There I rested, snow-man and sun-man in one.
A peasant came slowly and stolidly by, making a mess of the thin snow with his heavy boots. He looked at me with great sympathy, stopped, and let out that one word in the Italian tongue, “Stanco!” (“Tired!”)
A few hours later my ski were stowed away in an attic room at Brissago. Their time was up. But I would take them out again on the return of the appointed hour. “Jamais pressé, toujours prêt.”
CHAPTER XI
GLACIERS—AVALANCHES—MILITARY SKI-ING
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.
On the whole the Mid-European glaciers are a legacy from a distant past.
Their former size and extent corresponded to general meteorological conditions which have long ceased to exist.