History of skiing

thumb|250px|right|Video demonstration of a variety of ski techniques used in the 1940s

Skiing, or traveling over snow on skis, has a history of at least eight millennia. The geographic origins of skiing are disputed. Anthropologists and ski historians most commonly identify two proposed regions of origin: Scandinavia and the Altaic region of northern Asia. The earliest archaeological examples of skis were found in Karelia (a region in western Russia on the border with Finland) and date to 6000 BCE. Stone Age cliff paintings from the Altai Mountains in northwest China, dated to at least 4000 years old, depict hunters using primitive skis and are often cited as evidence that skiing may have independently developed in Central Asia.

Etymology

The word ski comes from the Old Norse word which means "cleft wood", "stick of wood" or "ski". In Old Norse common phrases describing skiing were fara á skíðum (to travel, move fast on skis), renna (to move swiftly) and skríða á skíðum (to stride on skis). Modern Norwegian, however, does not form a verb from the noun. Other languages make a verb form out of the noun, such as skida in Swedish , to ski in English, in French, in Spanish and Portuguese, in Italian, in Dutch, or (as above also or ) in German.

Finnish has its own ancient words for skis and skiing: "ski" is and "skiing" is . The Estonian suusk and suusatama are of the same Finno-Ugric origin.

The Sami also have their own words for "skis" and "skiing": for example, the Lule Sami word for "ski" is and skis are called . The Sami use for the verb "to ski".

Early archaeological evidence

thumb|upright|[[Kalvträskskidan at the ski exhibition in Umeå ]]

The earliest form of skiing was utilitarian invention. Ancestors of the Sámi people, inhabitants of Sápmi that spans northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, have practiced skiing for travel and hunting thousands of years ago. Archaeological finds, including ancient skis and rock carvings, show neolithic communities had used skis in these regions. Some of these finds were in northern Russia, with the oldest fragments of ski-like objects, dating from about 6300–5000 BCE and located about 1,200 km northeast of Moscow at Lake Sindor.

Ski historians and archeologists, also believe that the Tuvan people, indigenous to the Altai mountains, may have developed their own form of skiing during the Stone Age. A supporting evidence is found in the Altaic region of modern China, where a 5,000-year-old paintings suggest the use of skis by Indigenous peoples, though this is still highly debated.

Rock carvings

thumb|Skiers, [[Petroglyphs of Lake Onega and the White Sea|White Sea rock carvings, before 2000 BCE]]

The earliest Scandinavian examples of skiing date to 3000 or 4000 BCE with primitive carvings. An image of a skier holding a single pole or an ax with both hands, is found in Norway. The Rødøy carving shows skis of equal length. A rock carving at Norway, from about 1000 or 500 BCE depicts a skier seemingly about to shoot with bow and arrow, with skis positioned in an angle (rather than parallel) to offer good support. Rock drawings in Norway dated at 4000 BCE depict a man on skis holding a stick. Near the White Sea in Russia, rock carvings were discovered in 1926 and dated to 2000 or 2500 BCE. One of the White Sea carvings depicts hunting of big game with hunters on equal length skis. The hunters apparently used their bow and spear as poles.

Ski samples

The first primitive Scandinavian ski was found in a peat bog in Hoting in Jämtland County in Sweden; it dates back to 4500 or 2500 BCE. In 1938 a ski was found from Salla, Finland that has been dated back to 3245 BCE. Noted examples are the Kalvträskskidan ski, found in Sweden and dated to 3300 BCE, and the Vefsn Nordland ski, found in Norway and dated to 3200 BCE. There are some 20 findings of ancient well-preserved skis found in drained bogs in Norway, indicating that skis have been widely used in Norway, particularly Northern Norway, since prehistoric times. Skis have also been uncovered in ancient graves. In 2014, a ski complete with leather bindings emerged from a glacier in the Reinheimen mountains, Norway. The binding is at a small elevated area in the middle of the 172 cm long and 14,5 cm wide ski. According to the report the ski is some 1300 years old. Many organic artifacts have been well preserved for several thousand years by the stable glaciers of Oppland county and emerge when glaciers recede. A ski excavated in Greenland is dated to 1010. Based on findings in the Nordic countries and elsewhere, researchers have identified at least three main types of ski: arctic, southern and central Nordic. The arctic type was a short ski and covered with fur, and used from northern Japan in the east to Ob river in the west. The Sami people probably brought this type to the Nordic region. The southern type had one short and one long ski, and was used in forest areas of Southern Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. The central Nordic type also had one short with fur (the andor) and one long, and was used in large parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland.

Writings

The earliest known texts that mention skiing were written by a Western Han Dynasty era Chinese scholar estimated between 206 BCE and 225 BCE, and referred to people who had skied in the Altai Mountains. Another ancient text referring to skiing was made by the Byzantine scholar Procopius in the sixth century CE, who wrote of a people who skied that he called the “scrithiphinnoi,” or “sliding Sami".

