FALLING AND GETTING UP.
As to the former, we beg to offer Mr. Punch’s advice to those about to marry—“don’t.” Every ski-runner falls more or less, the beginner very much, the expert very rarely. But most novices are apt to throw themselves down far oftener than there is any occasion for. Do not, therefore, give up simply because you lose your balance a little; very frequently if you try hard you will be able to keep upright. If you make up your mind to “stand” down a difficult hill, the chances are that you will succeed in doing so; but if you are nervous and hang back, you are almost certain to come to grief. It is specially true of ski-running that fortune favours the brave. When, however, a fall cannot be avoided, we would advise you, if possible, to cast yourself down sideways and backwards; but if the whole affair is beyond your control, then relax every muscle in your body and let yourself go. Make no attempt to save yourself or stop rolling. Then there will be no snapping of tense sinews.
You will generally find out the easiest way of getting up for yourself, but two little artifices may here be mentioned. One is to get on to the back of your ski in deep snow; and the other is to bring the ski below you on a steep slope and to place them at right angles to the gradient before attempting to rise.
SLIGHT CHANGES OF DIRECTION.
Slight changes of direction can be made by leaning the body a little this way or that. This is very easy, and requires no explanation.
“SKATING.”
Another way of steering is to lift one of the ski and place it down in the direction in which one wishes to go, at the same time striking out with the other foot as in skating. This accomplishment is not exactly pretty, but it is very useful. One can thus help the ski round a bend in a road or thread one’s way down a gentle slope amongst trees without losing speed. It is, however, impossible to execute a very rapid turn in this manner. A good way of practising “skating” is to do a sort of “inside edge” on any firm surface (e.g., a snow-covered lake) on the level. One strikes out with the ski in the same manner as with skates on ice.
BRAKING WITH THE STICK.
This method of controlling the speed has been the subject of a good deal of discussion. The objections to it are (1) that it is a less powerful method than any of the others to be mentioned later on; (2) that it requires greater strength; (3) that the stick is liable to break and leave the runner helpless; (4) that its constant use is conducive to a bad style of running, spoiling the balance, and making the learning of the other movements more difficult. Nevertheless, we doubt whether even the cleverest novice will be able to stop quickly by means of the “Telemark” or “Christiania” swings for at least a month or two, and most people will take far longer to learn to do them even moderately well. How, then, are the poor things to manage in the meantime? “By snow-ploughing and by stemming,” you reply. Certainly, but the fact is that with these methods when no stick is used it is quite impossible, when travelling very fast, to stop suddenly, though with the help of the stick it is easy to do so.
But we will here go a step further and assert that there are places and conditions of snow where the use of the stick becomes imperative even to the expert, as, for example, when traversing a steep and crusted slope with a precipice below it. We propose therefore, to deal with the proper way of managing it before proceeding further.