Short practice run—say, 1000-ft. climb.
5th Day.
Practice expedition—about 2000-ft. climb.
I do not expect for a moment that a single one of my readers will work through this course in detail exactly as I have set it down, but these suggestions may at least give him something to disagree with and rearrange.
Some further explanation of the arrangement of the first three days’ practice may be a help. The idea is that on each day the beginner shall practise both on hard and soft snow (by all means let him find breakable crust, too, for his stepping and jumping round if he wants to be very thorough); that on the first day he learns braking and the elements of uphill turning on gentle slopes, that next day on steeper slopes he learns braking, uphill turns, and the elements of downhill turning, and that on the third he learns to brake and turn uphill and, if he can manage it, downhill on really steep slopes. Incidentally he ought to learn quite enough about straight-running to find that the least difficult part of his first practice-run.
The jumping and short-expedition day might very well—perhaps better—be taken after the second day’s ordinary practice instead of after the third, where I have put it.
By cutting the downhill turns out of the three days’ practice and learning them later, or by cutting out everything but the various methods of braking, the beginner can more quickly make himself efficient and safe (though of course slow) as a tourist if he is in a great hurry to become one. But however he varies his procedure, let him practise on different sorts of snow and slopes of every steepness up to 30° or so from the very first. One mistake that nearly all beginners make is that they never practise on anything like a really steep slope, the result being that the greater part of their practice is pure waste of time, and utterly useless to them when they go for an expedition.
Finally, let me once more urge the beginner to do everything he can to make things easier for himself. One excellent plan if he is very nervous—or even if he is not—is, as Lieutenant Bilgeri suggests, to learn the manœuvres of the descent on the level at first, by getting under way with a few running steps and then stemming or turning before he loses impetus. Another plan (which should always be followed) is to try the position for every manœuvre at a standstill, and to make sure that it is accurate in every detail before attempting that manœuvre while running. This can, of course, also be done without skis, indoors. Indoor exercises being a pet fad of mine, I herewith suggest a few as more or less direct aids to ski-ing—if I had not been actually asked to do so, fear of ridicule would have prevented me.
(1) Place heels together and knees touching, and try to turn toes outwards until feet are in a straight line (kick-turn).