Smoko yet? Water was boiled with care, held precariously from tipping off the gathering of lit twigs and grasses that passed for a fireplace when you’re on the move. Water from the clean rivers and even the snow-melt was generally safe to drink, but that didn’t mean adding a little tea didn’t improve the flavour!

Even in the cold of the high altitudes, the barest brush of a hot spark can be enough to bring the mountainside alight. The grasses and dry brackens dominating much of the alpine landscape needed no encouragement when it came to burnoffs, and brushfires were sometimes turned to the advantage of alpine farmers, helping keep the threat of week-long infernos a more comfortably distant threat.