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--- 193605 [2015/11/30 12:17] – [Questions Answered] sbw
+++ 193605 [2015/11/30 12:20] – [Beware of Shi-ing] sbw
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 (( Just a quick note.  I found it interesting to see 'ski' spelt as 'shi' in this article. The German language writes the word 'ski' but it is pronounced as 'shi'. eg 'Ski fahren' or 'Ski laufen'. See: de.wiktionary.org/wiki/Ski or duden.de/rechtschreibung/Ski ))
-Shi-ing is often a branch of the activities of a tramping, hiking, or mountaineering club, and it will quite likely become a branch of bush-walking joys; in fact, there are already several good shi-ers in the club. However, so that you shall be under no delusions let me tell you of what happened to me. Jean, who is somewhat of an expert, induced me to accompany her to Kosciusko, but I cannot allege youth and innocence as an excuse for falling to her inducements, for I had been well warned by numerous friends who have sprained their ankles or broken their arms while in indulging in this simple pastime. But there is nothing like trying anything once, and anyhow we were fully agreed on one matter, namely, that we were going to Kosciusko to shi; not to dance, play tennis or to do any of the other things you can do equally well in Sydney. That being so, we were going right on to The Chalet, 12 miles beyond the hotel, the afternoon of our arrival. The fact that I had never been on shies before and that the Manager was sure to object, were minor details.
+Shi-ing is often a branch of the activities of a tramping, hiking, or mountaineering club, and it will quite likely become a branch of bush-walking joys; in fact, there are already several good shi-ers in the club. However, so that you shall be under no delusions let me tell you of what happened to me. Jean, who is somewhat of an expert, induced me to accompany her to Kosciusko, but I cannot allege youth and innocence as an excuse for falling to her inducements, for I had been well warned by numerous friends who have sprained their ankles or broken their arms while in indulging in this simple pastime. But there is nothing like trying anything once, and anyhow we were fully agreed on one matter, namely, that we were going to Kosciuszko to shi; not to dance, play tennis or to do any of the other things you can do equally well in Sydney. That being so, we were going right on to The Chalet, 12 miles beyond the hotel, the afternoon of our arrival. The fact that I had never been on shies before and that the Manager was sure to object, were minor details.
 Of course, the Manager did object; but we put our feet down with a firm hand, and after making sure, in the presence of numerous witnesses, that we were going on our own responsibility and that he was doing nothing to help us go to destruction on the downward - or to be precise - the upward, path, we were allowed to depart.
-There was no snow for the first five miles to Smiggins', so we trudged up the muddy road with heavy packs and heavy shies, and long before we reached the end of that five miles, I had decided that shies on the feet were infinitely preferable to shies in the hand, - a matter about which I had previously had serious doubts, in view of the accidents to my friends.
+There was no snow for the first five miles to Smiggins, so we trudged up the muddy road with heavy packs and heavy shies, and long before we reached the end of that five miles, I had decided that shies on the feet were infinitely preferable to shies in the hand, - a matter about which I had previously had serious doubts, in view of the accidents to my friends.
-Arrived at Smiggins we donned shies and continued. It had rained and sleeted all the way from the hotel and the weather got worse as we went up. Just before Betts' Camp. we passed the tractor stuck fast in the snow. This is a car rather like the tanks used in the war, imported at enormous expense to convey people from the Hotel to the Chalet, quicker than they could shi; but to date it has always taken longer. This time it bore the Director of the Tourist Bureau and some movie photographers. It had had about five hours' more than we, and if it had not taken a sudden and unusual fit of energy soon after we met it, we should easily have beaten it to Betts, but as it was, it arrived there just five minutes ahead. Meanwhile, I had been managing fairly well, considering that it,was my first attempt; I don't think I fell more than three times in the four miles, and it (( Handwritten correction )) was unfortunate that two of these mishaps should have occurred within sight of Betts, so that the rumour went round that there was a girl who had never been on shies before, falling all over the place!
+Arrived at Smiggins we donned shies and continued. It had rained and sleeted all the way from the hotel and the weather got worse as we went up. Just before Betts Camp. we passed the tractor stuck fast in the snow. This is a car rather like the tanks used in the war, imported at enormous expense to convey people from the Hotel to the Chalet, quicker than they could shi; but to date it has always taken longer. This time it bore the Director of the Tourist Bureau and some movie photographers. It had had about five hours' more than we, and if it had not taken a sudden and unusual fit of energy soon after we met it, we should easily have beaten it to Betts, but as it was, it arrived there just five minutes ahead. Meanwhile, I had been managing fairly well, considering that it,was my first attempt; I don't think I fell more than three times in the four miles, and it (( Handwritten correction )) was unfortunate that two of these mishaps should have occurred within sight of Betts, so that the rumour went round that there was a girl who had never been on shies before, falling all over the place!
 As it was dark by the time we reached Betts, Jean thought I should be wise to accept a seat on the tractor for the rest of the way. I rashly did so; froze, and vainly wished every time we stuck and many times when we didn't, that I had walked. I eventually jumped off about a quarter of a mile before the Chalet, and found myself ploughing through knee-deep snow. I was making - better time than the tractor, anyhow, and it was a bit too bad that it should have again had an energetic spasm, so that it beat me in by about thirty seconds!
