very steep and hard, you should stick the other Ski upright
in the snow above you, in order that it may remain well in hand while
you put on the first. You will probably find it impossible to put on
your Skis with gloves on. If you lay these on the snow, they will
undoubtedly get snow inside them. The safest place to put them is one
on each stick, stuck upright on either side of you, or tuck them into
your belt or pockets.

When you have your Skis and gloves on and everything else is
hermetically sealed, you are ready to start sliding or traversing
slowly across the slope, before going straight down it. This will give
you time to get the feeling of Skis, which are clumsy at first. Slide
one foot forward, then the other, but do not lift them. Now try a kick
turn and come back across the slopes to the top and face straight
downhill. Keep your Skis closely side by side, one foot leading by
about twelve inches and push yourself off with your sticks. Try to
imagine that the Skis are only a moving staircase and that all you
have to do is to stand upright on them and let them do the rest. If
your slope is only 10 deg. and there is nothing steeper below you, the
Skis won't do much. Indeed in deep snow they may refuse to move at
all, in which case try pushing yourself along with your sticks. The
great thing is always to want to run faster than you are going and,
therefore, only to choose slopes where you feel that you can keep up
as fast as the Skis go. It is a mistake to start immediately down such
a steep slope that the Skis run away with you. At the same time it is
also a mistake not to increase the angle of your slope as soon as you
can compete with it.

Stand upright, press the knees together and try to feel that there is
a spring in your knees. Let one or other foot lead so that, if the
Skis stop, the front foot takes your weight and prevents you plunging
forwards and if the Skis suddenly plunge forward, the back foot is
equally ready to take the weight and prevents you from sitting down.

Whatever you do, avoid the hideous doubled-up position of a runner,
who bends at waist and knees, with feet parallel and far apart,
looking like a note of interrogation and leaving what we call
tram-line tracks. By his tracks shall a Ski-er be judged!

Look back and see the line you have left. If your two feet have left
two tracks with more than six inches apart in soft snow, you must not
be contented. In a good track, the two feet s