Manual of Ski Mountaineering

We are hopeful that this book will keep encouraging people at least to intend to take off into the winter wilder­ness occasionally as a change in diet from the frenetically linked turns that are the inevitable part of the daily grind on what we like to think of as practice slopes for some­thing better. We hope a great number of skiers will actually come to do something about their intentions, that they will really go ski mountaineering, forsake the se­curity blanket of packed snow from time to time, make their own tracks, discover how rewarding pleasure is when it is earned by a little out-and-out hard uphill work . . .
We could go on, but our hypocrisy-quotient is a little low and we are not quite so eager as we sound. It has lately been a bit harder for us to take off on snow-camp­ing trips than it was twenty years ago when the first edition took shape. The Spartan life has faded for us in those decades. We don't struggle as much as we should against the prospect of taking our meals while reclining, or against other activities which make minimal demands upon physical fitness. But our sons must not be so soft, nor our daughters. If we must show them how, we will relearn ourselves how to feel at home on the snow!