Experienced guides are indispensable for such excursions. The traveller is cautioned against sleeping in chalets, unless absolutely necessary. As a rule, therefore, the night previous to a mountain expedition should be spent either at an inn or at one of the club-huts which the Swiss, German, and Italian Alpine Clubs have recently erected for the convenience of travellers. Mountaineers should provide themselves with fresh meat, bread and wine or spirits for long expeditions. Glacier-water should not be drunk except in small quantities, mixed with wine or cognac.
Cold milk is also safer when qualified with spirits.
One of the best beverages for quenching the thirst is cold tea. Over all the movements of the pedestrian the weather holds despotic sway. The barometer and weather-wise natives should be consulted when an opportunity offers. The blowing down of the wind from the mountains into the valleys in the evening, the melting away of the clouds, the fall of fresh snow on the mountains, and the ascent of the cattle to the higher parts of their pasture are all signs of fine weather. On the other hand it is a bad sign if the distant mountains are dark blue in colour and very distinct in outline, if the wind blows up the mountains, and if the dust rises in eddies on the roads.