view raw text
"SKEETS" MARTINS EXPERIENCES. American Jockey Writes of a Trip on Skis i Throuqh Snowstorm in Switzerland. "Sheets" Martin, the American rider, who wii: change his i,:,M. ,,r operations for tbe coming season i from England, where he has ridden with .-relit for • several seasons, to Austria, is. according to his custom, spending the winter m Switzerland. Martin, who has developed into a crack at skiing end bob sledding, writes the following Interesting letter to a friend in England, relating some Interesting ex perleuces. Griggs, who figured with Martin In i several races, is an English rider. The letter reads: "I must spoiOgisn sevcial times for not writing to Vu before. I have been putting It oft from day to day. and was ashamed of myself. I wIH lease ■ all the bobbin- news until yon see Griggs, as be t will be able to explain better than I can write, but I must tell you that we woi f the b races in Switzerland the day before Griggs left. We cadi got B lovely gold medal. Which you must a»k Griggs to show you, snd the steerer a lovely silver challenge cup, to be kept - v one year. Griggs was very pleased, as i; wis lie BO aid time he went as the brake. "We had very bad link at Havos in the tirst tWO 1 big races by falling, bul had tbe satisfaction of beating ail the besl bobs here the day before we went to Arose by twenty-fire seconds, showing them vhat we could h when we did nol spill, l am awfnUj aorrj Griggs could ie ; n oaln longer, as i ere is s big race here called the Coupe de France. and Griggs n is JuBt about perfect when In left, and I am a i raid 1 will miss him very ranch. "Seven of us came ba.k from Arose on skis, sad nearly lost our lives by being caught In S dreadful snowstorm. We had to climb .. range ol na intains 1.300 feet high. When halfwaj up an aw ml snow storm came on and we tost oar way, is we could do sec. and we lost the proper pass, and found ourselves on a mi., steep, rocky precipice, with six foot skis on i nil foot. "We were in :;n awful fix, as we could not go down, and could climb no further with the skis on. So I took mine off and go to the top alter an awful struggle, then went ba.k and bellied Mrs. Martin np. Alter that, to make matters worse, MM Of the gentlemen of the party got his hands frozen and refused to budge an Inch. I finally persuaded him to make another effort and got him to the !• 1 . ami then I had an aw iul job to get his skis on. as all the straps were frozen. Before putting the skis on I had to rub his frozen hand with SHOW, and I am pleased to say I think we have saved it. I Ban blm today. He could not use the bad hand, hut expects it to be all right ill a day 0T two. i trouble did not end at getting his skis on, as We bad 3,500 feet to slid" down, and all the rest of the parly had gone on, ami we POO] V theii track-, as lite wind and snow covered them up immediately. We finally found our way down alter being lost several times, ami oh, what a happy party thai took refreshments ai the bottom of the mountain. "My wife was a brick and stuck It out much better than some of tbe men. and till the party are eery proud of her, be she was the only lady In the party and never complained once. Everj one in fo e was anxious about is, as they telephoned from Arosa that we had left, and. o4 course, they thought we were losl when the storm came up. We were all done up at the finish, bul I am pleased to say the party is none the worse todaj and expects to have another trip on Tuesday.
