ANTIDOTES TO “STICKING” AND AIDS TO CLIMBING.
In warm weather snow is apt to stick to the bottom of the ski (see page 22). It accumulates there in large watery clods, and renders progress very slow and laborious. Under such circumstances the advice commonly given is not to go out at all, and unless there is a prospect of better things, either in the shade or higher up, it is certainly best to stop at home. Nevertheless, the boundary line between sticking and not sticking is an extremely narrow one, and, moreover, one is not always sitting comfortably indoors when the trouble begins. It is therefore important to consider what is to be done to avoid or cure it.
Waxing the ski is the simplest plan, and proves effective in the great majority of cases. It is true that with waxed ski hill-climbing may become a matter of considerable difficulty, for the wax is apt to carry matters too far, and to make the surface unduly slippery. But anything is better than carrying all that dead weight of snow, and by using only a little wax under the foot (where the sticking chiefly occurs), by choosing an easy gradient, and by side stepping, &c., one can generally manage to get along somehow.
Various kinds of wax are sold for this purpose, and all are more or less efficacious. There is, however, a difficulty with the solid kinds in inducing them to “bite” when the ski are cold and wet, and the writer prefers the semi-liquid variety sold in tubes. A tube of wax, plus its attendant piece of rag, takes up very little room in the pocket or rucksack, and its weight is in no way commensurate with that of the lumps of snow which it is not infrequently its office to prevent.
Sealskin.—From time immemorial seal’s (or elk’s) skin has been attached to the bottom of the ski. The hairs, set towards the heel serve the double purpose of preventing the ski slipping backwards, and of keeping the surface free from sticky snow. Until quite recently it has been usual to fix the skin permanently; but whilst this works fairly well for certain purposes, it is open to many objections. The hair is a very serious impediment, both down-hill and on the level, for it not only reduces the speed, but, owing to its inherent “wobbliness,” it renders steering and balancing much more difficult. Then, again, the hair soon wears out, a day of hard snow being sufficient to quite spoil it; or it tears, or, being wet, the weather turns colder and it freezes solid. But perhaps the most serious objection of all is the nasty feeling of a skin-clad ski. There is a certain cleanness and crispness about the movement of the plain wood through the snow which one learns to love, and which one sorely misses. Besides which there is much art in getting up-hill to the best advantage on uncovered ski, and this keeps one’s mind busy, and greatly alleviates the labours of the climb; whereas with the skin any duffer can get along, and climbing becomes pure drudgery. It is, however, certain that, given a long and steep ascent where much zig-zagging is necessary, or even an only moderately steep slope and hard snow, one can with the skin arrive far more quickly and easily at the top than without it. It will, therefore, either when attached permanently or when detachable as about to be described, be found to be of great value for long and arduous mountain tours on steep Alpine ground. But even in the Alps, under all ordinary circumstances, where ski-running, and not the ascent of any particularly difficult summit, is the object in view, and where it is of no consequence whether one arrives an hour sooner or later, there is no sense in encumbering oneself with unnecessary gear and spoiling the pleasant “feel” of the bare ash.
On undulating ground, where one can usually go straight up and down hill (as in most parts of Norway), nobody nowadays dreams of using skin in any shape or form.
Detachable Sealskin is quite a recent invention, and is vastly preferable to the fixed article. For it can be used for a long climb, and removed when the summit is reached.