'
Skiing', or traveling over snow on wooden runners, has a recorded history of almost five millennia.
Ancient history
The first hints to the existence of
skis are on
4500 to 5000 year old rock drawings, e.g. at
Rødøy in
Norway, which depict a man on skis holding a stick. There are also remains of skis in bogs, with the oldest ski found in
Hoting,
Sweden, which is about 4500 years old. The earliest people to ski in
Fennoscandia were probably the distant ancestors of modern day
Samis. In old historic recordings there are mentionings of people called ''Skrithifinns'' or "skiing wanderer". However it is not sure who the Skrithifinns were.
The word ''
ski'' goes back to the
Old Norse word ''skíð'' meaning "a stick of wood"
[1],
[2]. In modern Norwegian this word is
pronounced . This word is now used in most languages in the world. Languages like
English and
French use the original spelling "ski", and modify the pronunciation. Languages like
Italian pronounce it exactly as in
Norwegian, and modify the spelling: "sci".
German and
Spanish adapt the word to their linguistic rules; "Schier" and "esquís". Interestingly, many languages make a verb form out of the noun, such as "to ski" in English, "sciare" in Italian, or "schilaufen" in German which is not possible in Norwegian. In Swedish, a close relation to Norwegian, the word is "skidor" (pl.). However
Finnish language has its own ancient words for skis and skiing. In Finnish ski is ''suksi'' and skiing is ''hiihtää''.
Other history sources have it that skiing in
Iran dates back to
2000 BC, when ancient tribes are believed to have
devised a ski board made from animal hide.
Invention
There are six possible roots from which skis might have developed:
★ The 'pedal snowshoe', which was an oval wooden board later on covered with fur.
★ The 'sledge runner', which seems to be a very obvious model for the ski.
★ The 'fur shoe', which was a combination of moccasins and sandals and worn together with pedal snowshoes.
★ The 'marsh shoe', later was taken to colder regions.
★ The
canoe or the
coracle, both used in northern regions from very early on. Having been used as sledges, small ones might have served as proto-skis.
★ Spontaneous invention.
Early Skis
Different types of skis have emerged at various regions at about the same time. One suggested original inventors of skis seem to be the people of the
Sajan-Altaic Mountains in Asia. This is not verified. Also skis may have been used in Europe during and after the
ice age. All in all there are three different types of skis in the North of Europe and Asia:
★ The Southern type has a horizontal toe-piece binding. One can distinguish the
Fennoscandian type and the Russo-Baltic type. Modern ski bindings are based on the Fennoscandian model of the 19th century. The bindings of
Telemark ski were developed from this type.
★ Eastern Siberian type is a thin board with a vertical four-hole binding. Sometimes it is covered with fur.
★ There is still another type. It has a horizontal stem-hole binding. One can distinguish between the types used by Lapps (and some other Fenno-ugrics) and a type used in Central and Northern Siberia.
Cross-country skis were developed from the type used by the Lapps.
Ski Poles
'
Ski poles' go back to two roots:
★ The walking stick was used to keep balance.
★ The ski pole developed from a spear or a bow to which a basket was added at one end. Double poles were used to reach a higher speed on skis.
Modern history of skiing
Pioneer
Sondre Norheim, from
Morgedal in
Telemark, has often been called the father of modern
skiing for inventing the equipment and techniques that led to modern skiing as we see it today. Having grown up in the farmlands of Norwegian Telemark, Norheim invented a “birch” binding that enabled skiers to ski without the risk of losing their skis. Then, in 1870, Norheim introduced a short, curved, flexible ski he crafted in order to allow for easy turning in soft snow. Norheim, at the age of forty-three, went on to become the winner of the first Norwegian downhill skiing competition in Christiania. (modern day Oslo)
It is possible, however, that he actually did not invent anything, since there is little evidence to prove that he did. The story about Sondre as the father of modern skiing was largely constructed in Norway from the
1930s, especially in connection with the
Olympic Winter Games in
Oslo in
1952. Most of the inventions attributed to Norheim were known a long time before him. Even still, Sondre Norheim proved an inspiration for generations.
Other people are also given credit in other locations. For example, carved into the cliff at
Battle Creek Park in
St. Paul, Minnesota is "Pete Dennison - Father of Skiing 1908-1988."
Events in the development of modern skiing include:
★ In the 17th century the baron of Valvasor wrote reports on skiing activities in
Slovenia.
★ The usefulness of skis for military purpose speeded up their development and spread. The Norwegian military had skiing competitions from the
1670s.
★ The first known civilian ski race took place in
Tromsø, Norway in
1843.
