In 1905, when nearer fifty than forty, had I not been the happy father of a girl of seven I should have had no occasion to write this book. I bought, for her to play with, a pair of small ski in deal, which I remember cost nine francs. For myself I bought a rough pair, on which to fetch and bring her back to shore if the small ship foundered. No sooner had I equipped myself, standing, as a Newfoundland dog, on the brink of the waves, ready to rescue a child from snow peril, than I was born again

The different ski-ing zones—Their characteristics and dangers—The glaciers as ski-ing grounds—The ski-running season—Inverted temperature—The conformation of winter snow—Precautionary measures—Glacier weather—Rock conditions—Weather reports—Guides and porters. In a chapter like this, a writer on the High Alps may well abstain from poetical or literary developments. His subject is best handled as a technical sport, and personal experience should alone be drawn upon for its illustration. Little mo

First Ascent. —The Bear inn at Gsteig—The young Martis—Superstitions—The rights of guides. Second Ascent. —The composition of the caravan—Odd symptoms—Winter amusements on the glacier—A broken ankle—The salvage operations—On accidents—My juvenile experience—A broken limb on the Jaman. Third Ascent. —The Marti family—The Synagogue once more—An old porter—We are off. It has been three times my lot to lay the flat of my ski across the brow of the Diablerets. This in itself would be of but little in

The range—Ski-runners’ logic—Itinerary—The Plan des Roses—Untoward experiences on the Rawyl pass—Death through exposure—The Daily Mail and Mr. Arnold Lunn’s feat—House-breaking—On the Gemmi—Perspective and levels—Relief models of the Alps—My smoking den—Old Egger. No visitor to Switzerland requires telling that a section of the Bernese Alps runs up to the Gemmi pass from the south-west. In this secondary range, the leading groups are the Diablerets, the Wildhorn, and the Wildstrubel. So far as t

Vermala—The mysterious runner—The Plain of the Dead—Popular beliefs—The purification of the grazings—A haunted piece of rock—An awful noose is thrown over the country-side—Supernatural lights and events—The Babel of tongues—The Saillon and Brigue testimonies—The curé of Lens and his sundial—The people’s cure—The Strubel— Chauffage central —Did I meet the Ski-runner of Vermala?—My third ascent of the Wildstrubel—A night encampment on the glacier—Meditations on mountains, mountaineers, and the Swi

The Oberland circuit—My appointment with Arnold Lunn—An Anglo-Swiss piece of work—An unbelieving public—Switzerland and Britain—Geographical—Practical—We start from Beatenberg—The Jungfrau ice-slabs—New Year’s Day at Kandersteg—In the Gasterenthal—On the Tschingelfirn—Foehn-effects on the Petersgrat—The Telli glacier—The Kippel bottle-race—A church door—Theodore Kalbermatten—The Loetschen pass—Burnt socks—Roped ski-ing—The Concordia breakfast-table—Why we did not ascend the Jungfrau—The Concordi

The aspect of the Grand Combin—Topography—Weather conditions for a successful raid—A classification of peaks—The Orny nivometer—The small snowfall of the High Alps—The shrinkage of snow—Its insufficiency to feed the glaciers—The Aiguille du Tour—Ascent of Aiguille du Chardonnet—The St. Bernard hospice—Helplessness of the dogs—The narrow winter path—The monks’ hospitality—Their ski—The accident on the Col de Fenêtre—“Ce n’est pas le ski.” The Val de Bagnes, the Val d’Entremont, which leads up to

The Panossière hut—Tropical winter heat—Schoolboys and the Matterhorn—Shall it be rock or snow?—The Combin de Valsorey—My third ascent of the Grand Combin—The track home—Col des Avolions—Natural highways of a new character—Twenty-three thousand feet ascended on ski. On the sixth day of my expedition we left Lourtier shortly before 10 o’clock a.m., knowing full well that we were in no hurry, that we meant to thoroughly enjoy our day’s work, and that the hospitable door of the Cabane de Panossière

The “high-level” route—Previous attempts—My itinerary—Marcel Kurz—The wise old men of Bourg St. Pierre—Maurice Crettex—Guides with bamboos and laupars!—The snow-clad cliffs of Sonadon—The Chanrion hut—Sealed-up crevasses—The nameless pass—Louis Theytaz—The Pigne d’Arolla—The Bertol hut—Why the Dent Blanche could be ascended—The ladies’ maids’ easy job—The dreadful summer slabs—We push past two “constables”—My cane—We bash in her ladyship’s white bonnet—The Ice-Maid presses gently my finger-tips—

Old snow well padded with new—Christmas Eve in the Bernina hospice—The alarum rings—Misgivings before battle—Crampons and sealskins—A causeway of snow—An outraged glacier—The Disgrazia—A chess-player and a ski-man—Unroped!—In the twilight—The Tschierva hut—Back to Pontresina—Hotel limpets—Waiting for imitators. At the close of 1910 Marcel Kurz was at Pontresina. I had occasion to draw up certain reports upon the winter aspect of the district, and he kindly undertook the inspection of the glacier

The Arosa Information Bureau—The hospitality of sanatorium guests—The allurements of loneliness—Whither the spirit leads—Avalanche weather—The Spring god and King Frost—The source of the Rhine—The post sleigh in a winter storm—The Bernardino pass—Brissago. Badenin Aargau is a flourishing watering-place, whence I was glad to make my escape a few years ago in the last days of March. I had wired to the information bureau at Arosa, asking how long I might expect to find good snow. The answer came: “

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 wr

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

The new “Alpinism”—A re-statement of elementary principles—Ski-runners versus summer pedestrians—The experiences of an eminent physician—How to walk in snow—Put not your trust in sticks—Keep your rope dry—Stand up on your feet—Ski-sticks as supports—Winter clothing. Till within the last one hundred and fifty years mountaineering as a sport was undreamt of in Europe. The high Swiss valleys were then visited by a few scientific and geographical explorers or by people whose means of livelihood and

The awakening of the English—Switzerland the ice and snow rink of Europe—The high winter stations and the low—Principal sporting centres—Insular delusions—The Continental network of winter sport associations—Winter sports on ice—Tobogganing—The winter climate varies with the altitude—A classification of sporting centres according to altitude—The ski-runner is monarch of the Alps—How to keep one’s ski in good order—How to learn the gentle art of running on ski—Precepts and practice—The turns, bre