Hitherto forces crossing the Alps in winter could expect to be safe from attack on their flanks. Henceforth there might be a very different story to relate. The few experiments hitherto made show that an attack by skirmishing ski-runners upon columns on the march could not be met by dispatching against them rifle-men on foot. Across country a man on foot will take about an hour—on flat ground—to cover a distance which an average runner on 2 feet of snow will overtake in one-quarter of the time. Uphill, the advantage of the ski-man is still more marked, and he may continue much longer. Moreover, he disposes of the whole hill-side, and may take cover exactly as he pleases, by crossing snows over which the pedestrian can make no progress at all, and becomes a most convenient mark. The ski-runner may force his pursuer into any ground he chooses. For a force developed across an expanse of snow, it is extraordinarily difficult to carry out an attack upon ski-runners firing from behind shelter. They occupy probably the higher position, and their field of vision is absolutely uninterrupted. Rushes from point to point across the zone of fire are quite out of the question in the absence of any screen whatsoever.
As for the rifle-men or sharpshooters on foot in charge of a village, sallying forth to dislodge a party of runners firing into their position and then withdrawing out of the reach of adversaries firing from opened-up tracks, spaces, or houses, the idea is not plausible. A dismounted horse-soldier might just as well advance sword in hand against marksmen manning rifle-pits, or an infantry man, short of ammunition, might just as well trust his bayonet to reach a horseman galloping away out of sight.
Ski-ing patrols of mountain infantry with portable machine-guns could defend such passes as the Furka or the Grimsel against forces pushed forward in vastly superior numbers.
CHAPTER XII
THE MECHANICS OF SKI-BINDINGS
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.
In choosing a suitable binding for the high-level routes in the Alps—as in thinking out or devising such a binding—the runner’s commodity is the main consideration. There is human anatomy. There are the possibilities of leather, metal, and wire. And footgear, and ski, and binding have to work together.