★ The "Kiandra Ski Club" was formed in Australia in 1861. (
Kiandra snow shoe club)
★ The Trysilgutten ski club was also founded in 1861 in
Trysil,
Hedmark, Norway. Held their first competition January 1862.
★ Skis were used in the
Sierra Nevada gold fields in 1850 and later to ferry mail from
Carson City, Nevada to
Placerville, California in
1856, crossing 94 miles in 4 days. Downhill ski races (at up to 90 mph) were organized between competing mining camps by
1857, and hit their peak in
1869, under the rules of the Thompson
Alpine Club.
★ In
1875, the first ski club, and two years later the first ski school were founded in Kristiania (now
Oslo).
★ In the 19th century the
Telemark ski revolutionized
alpine skiing, being the first ski with a remarkable waist making it much easier for skiers to turn.
★ The Englishman
William Cecil Slingsby, the "father of Norwegian
mountaineering", helped inspire
ski mountaineering after his crossing of the 1,550m high (5,800 feet) Keiser Pass, Norway, on skis in
1880.
★ The gold mine owner
Ignaz Rojacher from
Rauris (
Salzburg) and the German
Wilhelm Ritter von Arlt brought the first pair of skis from
Falun (Sweden) to Rauris in winter 1885/1886.
★ In 1888 the Austrian
Max Kleinoschegg had his first attempts on skis on the Ruckerlberg near
Graz.
★ Also in 1888, the Norwegian
Fridtjof Nansen made the first crossing of
Greenland, travelling from East to West on skis. The report on his expedition, ''Paa ski over Grønland'', was published in 1890 in both Norwegian and English, and later in German. It aroused great interest in skiing in Europe and the United States, as well as creating a Norwegian national hero. From then on skiing was regularly in the news, and was soon adopted as a pastime and a sport by the wealthier
classes of Europe, as well as being adopted by the military in several countries.
★ The first ski club in central Europe was founded at
Munich, Germany, during the winter of 1890 to
1891.
★ In 1891 the Austrian hotelier
Toni Schruf (in collaboration with Max Kleinoschnegg) ascended the
Stuhleck (1782m) near
Mürzzuschlag in the
Semmering region, the first significant mountain in
Austria which was ascended on skis.
★ The German
Wilhelm Ritter von Arlt made the first ski ascent of over 3,000m, when he climbed the Rauris Sonnblick (3,105 m / 10,187 feet high) in
1894. In doing so, he became the father of ski mountaineering. He was also the starter of summer skiing, for he took the first significant summer ski tour on August 30, 1897
★ The first ski tour in the Alps took place in 1894 when the local Branger brothers teamed up with
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle--creator of
Sherlock Holmes--for a traverse from Davos (Frauenkirch) to Arosa. Conan-Doyle was living in the area as his wife took the cure for TB. He ordered the skis from Norway & applied himself to learning to ski as a cure for his enforced idlement in the sleepy Alpine town.
★ In 1896 the German ski pioneer
Wilhelm Paulcke ascended the Oberalpstock on his Norwegian skis. In 1897 he crossed the
Bernese Oberland in Switzerland and skied to 4,200-m on Monte Rosa in
1898.
★ Dr. Hermann Seiler - President of the Monte Rosa section of the Swiss Alpine Club and coproprietor of the Seiler Hotels Zermatt - organizes the first ski training course that ever took place in Switzerland in January of
1902. Capable students, the 12 guides ascend Cima di Jazzi on their fourth day (cf. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 8th of February 1952, Nr. 282).
★ The first packaged ski holidays took place in 1903, to
Adelboden, Switzerland, organised on a commercial basis by Sir
Henry Lunn under the guise of the
Public Schools Alpine Sports Club, which booked entire hotels. Winter holidays in Switzerland had become very popular with the British aristocracy since the first winter tourists to
St Moritz in
1864.
★ A National Ski Tournament was held in
Ishpeming, Michigan in 1905, including a 393 ft-high ski jump.
★ The predecessor to the
downhill ski race, the ''Roberts of Kandahar Cup'' took place in
Crans-Montana (Crans-sur-Sierre) in
1911, organised by
Arnold Lunn with the cup donated by Lord Roberts of
Kandahar (
Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts), a distinguished Field Marshal in the British Army.
★ The first fully documented International Alpine Ski Carnival was held in Kiandra, Australia in 1907. The downhill event was won by Charles Menger (Denver, USA), second was R. Paterson (Australia) third was Earl Prince (England). (
Kiandra snow shoe club)
★ A
downhill race took place in
1921, organised by Lunn for the British National Ski Championships. It had been on his suggestion that the British National Championship was awarded on the combined result of a downhill race and style competition.
