Please answer the following question: Given the following passage  "Much of the Alpine culture is unchanged since the medieval period when skills that guaranteed survival in the mountain valleys and in the highest villages became mainstays, leading to strong traditions of carpentry, woodcarving, baking and pastry-making, and cheesemaking.",  answer the following question. Note that the answer is present within the text.  Question: what did the skills becoming mainstays lead to?
A:
strong traditions