272 



Sierra Club Bulletin 



being in closer touch with the skis, but it is not so. They act 

 merely in a steering capacity and as brakes, and must always 

 move in connection with the rest of your quick and lithe body 

 which swings like a pendulum. 



In short, it is rhythm ; it is the same intangible pulsing, the 

 same beat that comes into the mind and dominates the body in 

 skating and in dancing ; it is the same undercurrent of mental 

 movement with which all activity, physical or otherwise, is 

 filled, and it is this harmonious blending of the body with the 

 mind that enables you to travel easily and gracefully over the 

 glistening snow. 



But even with a sense of rhythm to your credit, you must 

 not expect that it alone will instantaneously swing you up to 

 that happy playground to which your soul rushed out, in the 

 early morning. You must learn to be patient in your slips, and 

 slides, and falls ; to even anticipate the latter, so that you may 

 tumble jauntily into the snow, thus causing you no bruises or 

 pain. 



It is a cosy place for half a minute, (until you begin to 

 thaw) ; that hole you have dug for yourself where the snow 

 snuggles into every corner of your body. But such a snarl 

 to disentangle, skis, stick and head all curled up in a knot, and 

 when you are freed, erect and ready to start again, how 

 humiliating to leave behind, for others to come upon, that hole 

 for a signpost, "Here I fell !" 



It takes quite a few pilgrimages to the skiing grounds to 

 pass beyond that period of disfiguring the snow, and to glide 

 with all ease and abandon down any sort of slope. To take 

 bumps and dodge trees you must approach them without fear ; 

 with the realization that they are to be considered but with 

 all the self-assurance and determination that you are master, 

 and that they can have no terrors for you. 



Here is where a knowledge of mountaineering is of ad- 

 vantage, for an understanding of heights and distances. A 

 cautious alertness for precipices and crevasses, also, is most 

 essential before attempting and hazarding too much. Again, 

 another quality that is necessary to a ski-runner is endurance, 

 especially in the case of journeying from place to place; for to 

 travel steadily and easily, as the Indians do, is to win your goal 

 with the least possible fatigue and trepidation. 



