Humans have marked the spring equinox for millennia. A time of symbolic rebirth, its arrival in the Northern Hemisphere on March 20 signifies warmer days and the start of crop preparation, as well as holding religious significance for many.
12.02.2024 - 12:08 / theguardian.com
On a chilly winter’s day, exactly 100 years ago, four smartly dressed men boarded a train in Edinburgh. Willie Jackson and his son Laurence were both farmers, dapper Thomas Murray bred sheep and cattle, and portly Robin Welsh was a member of Edinburgh city council. At 54, he was a little older than his pals. They had deliberated for months about whether to make their journey, but in the end went for it, and what an adventure it turned out to be.
They chugged to London, then on to Paris, before taking the 13-hour train to Chamonix. As the train wound its way through the snowy Alps, they alleviated the boredom by playing countless games of bridge. In the guard’s van were their curling stones.
Unable to farm in the winter, the men had spent hours curling on the frozen lochs of Upper Clydesdale. They became so good, they decided to enter the first ever Winter Olympics (held from 25 January to 5 February 1924).
A century on, Chamonix is as much of a draw as ever. Breathing in lungfuls of alpine air and grinning with delight as I head down the much-loved runs of Balme and Les Grands Montets, it is hard to imagine that in 1924 downhill skiing was barely a thing, and not even represented at the Olympics.
Chamonix has more than enough runs to satisfy leisurely skiers like me, but adventurers head up above the resort’s regular slopes. The original Aiguille du Midi lift carried the Olympic bobsleighs up the mountain (Great Britain took silver behind the Swiss); today its efficient replacement carries tourists and hardcore skiers from the town centre to 3,840 metres.
Still in a post après-ski stupor I forced myself onto the first lift just after 8am, the only passenger without skis, ropes and other terrifying looking high-altitude apparatus. Squeezed into the cable car, I chatted to Brit Annie-Jo Gregory. Skiing the Vallée Blanche is a rite of passage for off-piste fanatics but she was going further with a friend, climbing even higher with her skis strapped to her back before setting off downhill.
“It’s type two fun,” she grinned as the cabin swung slightly alarmingly over the town. Spotting my blank expression, she said: “It’s scary, hard work and pushes you. The fun comes afterwards when you relive it over a beer.”
The air was noticeably thinner at the summit. I gripped the handrail and wished her luck. As she headed off along a narrow ridge towards the glacier, I stuck to type one fun, taking selfies with Mont Blanc in the background and squinting down at Chamonix as if from an aircraft window.
I could just make out where the enormous 36,000 square metre Olympic ice rink would have once been. Norwegian Sonja Henie was an 11-year-old skater back then. She charmed the crowds with her infectious smile but spun
Humans have marked the spring equinox for millennia. A time of symbolic rebirth, its arrival in the Northern Hemisphere on March 20 signifies warmer days and the start of crop preparation, as well as holding religious significance for many.
In the autumn of 1897, after gold was discovered in the Klondike, my English great-grandfather rode out from a cattle ranch near Edmonton, Alberta, to make his fortune. It was late in the season. He traveled with three Americans, eight pack ponies, a Winchester rifle, a tin billycan for tea, a Dutch oven for making bread, a goatskin coat, and a few light mining implements. But the snowfall was heavier than expected, which made the ground treacherous for the horses. When his companions decided to sit out the winter with some fur trapping, my great-grandfather sold his share of the ponies for sled dogs and hired an Indigenous tracker instead. His pace picked up, but the weather deteriorated. When supplies got dangerously low, he suggested to his tracker that they eat the dogs. Eventually, he was forced to return to England empty-handed. His diary, however, survived.
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