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                             HOW TO SKI
                                 AND
                             HOW NOT TO

                                 BY

                          VIVIAN CAULFEILD

                       PHOTOGRAPHS BY K. DELAP

                     _THIRD AND REVISED EDITION_

                             NEW YORK
                       CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
                        597-599 FIFTH AVENUE
                               1914

                 Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
                 at the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh




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LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHIC PLATES

    Frontispiece. The Adelboden Jumping-hill. _Photo by Miss
                  E. Frisby._
               I. On the level.
              II. Stopping a back-slip.
             III. Before kick-turn.
              IV. Kick-turn.
               V. Kick-turn.
              VI. Kick-turn.
          VII_a_. Kick-turn.
          VII_b_. Kick-turn: wrong position.
            VIII. Kick-turn: finished.
              IX. Herring-boning.
               X. Side-stepping.
            X_a_. H.B., Herring-boning; K., Kick-turn;
                  S., Side-stepping; H.S., Half-side-stepping.
              XI. Scraping right ski.
             XII. Scraping left ski.
            XIII. Starting a run on hillside.
             XIV. Straight-running: normal position.
              XV. Straight-running: normal position.
             XVI. Straight-running: how _not_ to do it.
            XVII. Straight-running: Telemark position.
           XVIII. Straight-running: Telemark position.
             XIX. Straight-running: Telemark position.
              XX. Snow-ploughing (stemming with both skis).
             XXI. Braking with the sticks.
            XXII. Stemming with one ski, or start of a downhill turn
                  to left.
           XXIII. Downhill stemming-turn to left: halfway round.
            XXIV. Finish of stemming-turn to left.
             XXV. Unsuccessful stemming-turn to left: result of wrong
                  balance or position.
            XXVI. Track of downhill stemming-turns.
           XXVII. Downhill stemming-turn to left in soft snow (note
                  wide stride and edged skis).
          XXVIII. How _not_ to make a stemming-turn.
            XXIX. Uphill Telemark swing to left.
             XXX. Uphill Telemark swing to left: wrong balance and
                  position of skis.
            XXXI. Uphill Telemark swing to left (seen from above).
           XXXII. Downhill Telemark swing to left.
          XXXIII. Track of downhill Telemark swings.
           XXXIV. Starting an uphill Christiania swing to the right
                  from traversing.
            XXXV. Starting an uphill Christiania swing to the right
                  from a direct descent.
           XXXVI. Finish of uphill Christiania swing to right.
          XXXVII. Bad finish of uphill Christiania swing to right.
         XXXVIII. Start of a downhill Christiania swing to right.
           XXXIX. Bad finish of uphill Christiania swing to right.
              XL. Uphill Christiania swing to right (seen from above).
             XLI. Finish of uphill Christiania swing to right (seen
                  from above).
            XLII. Track of downhill Christiania swings.
           XLIII. Downhill Christiania swing to right: halfway round.
                  _Photo by L. Buettner._
            XLIV. "Jerked" Christiania swing to right (note position
                  of arms and shoulders).
             XLV. Downhill Telemark swing to left (seen from above).
            XLVI. Uphill Telemark swing to right.
           XLVII. Jumping round to the left: bad position of skis.
          XLVIII. Jumping round to the right.
            XLIX. Jumping. _Photo by L. Buettner._
               L. Jumping. _Photo by L. Buettner._
              LI. Jumping.
             LII. Preparing for the "Sats."
            LIII. Making the "Sats."
             LIV. Hans Klopfenstein jumping (winner of inter-Swiss
                  Championship, 1910).
              LV. Landing from a Jump.
             LVI. Jumper just clear of the platform (seen from above).
            LVII. Harald Smith jumping at Adelboden, 1909
                  (photographed from under the platform).
           LVIII. How to carry the skis.
             LIX. How to carry the skis. (The stick resting on the
                  right shoulder takes some weight off the other.)




PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION


The alterations and additions to this book in its present form are
due partly to fresh practical experience; partly to adverse criticism
of which I now see the justice; and partly, as I freely admit, to the
picking of other people's brains. Since this book was published I have
read for the first time books on ski-ing by Zdarsky, Bilgeri, Luther,
and Arnold Lunn, and have re-read those of Richardson, Rickmers,
Paulcke, and Hoek. As a result I have had to alter a good deal of my
theory and some of my practice, and to alter and enlarge this book
accordingly. To all the above-named authors, therefore, I am more or
less indebted, and feel correspondingly grateful.

In adopting an idea one can seldom help altering it more or less, and
if in the body of the book I have made few direct acknowledgments, it
has been from no lack of gratitude, but rather from a doubt whether
the originator of the idea would be gratified at its development or
indignant at its distortion.