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 We arrived at the Chalet in snow, and it snowed all the time we were there; but each day we dutifully went out and slid down the slopes. Jean was most successful and quickly mastered the cryptic things known as snowploughs, stem-turns, Christiana-turns and goodness knows what else; but to the end I remained one of the mugs - or as George Lamble tactfully put it, "one of the less advanced".
-We were lucky in having Ernst from Austria, an expert imported to put Australia on the shi-ing map, so to speak, to instruct us. When he asked the Director of the Tourist Bureau if he would be re-imported next season, the answer was that this depended on Mr. Steyens. "And who is Mr. Steyens?" asked Ernst innocently! Ernst is one of those folk whom the fairies blessed at birth with all the good gifts that it was customary for them to give to princes and princesses, but not to ordinary mortals. He has brains in plenty, a ready sparkling wit, that indefinable "char-rm" which makes a person popular, and a perfect physique. I could never make up my mind which was more pleasing - to watch him sweeping down the hill at a breakneck pace and land gracefully on his feet, or to see him making up it swiftly, seemingly without effort and much ahead of the other experts.
+We were lucky in having Ernst from Austria, an expert imported to put Australia on the shi-ing map, so to speak, to instruct us. When he asked the Director of the Tourist Bureau if he would be re-imported next season, the answer was that this depended on Mr. Stevens. "And who is Mr. Stevens?" asked Ernst innocently! Ernst is one of those folk whom the fairies blessed at birth with all the good gifts that it was customary for them to give to princes and princesses, but not to ordinary mortals. He has brains in plenty, a ready sparkling wit, that indefinable "char-rm" which makes a person popular, and a perfect physique. I could never make up my mind which was more pleasing - to watch him sweeping down the hill at a breakneck pace and land gracefully on his feet, or to see him making up it swiftly, seemingly without effort and much ahead of the other experts.
 In addition to his other gifts, Ernst is a born teacher, and his lucid explanations would ring down the slope after our faltering headlong plunges, generally with the final addendum: "You did not fall, you sat down" - which was perfectly true; because when you sit down, you do so - not gracefully - but anyhow, comfortably. When you fall, anything may happen. Whenever I sat down in preference to falling, it was because of that vivid picture in "Punch" of a crowd of people on a London station, some on crutches, some with arms in slings or heads bandaged; all maimed or halted in some way; with the sympathetic stranger turning to his porter, remarking, "Dear, dear, have those poor people been in a railway accident?" to which the porter replies: "Oh, no, Sir they are merely returning from enjoying the winter sports in Switzerland!"
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 On the fifth day I gained courage and refused to sit down. The result was a twisted ankle. Not serious; but enough to "put the wind up" me completely - especially as about a third of our number had their heads stitched up, or ankles sprained and were either hobbling around or laid up completely. Then the doctor added the last straw by saying he had used yards and yards of strapping since he came up, and would be pleased to add another yard or so to my ankle if I liked. I did not like, and anyhow the ankle was better the next day; but after that I gave up trying the fancy steps, without which you can never learn to shi, and contented myself with wandering round the hillsides and "sitting dawn" before there should be an opportunity for falling. Even this took courage on the steeper slopes, trained as I am to mountaineering on hard summer snow, where to sit dawn is the equivalent of suicide.
-Meantime it continued to snow and the movie photographers began to hatch diobolical plans in the absence of anything better to do. The following scenario was among them:-
+Meantime it continued to snow and the movie photographers began to hatch diabolical plans in the absence of anything better to do. The following scenario was among them:-
 Scene 1: The experts, as they do their famous high jump, knocking an apple off the photographer's head. (That is Ernst and the two Georges).
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 Scene 111: Baby Margaret, aged three gracefully gliding down the slopes, coming to a stand on her feet and putting the rest of us to shame.
-One morning it did get a little brighter. The movie cameras were produced, and we were treated to a fine show of slalams (( [sic] "slaloms" )), our hearts in our mouths as the experts came down the hill at 80 miles an hour, curving in and out of the flags and ending up with a final sweep at the bottom, always on their feet. The snow came again before the photographers got to the second, not to mention the third, scene.
+One morning it did get a little brighter. The movie cameras were produced, and we were treated to a fine show of slaloms, our hearts in our mouths as the experts came down the hill at 80 miles an hour, curving in and out of the flags and ending up with a final sweep at the bottom, always on their feet. The snow came again before the photographers got to the second, not to mention the third, scene.
-Then Friday dawned a perfect morning, the first day that photography was really a pleasure. Jean and I rose early, retired to secluded spot and endeavoured to take a series of photos more beautiful than the Norweigan poster of a shier standing naked before the dawn. The poster does not show the wind that was blowing, **and** neither do the photos! I am glad I was the photographer, not the photographed!
+Then Friday dawned a perfect morning, the first day that photography was really a pleasure. Jean and I rose early, retired to secluded spot and endeavoured to take a series of photos more beautiful than the Norwegian poster of a shier standing naked before the dawn. The poster does not show the wind that was blowing, **and** neither do the photos! I am glad I was the photographer, not the photographed!
 That day the doctor permitted an invalid lad and his mother, who had waited a week for fine weather, to depart on the tractor for the hotel. I also decided to return. with a friend who had been Stenographer at the Hotel, and we were to make it a leisurely trip, taking photographs.