LONG SKI JOURNEY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21763, 31 March 1934, Page 3 (Supplement)

LONG SKI JOURNEY

TRIP OF 1000 MILES YOUNG ITALIANS' FEAT RISK OF WOLVES AND BEARS Two young Italians were in London , recentlv buying clothes with money given them as a reward for being the first Europeans other than Laplanders evei to have crossed Lapland twice on skis. They are Giulio Fano, aged 34, and E. D. Venturini, aged 24. " We are both ski enthusiasts, and we wanted to find the ideal ski-ing country," they said. "Friends told us to try Lapland. When we arrived people* told us that no Europeans had ever completed the 500 miles crossing of Lapland before, let alone on skis. " We had no heavy fur clothing, no arms, no ammunition, and they told us the • gruesome story of the last two Europeans who had tried. Their-' bodies had been found only tho week before. If we escaped being eaten by wolves we would be killed by bears, they said, and if we escaped the wolves and bears we might get lost and die in the snow. / " But we bought a revolver, and friends gave us two fur pullovers to wear under our coats. At first there were forests, but these disappeared as we went north. At nights we stayed with the primitive but charming Laplanders in their wooden houses. " One day we saw the footprint of a bear in the snow, but we went carefully and avoided the animal. Our revolver was heavy, and we thought it would be useless against a pack of wolves or a bear, so we threw it away. Then one day at dusk we heard wolves in the distance. The pack was coming toward us over the snow. We kept as still arid quiet as Ave could, hoping they would miss us. And, with very good hick, they did." The whole trip of 1000 miles cost the adventurers only £l2.