★ in 1922 the first modern
slalom was invented in
Mürren, also by Lunn.
★ 1924 saw the foundation of the
International Ski Federation in
Chamonix, France.
★ The ''
Rottefella'' (rat trap) lightweight toe binding was invented by
Bror With of Norway. The binding was a great success at the
St. Moritz Olympics the following year, and has been, in various forms, the preferred cross country ski binding ever since.
★ In March 1928,
downhill and the modern
slalom events were combined for the first time to form the
Arlberg-Kandahar open international
alpine skiing competition, organised by
Arnold Lunn and
Hannes Schneider in
St. Anton, Austria. This event was to become the real starting point of international Alpine ski racing.
★ At the invitation of the FIS, the
Ski Club of Great Britain organises downhill and slalom races in parallel with the 1928 Second
Winter Olympics at
St Moritz.
★ In 1929, Orland Bartholomew skied alone over 300 miles of California's High Sierras from Cottonwood Creek to
Yosemite National Park roughly following the line of the summer route that is now known as the
John Muir Trail. This included the first winter ascent of the highest peak in the lower 48, Mt. Whitney. Bartholomew was self-supported using food caches placed over the summer.
★ The first resort-based ski school in the U.S. was opened in
Sugar Hill, New Hampshire in 1929 (at that time part of
Lisbon, by
Katharine "Kate" Peckett, with her husband, Austrian immigrant ski instructor
Sig Buchmayer. The same year, organized ski trains from Boston began running to the
White Mountains of New Hampshire, where summer tourist trains had been going for decades.
★ Ski jumping and cross-country competition were events in the 1932 winter Olympics at
Lake Placid, New York.
★ In 1931, Sir
Arnold Lunn organised at
Mürren the first World Championships in Downhill and Slalom Racing. He did the same in 1935, these being the only occasions in history when one country (Britain) has organised the World Championships of any sport on the territory of another country.
★ First rope-tow in America was developed in 1932, by Alex Foster and operated at
Shawbridge, Quebec, using an old automobile with the rope looped around a wheel rim. Similar device copied and used in the U.S. in 1934, in
Woodstock, Vermont.
★ First aluminum skis, 1934, France.
★ T-bar implemened at
Davos in 1935, outgrowth of J-bar invented same year by
Dartmouth Outing Club of
Hanover, New Hampshire (first overhead-cable ski lift).
★ First heel-grip cable binding implemented in 1935 by Kandahar.
★ Used as a summer get-away for early
Mormons in Salt Lake City, Utah,
Brighton Ski Area began in 1936 when members of the Alpine Ski Club built a rope tow from wire and an old elevator motor.
★ World's first overhead
chairlift built at
Sun Valley, Idaho in 1936.
★ Third Winter Games of Olympics, at
Garmisch 1936, include world's first alpine events: downhill and combined slalom.
★ First U.S. aerial tramway, installed at
Cannon Mountain in 1938.
★ In late 1939, the
USSR invades its small north-eastern neighbor
Finland. In the ensuing 3 and 1/2 months of intense combat of the
Winter War, Finnish
ski troops all but annihilate a Soviet flanking manoeuver into northern Finland's forests. On long narrow wooden skis, precursors to modern cross-country skis, the Finns surround unwieldy columns of ill-trained Soviet conscripts bogged down in the snow, overrun and butcher them piecemeal. The invasion is thwarted; the Finns kill an estimated quarter-million Red Army troops and wound at least that many more. Finnish casualties total fewer than 10 percent of the Soviets'. The episode marks the largest-scale and most effective use of ski troops in history. It reinforces the arguments of US military skiing advocates just before America enters the war.
★ President Roosevelt authorizes the formation of the 10th Mountain Division. At the termination of WWII, 10th Mountain members return to the States & become a major force in the development of U.S. downhill skiing. One of these men,
Montgomery Atwater, begins the country's first
avalanche study & mitigation program at Alta, Utah.
★ Artificially made snow, 1952 at
Grossinger's in
New York. Other evidence suggests that Art Hunt, Wayne Pierce and Dave Richey of Connecticut built a snowmaking device, using compressed air and water, which they implemented in 1950;
★ Fiberglass skis successfully marketed in 1960 by
Kneissl,
Plymold,
Sailer.
★ All-plastic boots introduced by
Lange in 1964.
Ski jumping
The first skiing events where
ski jumping was included were held in
Tromsø,
Norway in
1843. The first pure ski jumping event was held in
Trysil on
January 22 1862. Later, the yearly
Husebyrennene events in
Oslo from 1879 were moved to
Holmenkollen from
1892, and Holmenkollen was to become the Mecca of ski jumping.