Travel and transportation

thumb|upright|A Description of the Northern Peoples by [[Olaus Magnus, 1555]]

Norse mythology describes the god Ullr and the goddess Skaði hunting on skis. Ullr and Skaði have later been regarded as the god and goddess of skiing and hunting. Paulus Diaconus mentioned what may have been Sami and described how they chased animals by a twisted piece of wood that they painstakingly shaped to resemble a bow. Nenets, Tuvans, Nanais, and Ainu are recorded as using skis in winter hunting and reindeer herding. Egil Skallagrimsson's 950 CE saga describes King Haakon the Good's practice of sending his tax collectors out on skis. The Gulating law (1274) stated that "No moose shall be disturbed by skiers on private land." The garrison in Trondheim used skis at least from 1675, and the Danish-Norwegian army included specialized skiing battalions from 1747 – details of military ski exercises from 1767 are retained. Skis were used in military exercises in 1747.

A 1593 inventory of the "choicest rarities" on display at the Leiden University included:

In 1799, French traveler Jacques de la Tocnaye visited Norway and wrote in his travel diary:

Norwegian immigrants used skis ("Norwegian snowshoes") in the US Midwest from around 1836. Norwegian immigrant "Snowshoe Thompson" transported mail by skiing across the Sierra Nevada between California and Nevada from 1856.

In the Second World War, the German armed forces published a manual for its ski troops in 1942. The 1942 Russian war documentary film Moscow Strikes Back shows a scene of a winter attack by Russian ski infantry supported by tanks.

File:Austro-Hungarian ski patrol on Italian front in snow camouflage 1915-1918.jpg|First World War Austro-Hungarian ski patrol on Italian front in snow camouflage, 1915–1918

1809: Olaf Rye was first known ski jumper.
1843: First public skiing competition ("betting race") held in Tromsø, Norway on March 19, 1843. Also the first skiing competition reported in a newspaper.
1861: First ski clubs: Inderøens Skiløberforening founded in the Trøndelag region of Norway (possibly in 1862). Trysil Skytte- og Skiløberforning founded 20 May 1861 in Trysil Municipality. The Onion Valley Snow Shoe Club formed January 1861 in California. Skiing established in Australia at Kiandra, which led to the founding of the Kiandra Snow Shoe Club. Ski racing as an organised sport commenced in America.
1862: First public ski jumping competition held in Trysil Municipality, Norway, January 22, 1862. Judges awarded points for style ("elegance and smoothness"). which was founded in 1872 by Norwegian immigrants of Berlin, New Hampshire under a different name.
1878: On the occasion of the Exposition Universelle in Paris, the Norwegian pavilion presented a display of skis. This ancient means of locomotion drew the attention of visitors who bought many of them. Henry Duhamel experimented with a pair at Chamrousse in the Alps.
1879: first recorded use of the word slalom.
1884: First pure cross-country competition held in Trondheim when ski jumping was dropped from the annual competition.
1893: Franz Reisch made first descent on skis at Kitzbühel
1893: William Adolf Baillie Grohman started skiing in the Tyrol with his family using four pairs of skis sent from Norway as a present.
1893: Henrik Angell introduced skiing in Montenegro.
November 1895: creation of the Ski Club des Alpes in Grenoble by the friends of Henry Duhamel, to whom he had distributed 14 pairs of skis acquired during his trip to Finland
1897: The Norwegian Starkad Ski Club, a ski club and literary society, was founded, publishing a journal featuring reports, interviews, poems, plays, and drawings from the early days of skiing in Norway
1898: Canadian championships in ski jumping and ski-running won by Olaus Jeldness
1904: First ski race in Italy, at Bardonecchia.
1905: foundation of the U.S. national ski association.
1905/1906: The notion of "slalom" (Norwegian: "slalåm") was used for the first time at a race in Sonnenberg. Skiing between poles with flags called "Wertungsfahren" at Münchenkuggel.
1907: First International Ski Competition, between Montgenevre (in France) and Claviere (in Italy).
1908: Sir Arnold Lunn founded the Alpine Ski Club
1908: The Kiandra Snow Shoe Club of Australia held an "international contest" of "ski running".
1922: start of the Vasaloppet.
1922: Arnold Lunn created modern slalom competitive skiing.
1922: First team ski race event at a Varsity Trip between Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
1924: formation of the International Ski Federation, also the first Winter Olympics.
1924: Kandahar Ski Club formed in Mürren, Switzerland
1929: Norwegian instructors arrived in Sapporo and train Japanese in ski jumping.

Recreation

thumb|upright|Women members of the Christiana (Oslo) [[Association for the Promotion of Skiing|ski club, ca. 1890]]

1820: A newspaper in Oslo, Norway carries an advertisement for the sale of skis
1895: The first yearly "ski book" releases in Norway
1904: The first English book written about skiing, titled Ski-running
1908: Ski vacations are being advertised and sold in England
1923: Museum of skiing opens in Norway
1952: The first major commercial snow-making machinery installed at Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel in New York state, USA.
1970s: Telemark skiing undergoes a revival possibly inspired by Stein Eriksen and his book Come Ski With Me.

