If a Ski runner does not remember the exact signal any regular signal repeated a definite number of times in a minute, with a minute's interval, should prove sufficient. Similarly, if you hear a signal repeated at short regular intervals, you should always suspect a call for help.
An ordinary whistle is hardly loud enough for the sound to carry any distance and a siren might be better. Newspaper could be used for a flare if the party does not possess a lantern or electric torch, but it would not last long.
Finally, may I suggest that everyone who takes up Ski-ing seriously, and who carries gear to be used in emergency, should be proficient in the use of such gear and not wait till it is needed to find out how to fit it.
To experiment in making an ambulance sledge while an injured person lies beside you and when your fingers are cold and people are buzzing round you with suggestions, which may or may not be better than your own ideas, is a bad plan. It is wiser to have made the experiment at home and to have got someone to drag you down a hill on the result, and then you will know something about it. A new game for the Nursery slopes, and what fun for the spectators who already think all Skiers mad!
I would like to add at the end of this chapter on accidents that during the many years I have enjoyed Ski-ing, and with the hundreds of beginners I have helped, I have never met with a single really serious accident.
One or two knees and ankles twisted and now and then a cut or severe bruise have been among the worst cases I have come across.
THE ATTRACTIONS OF SKI-ING
Though some runners are content merely to enjoy the actual practice of Ski-ing with all the difficulties to be overcome and the various turns to be perfected, the greater proportion probably ski mainly on account of the exhilaration obtained, the freedom enjoyed, and the wonderful beauty of the places reached.
The amazing thing is that Skis were not used sooner among the Alps. They have already in less than thirty years entirely altered the life of the young people in far-away villages, who used to be practically shut up during the winter months, but who can now ski from one place to another on Sundays and holidays, enjoying the companionship of their friends and widening their outlook by mixing with strangers. This will probably have a very good effect on the population of the High Alps, who will be less inclined to leave their homes in order to get away from the monotony of the long winters. So much is this appreciated that Ski-ing is now part of the school curriculum in some districts, often taking the place of gymnastics during the winter.
It is amusing to watch the classes of children out on the Nursery slopes with their teachers. While we foreign women Ski-runners are provided with elaborate costumes, including breeches or trousers, the little Swiss girls ski in frocks and cotton pinafores without cap or hat, and often without gloves. Led by their teacher they wearily climb up the slopes, and then comes the mad career home to the midday meal. Twenty or thirty little girls all dashing down together practising turns as they go, or making as straight down as they dare in their effort to outpace their rivals.