Tough times
In the 1970s skiing became a sport for a newly affluent middle class. Real-estate prices in ski resorts skyrocketed, and the prices of skiing increased. New forms of skiing became popular. Competitions such as on-snow ballet grew to be considered legitimate forms of skiing. Some of these new ways of skiing were for style with little relevance to the sport.
Snowboarding is one of them. Also
telemark skiing was reinvented.
Deep sidecut revolution
Beginning in the late 1980s, development of fast World Cup giant slalom skis with subtly deeper sidecuts led inevitably to the 1993 adoption for recreational skis of the deep sidecuts already popular for snowboarding. The term "Parabolic" was introduced as a trademark by one of the ski factories pioneering this development. Deep-sidecut skis were shorter and fatter than traditional skis. The shape of the ski gave it better carving and turning capabilities. They held the snow better in extreme conditions such as steep runs and deep powder. Wider and therefore heavier tip and tail improve stability despite the skis' shorter length. The exaggerated shape means the new design has a tendency to "swim" left and right when gliding on a flat sole; as a result the shaped ski feels most stable when held at a slight edge angle. The end result is that shaped skis are used for carving more often than a straight ski. This difference is usually lost on the average skier who uses a skidded technique to control speed. More advanced skiers are more apt to use a modified shaped ski of a longer length so that they can take advantage of the relative ease of carving with a shape ski while retaining the stability of a longer ski.
Some early shaped skis (fat skis) were built very wide in order to float in powder. The introduction of fat skis revolutionized powder skiing and led to a boom in helicopter skiing and other forms of backcountry or natural-snow travel.
After initial resistance, traditional ski schools adopted modified deep-sidecut skis for use in teaching. They gained quick popularity with the public, and eventually pro skiers and even some young snowboarders switched over.
Skiers soon began adapting the advances pioneered by snowboarders and even transferred some snowboarding forms and tricks to skiing.
Austrian Ski pioneers
★
Mathias Zdarsky, the so-called "Father of Alpine Skiing", started skiing in
1890. He altered his Norwegian skis by shortening them and later on he invented the first alpine binding for his skis, which he called ''Lilienfelder binding''.
:In 1896 he published his first book on skiing technique. Zdarsky
stemmed the downhill ski out, leaned inside to the pole, unweighted the inner ski and brought it parallel, he used
rotation technique. He taught skiing and invented
ski acrobatics.
:The first
slalom race was directed by Zdarsky and took place at Muckenkogel, Lilienfeld, in
1905.
★
Georg Bilgeri published the book "Alpine skiing" about Norwegian and Zdarskian skiing technique in
1910. He invented the use of two poles and focused on snow plow,
snow plow turns and
stem turns. With his program the first ski schools started their work in
Tyrol.
★
Johannes Schneider introduces the Norwegian
Stem Christie method of turning in
1910. In 1922 Hannes (originally named Johannes) Schneider founded Austria's first ski school in
St. Anton. In the year 1926, two years after the formation of the
International Ski Federation (FIS) in
Chamonix, France, he published the book "Miracle of the
Snowshoe" together with
Dr. Arnold Fanck.
★
Toni Seelos invents the
Parallel turn in the
1930s
External links
★
International Skiing History Association
★
ColoradoSkiHistory.com
★
Retro Ski
★
Snowshoe Thompson, the skiing mailman of the Sierra Nevada.
★
History of skiing in Australia
Museums
★
Ski museums around the world
Iran
★
Iran Ski Federation
U.S.
★
New England Ski Museum in Franconia, New Hampshire
★
Colorado Ski Museum in Vail, Colorado
★
U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame and Museum in Ishpeming, Michigan
★
USSA historical timeline featuring history of ski competition in America from the 19th century to today
Norway
★
Holmenkollen Ski Museum in
Oslo
★
Kongsberg Skiing Museum in
Kongsberg
★ ''Norsk skieventyr'', in
Morgedal, Norway
See also
★
Ski
★
Skiing and Ski Topics
★
Snowboarding
References
★ ''Norway, The Northern Playground'' by
Cecil Slingsby, ISBN 1-904466-07-9.
★ ''How the English Made the Alps'' by Jim Ring, ISBN 0-7195-5689-9
★ ''High Odyssey'' by Eugene Rose. The story of Orland Bartholomew's 1928 ski traverse of California's High Sierra (available from the Sequoia Natural History Association).
★ ''
Crossing An Alpine Pass On Ski'' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, published in "The Strand" magazine, 1894
★ ''
Short History of Alpine Skiing'' by Morten Lund.
★ ''
Timeline of Ski History Dates'' from the International Skiing History Association.
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