may be greater than in summer, in so far as the
temperature of the air is much lower. But the air being, as a rule,
extremely dry and the heat of the sun intense, the full benefit of this
extraordinary dryness and of this heat really puts frost-bite out of the
question in fine weather, provided rocks are attacked from the southern
or south-west aspect, or even south-east. It is quite easy to wear thick
gloves and to put one’s feet away in thick and warm woollen material. But
no attempt whatever should be made at rock climbing under dull skies, let
alone when the weather is actually bad. It must also be added that bad
health, exhaustion, indigestion, nervousness, and such like are, of all
things, the most conducive to frost-bite.
The thermometer may mark in January, above the tree-line, and still more
among rocks, as much as 40 degrees Centigrade at midday in the sun. This
is not the air temperature, as in the shade the same thermometer will
soon drop to zero Centigrade or less. But anybody who has experienced the
wonderful glow of those winter suns on the highest peaks of Switzerland
will be careful that he does not bring them into disrepute by visiting
them when he himself is not fit or when they are out of humour. In any
case, people who go about on ski with feet and hands insufficiently clad
may well be expected to take the consequences.
The foregoing lines bring us quite naturally to consideration of the
weather. The first principle to be borne in mind is that weather in
the High Alps is quite distinct from weather anywhere else. The only
authentic information at any time about the impending weather in the
Alpine area is that given day by day by the Swiss Central Meteorological
Office in Zürich. This report, and accompanying forecast, is published
in all the important daily papers, such as the _Journal de Genève_, the
_Gazette de Lausanne_, the _Bund_, &c. The figures are of less importance
than the notes on wind, air-pressure, and the description in ordinary
language which comments upon the more scientific data. Those reports
should be consulted, and should be posted up by every hotel keeper.
Weather is not uniform throughout Switzerland. The driest area runs
along the backbone of the Alps from the lake of Geneva to the lake of
Constance, along the Canton du Valais and the Canton des Grisons. Chances
of steady, fine weather are consequently greater in those valleys than
elsewhere. The driest spot in Switzerland is Sierre. The High Alps, which
are of most interest to the ski-runner, are also the part of Switzerland
which presents the largest proportion of fine sunny days in the winter
months.
The tableland, extending from the lake of Geneva to Bâle and Constance
along the Rhine, and bounded on the south-east by the lakes of Thoune and
Brienz, Lucerne, and the Wallensee, may remain for weeks together under
a sea of fog, resting at the height of about a thousand feet above the
surface of the ground. As long as those fog areas, which are generally
damp and cold, are curtained from the rays of the sun, the canopy of fog
acts as a huge reflector for the sun rays which impinge upon it from
above. Provided there is no wind (and the Alps may be windless for days
and weeks at a time) the rays, reflected back into space from the fog
surface, heat very considerably the layers of air above, while the air
imprisoned below remains cold. The winter snows themselves, by a similar
process of reflection, generate a great deal of heat of the kind which a
human body perceives, and in which the mountaineer is fond of basking.
The long Jura range, extending from the lake of Geneva to Bâle along the
French border, shares in the Alpine climate, though in a somewhat rougher
form.
The conclusion is that in Switzerland the weather conditions, to mention
these alone, are extremely favourable to the ski-runner. In the matter of
space at his disposal there are in Switzerland, on the slopes of either
the Alps or the Jura, generally above the forest belt, three thousand
grazings for cattle, every one of which is a ski-ing area. Only a very
small number have hitherto been frequented by the ski-runner. Yet last
winter three thousand pairs of ski were sold by one firm alone, and it
is reckoned that the number fitted and sold last winter (1911-12) in
Switzerland exceeds forty thousand.
Swiss guides hitherto have been trained and engaged only for summer work.
Consequently their efficiency on ski is in every instance a personal
acquirement, and their knowledge of their duties under winter conditions
is simply consequent upon their summer training or derived from their
own native knowledge of winter conditions, without the addition of any
instruction. If one wishes to engage guides for winter work the best
guarantee is that the guide belong to a local ski club, and should have
attended, if possible, one or several ski courses before he is considered
fit to accompany _amateur_ ski-ing parties.
Another point is that guides in winter must be prepared to act as
porters. It is in the nature of running on ski that the runner will
hardly ever find himself in a position to call for individual assistance,
and the routes he will frequent are of necessity routes which, from the
mountaineering point of view, are easy and not suited to give great
prominence to the qualities of a guide in the strict and recognised
meaning of the term. What the amateur ski-runner particularly wants is a
hardy and willing companion who will carry the victuals for him and is
wise enough to employ his influence in turning the ski-runner away from
any dangerous ground, and to pick out the best and safest lines across
country. Guides holding a diploma should not be paid more for winter work
than they are allowed to claim in summer under the established rates of
payment.