(10) Remember that wherever you leave a track others may follow.  Therefore only choose safe slopes.  The snow is liable to slip on slopes of 25 deg. or more, so that these are dangerous.

Ski-ing is a sport which can be made dangerous for others if individuals do not carry out the usual etiquette.  It may seem extraordinary that people should need warning not to join a private party unless invited, but it is sadly true.

One day as I was starting off on a long run a stranger came up to me and asked if she might join us.  I consulted the Guide, and he said he already had as many in the party as he could take charge of.  I told the lady this, and said I was sorry that we could not accept her companionship.  She at once replied cheerily, “Oh, then I will follow you.”  Nothing could prevent her from doing this.  Switzerland is a free country, and there is a right of way anywhere over the mountains in winter.  We started off and she followed.  From that moment, of course, we automatically became responsible for her because one of the Laws is that you never desert a runner who is alone.  She was a very poor performer and fell a great deal, so that for the whole six or seven miles’ run, we were kept waiting for her.  Of course, we were under no real obligation to look after her, but had we left her and anything had happened to her, we could never again have held up our heads as Ski-ers.

On another occasion a runner made a formal complaint to me about a lady who joined his party.  In this case it was an experienced runner, who had presumably learnt the Law, and who might have read the notice on the board.  First of all she said, “May I go with you?” and the somewhat cold answer was that the party was complete.  Then she followed asking questions about the route, etc. at every opportunity.  Of course, she had finally to be adopted and taken along much to the boredom of the party, which was a private one.

Where the Ski-ing is organized, tests are run and tours arranged for the different standards.  This does not apply so much to 2nd or 1st-class runners who, of course, prefer to make up their own parties, but, at any rate, these are protected from having the less experienced runner with them, except by invitation.  By these means the organized tours only take runners up to the standard advertised, and no one need feel compunction at leaving members of their party behind in the village, because they know that the elementary runner will also get a chance of a run.

Yet even under these arrangements, I have found a beginner sitting huddled in a corner of the railway carriage when we have started before dawn for a big tour.  “Where are you off to?” I said, thinking he was out with a Guide.  “With your party,” was the reply.  What could I do?  It is not easy to turn a person out of a train at 5.45 a.m. on a cold morning.  I said weakly, “Did you not see the notice which said this was a run for 3rd-class runners only?” He said, “Yes, but I thought I could keep up.”  So there he was, and we took him through and though he was very slow uphill and kept us all back in this case, he ran down without delaying us.  People often put their own capacity higher than do the people they want to run with and it is very difficult to be tactful.