Again most people would not think it necessary to warn runners against deserting their party.  Yet they often do and it is not usually the beginner who is the culprit here.  Perhaps he cannot run quick enough to get away!  I shall always remember a run in charge of a tour when I was with a lot of novices.  Another experienced runner accompanied me officially to help.  I chose what I thought the easiest way to start, and he wanted to try another route at the top and went off saying he would join us below a wood.  When we reached the part where I thought we should rejoin, I waited and shouted, but he did not appear.  So we went on to another post where we had lunch, and then I began to get anxious as this runner never turned up.  Anything might have happened to him.  He might have gone over a rock or into a tree or even only be tied up in one of those tangled falls when it is practically impossible to extricate oneself.  It was no good our trying to look for him then, so after about two hours’ delay, I took my party down to the valley and the first person who met us in the village was our lost companion.  He chaffed us for being so late as he had run down very quickly and had had his tea ages ago.

No party going beyond the Nursery slopes should consist of fewer than three.  One to go for help in case of need, the other to stay with the third runner, who may need help.  Needless to say, people who know the mountains well, go off alone with impunity.  When I asked one of these lonely runners what would happen if he hurt himself and was benighted, he told me he always carried sufficient morphia to put him out of his agony in case of need.  This was, no doubt, all right from his point of view, but what of the people who might go out to look for him among the infinite possible runs with Ski tracks in every direction.

No sporting runner would ever refuse help to a lame duck, though pretty bad cases of selfishness have been recorded.

There is one point, which does not always strike people, and that is the danger of cutting a track over a difficult place.  Beginners will usually follow a track instead of working by their map.  For instance on the Muottas Muraigl run at Pontresina, if once a rash runner cuts a track straight across from the restaurant to the valley, crowds will probably follow it, though they may be warned against it.  This is a very dangerous slope under certain conditions as was shown this Winter, when a runner going along its top was carried down to the bottom of the valley by the avalanche he started.

I have one track left on my conscience; when a few of us went down what might have been a dangerous place under different conditions to those we found.  Luckily it was not a way most people would have wished to follow as it apparently led nowhere and hardly looked attractive.

The slower mover always has the right of way when Ski-ing, so that no runner ought to shout to those ahead of him to get out of his way.  Needless to say this does not apply to a runner out of control, who may be dashing unwillingly into someone in front of him when, for both their sakes, a friendly warning is advisable!