I must however make special acknowledgments to Ober-Leutnant
Bilgeri. From his excellent book I have gained much fresh knowledge
of the theory and practice of ski-ing. This book, moreover, while
confirming me in my opinion of the vices of the Lilienfeld system of
ski-_running_, has given me a fresh insight into the virtues of the
Lilienfeld system of _teaching_, and consequently a fresh sense of my
indebtedness to the chief apostle of this system, my first teacher, Mr.
Rickmers.

If Herr Bilgeri has ever happened to read my book, certain resemblances
between it and his own--the analogy of the bicycle and tricycle with
the single and double-track runner, for instance--may, since his
book was published first, have struck him as remarkable. I take this
opportunity of assuring him that when I wrote this book I had not read
his, nor for that matter any of his writings, and that, if I had,
the resemblances would have been not only fully acknowledged, but
considerably more numerous.

To Mr. E. C. Richardson I must return special thanks for criticism that
has shown me the error of some of my ways of thinking; I have also to
thank Mr. C. W. Richardson for new ideas gained from an article by him
on "Knee Action in Ski-ing."

Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to everyone whose suggestions
I have adopted, or who, either by precept or example, has taught me
anything new and so has had a hand in the revision of this book, but to
whom I have not referred individually.

This heavy list of acknowledgments makes me realise more than ever how
difficult it is nowadays for a writer on ski-ing technique--or at any
rate for _this_ writer--to say anything new. I am afraid that even a
_succes de scandale_ as the fanatical prophet of complete sticklessness
will soon be out of my reach, if it is not already, for we are all
agreed now that the stick should be used as little as possible, and
therefore that not to use it at all is, if possible, best. It is a
short step from this to finding out by practical experience that, so
long as one is travelling on _snow_, not _ice_, and has a little more
than room enough to place the skis horizontally across the <DW72>, one
can move just as freely, quickly, and easily, and with just as perfect
control, without the stick as with it.

                                                         E. V. S. C.

_December 1912._




CONTENTS


                                                  PAGE
    INTRODUCTORY--
      THE ENGLISHMAN AS A SKI-RUNNER                 1

    EQUIPMENT--
      THE SKI                                       23
      CLOTHING                                      41

    THE MANAGEMENT OF THE SKIS--
      ON THE LEVEL AND UPHILL                       52
      GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF STEERING, &C.           75
      STRAIGHT-RUNNING                              97
      BRAKING                                      120
      THE STEMMING TURN                            136
      THE TELEMARK SWING                           159
      THE CHRISTIANIA SWING                        175
      JUMPING ROUND                                210
      SKATING                                      214

    JUMPING                                        217

    HOW TO RUN ACROSS COUNTRY                      252

    APPENDIX--
      HOW TO PRACTISE                              280




HOW TO SKI




INTRODUCTORY

THE ENGLISHMAN AS A SKI-RUNNER


Probably every one likely to read this book knows that a ski is a
snow-shoe or skate, and that it is a long narrow plank turned up in
front, but he may not have a very clear idea of the use of it.

It may not have occurred to him, for instance, that in a country which
is deeply covered with soft snow (the surface of snow is sometimes a
hard crust) a man without snow-shoes of some kind is not merely unable
to move quickly, but is unable to move at all outside the cleared roads
and beaten tracks.

Merely to prevent sinking into the snow the ski is just as useful
as a snow-shoe of the racquet form, such as the Canadian, and it is
never _less_ useful than the other even when it seems most likely to
be. For moving through dense underwood, for instance, when its length
would appear likely to be awkward, or for hauling sledges, when its
slipperiness would seem a disadvantage, experience shows that the ski
is fully as useful as the other type.

As a means of locomotion it is altogether superior. Over level open
country a man can slide along on skis a great deal faster than he can
walk (or run) on Canadian snow-shoes.

In hilly country the ski-runner has a further advantage. If a hill is
not steep a man may walk straight up it on racquets rather more quickly
than a man on skis can climb it by zigzagging (as he is obliged to do
on all but the most gradual <DW72>s); but on the descent the ski-runner
more than makes up the time he has lost; for, helped by gravity, he
slides down the hill at least three, perhaps as much as thirty, times
as fast as he climbed it, according to his expertness and the nature of
the ground, while the other takes almost as long to _walk_ down as he
did to walk up.

On very steep ground the ski-runner has a still greater advantage, for
here the narrowness of the ski allows him to move across the steepest
snow <DW72>s with little or no discomfort to his ankles, while on a
steep <DW72> the man on racquets is practically helpless, for, on
account of their shape, it is only with the utmost difficulty, if at
all, that he can move either up, down, or across the hill.

A moderately expert ski-runner can manoeuvre on any sort of ground
which is covered with snow, provided that the surface of the snow
be not so hard that the edges of his skis can make absolutely no