footpad of the cougar and the glutton. He looks for activity 

 around the frozen turret of mud and branches in which a beaver 

 family waits out the siege of snow and cold. 



I remember the half-breed trapper near the Alaska- Yukon 

 international line who tried out skis at the urging of our down- 

 hill enthusiasts. That night the splintered hickory slats fed the 

 trapper's campfire. "No good on trail," he explained. ''OK going 

 down. Uphill or on level, better in bare feet." 



This, in a nub, is what ails skis. On the descent they are marvel- 

 ousthat is, unless you must pack supplies. Otherwise, they 

 might as well be chopped into kindling to .heat the noonday 

 soup. Skiers themselves prove this when they refuse to ski back 

 up to the summit. The downhill glide is all that interests them. 



The skier probably looks disdainfully at snowshoeing. To him 

 it may seem mundane and dull. This is because he never has 

 slogged comfortably through groves heavy wkh gleaming new 

 snow or plowed a trail for fourteen frisky sled-dogs, their bushy 

 tails waving like plumes. Can the artificial sensation of skiing 

 compare with such a vivid experience? 



Your true Northerner would no more set up his wife and 

 children in a place where skis were the sole means of exit than 

 he would leave a roof off his cabin. He would be uncertain, and 

 rightly so, of their chances of getting safely to a doctor or school. 

 Indeed, you can look intently in the Arctic and never see a pair 

 of skis, although snowshoes are stacked in the "corner" of 

 every hut, barracks, and igloo. To these hardy people snowshoes 

 are transportation, skis merely a gadget. 



Skis may offer brief exhilaration, but the snowshoe helps 

 unlock the secrets of the wilderness. It is a way to travel, and its 

 users do not have to cling to lifts and tows. They get across 

 country on their own. 



The Mounties have a standard joke about the Englishman 

 who was posted for duty at Fort Chipewyan. "Hi say, old chap," 

 the recruit is alleged to have asked, "what keeps your feet 

 warmer in winter moccasins or snowshoes?" 



Of course, even the rawest novice in his red coat would know 

 that there's no warmth in skis! 



164 



