The straight slope is the slope on which every point is on the same plane as another. These slopes are safe when they abut on to ground which obviously is locally viewed as not exposed to avalanches: vineyards, potato-fields, woods, hay-lofts, &c.
They are unsafe when undermined by a trickle of water—springs, for instance—and when the layer of snow next to the ground has melted away without affecting the upper layers; or when the slope rests upon a protruding ledge over which it bulges out; or when it is cut by longitudinal ribs of blown-out snow which you may break open unawares, letting out the mealy contents upon yourself.
All slopes may be traversed—that is, you may run across them obliquely.
When about to traverse, look to the foot of the slope, and then look to the head of the slope. If all is right, sound the snow with your stick and glance into the conic hole made by it. In time you will acquire an ability to tell by the feel whether the snow is mealy, or set, or damp, and how many layers your stick breaks through before coming to a standstill upon frozen ground, or against rock, or before sinking into the hollow space that may exist between the nethermost layer of snow and the soil.
Of course, all this you cannot do with a short, light bamboo, conveniently fitted with an osier disk within three inches of the point! To go forth so simply equipped means that you are leaving your brains at home on that day—a thing I often do myself—but, I assure you, only when out for mere play!
A stick that cannot be used on an emergency either as an anchor or as a sounding-line to take castings with, is a poor friend. It is instructive to look curiously into the hole made by one’s stick. What would be the use of a sport practised simply as an opportunity for being scatter-brained with impunity, so long as luck lasts?
On the hill-side, slopes—concave, convex, and straight—are joined to one another by linking surfaces varying in shape and inclination, but of too limited a development and too irregular a build to offer to avalanches any opportunity of spreading over them; or else slopes are separated from one another by breaks in the ski-ing surface, such as ravines. In these, masses of snow gather most conveniently. The longitudinal gaps opened up by landslips, torrent beds, or even only the slides made by wood-cutters through forest and pasture land to launch felled trees into the valley, are very distinctly avalanche runs. Efforts are now being made to bar such runs by artificial plantations, fencings, or walls.
The centre of military ski-running in Switzerland is in the environment of the permanent Alpine forts which defend the St. Gothard knot of trans-Alpine and sub-Alpine (railway tunnels) lines of communication from Italy into Switzerland, betwixt the sources of the Reuss, Ticino, Rhine, and Rhône. Another centre is situated in the Rhône Valley, at the point where a natural defile bars the line of communication between the upper Rhône Valley, at St. Maurice, and the Lake of Geneva, commanding to some extent the roads converging upon that point from Northern Savoy and leading to it from Italy over the St. Bernard pass or through the Simplon tunnel.
The opening of the Loetschberg tunnel on the new short railway route between Berne and Milan will, however, make it advisable to erect some kind of additional works about Brigue.