Evolution of equipment

Skis

Asymmetrical skis were used at least in northern Finland and Sweden up until the 1930s. He associates them to Sami people and gives Sami names of 'savek' and 'golos' for the plain and skinned short ski. Finnish names for these are lyly and kalhu for long and short ski.

The seal hunters at the Gulf of Bothnia had developed a special long ski to sneak into shooting distance to the seals' breathing holes, though the ski was useful in moving in the packed ice in general and was made especially long, 3–4 meters, to protect against cracks in the ice. This is called skredstång in Swedish.

Around 1850, artisans in Telemark, Norway, invent the cambered ski. This ski arches up in the middle, under the binding, which distributes the skier's weight more evenly across the length of the ski. Earlier plank-style skis had to be thick enough not to bow downward and sink in the snow under the skier's weight. Norheim's ski was also the first with a sidecut that narrowed the ski underfoot while the tip and tail remained wider. This enabled the ski to flex and turn more easily.

1962: a fibreglass ski, Kneissl's White Star, was used by Karl Schranz to win two gold medals at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. The patent is referenced by Kästle, Salomon, Rottefella, and Madshus, but in fact, torsion box skis became common beginning in 1962 with the introduction of the Dynamic VR7 and VR17 race skis. In 1993, Elan introduced the Elan SCX. These introduced a new ski geometry, common today, with a much wider tip and tail than waist. When tipped onto their edges, they bend into a curved shape and carve a turn. Other companies quickly followed suit, and it was realized in retrospect that "It turns out that everything we thought we knew for forty years was wrong."

Bindings

thumb|Old ski binding

In the early days of skiing the binding was also similar to those of a contemporary snowshoe, generally consisting of a leather strap fastened over the toe of the boot. In the 1800s, skiing evolved into a sport and the toe strap was replaced by a metal clip under the toe. This provided a much greater grip on the boot, allowing the ski to be pushed sideways. The heel strap also changed over time; in order to allow a greater range of motion, a spring was added to allow the strap to lengthen when the boot was rotated up off the ski.

This buckled strap was later replaced by a metal cable. The cable binding remained in use, and even increased in popularity, throughout this period as cross-country skiing developed into a major sport of its own. Change eventually came through the evolution of the Rottefella binding, first introduced in 1927. The original Rottefella eliminated the heel strap, which held the boot forward in the binding, by drilling small holes in the sole of the boot which fit into pins in the toe piece. This was standardized as the 3-pin system, which was widespread by the 1970s. It has now generally been replaced by the NNN system.

The introduction of ski lifts in 1908 led to the evolution of alpine skiing as a sport. In the past, skiers would have to ski or walk up the hills they intended to ski down. With the lift, the skiers could leave their skis on and would be skiing downhill all the time. The need to unclip the heel for cross-country use was eliminated, at least at resorts with lifts. As lifts became more common, especially with the introduction of the chairlift in 1936, the ski world split into cross-country and downhill, a split that remains to this day.

In 1937, Hjalmar Hvam broke his leg skiing, and while recuperating from surgery, invented the Saf-Ski toe binding.

Boots

thumb|right|A typical "universal" ski boot of the leather era. This example, by G. H. Bass, includes an indentation around the heel where the cable binding would fit, and a metal plate at the toe for a Saf-Ski release binding. The leather strap is a "long thong", used by downhill skiers to offer some level of lateral control.

Ski boots were leather winter boots, held to the ski with leather straps. As skiing became more specialized, so too did ski boots, leading to the splitting of designs between those for alpine skiing and cross-country skiing.

Modern skiing developed as an all-around sport with uphill, downhill, and cross-country portions. The introduction of the cable binding started a parallel evolution of binding and boot. Boots with the sole extended rearward to produce a flange for the cable to firmly latch became common, as did designs with semi-circular indentations on the heel for the same purpose.

With the introduction of ski lifts, the need for skiing to get to the top of the hill was eliminated, and a much stiffer design was preferred, providing better control over the ski when sliding downhill.

Glide and grip

Johannes Scheffer in Argentoratensis Lapponiæ ("History of Lapland") in 1673 probably gave the first recorded instruction for ski wax application He advised skiers to use pine tar pitch and rosin. Ski waxing was also documented in 1761.

1934 saw limited production of solid aluminum skis in France. Wax does not stick to aluminum, so the base under the foot included grips to prevent backsliding, a precursor of modern fish scale waxless skis. In 1970 waxless Nordic skis were made with fishscale bases. Recent advancements in wax have been the use of surfactants, introduced in 1974 by Hertel Wax, and fluorocarbons, introduced in 1986, to increase water and dirt repellency and increase glide. Many companies, including Swix, Toko, Holmenkol, Briko, and Maplus are dedicated to ski wax production and have developed a range of products to cover various conditions.

Poles

Early skiers used one long pole or spear. The first depiction of a skier with two ski poles dates to 1741. In 1959 Ed Scott introduced the large-diameter, tapered shaft, lightweight aluminum ski pole. these goggles allowed for air flow behind the lens in order to limit fogging and improve the skier's vision. The strength of these materials was deemed to be shatter-resistant enough for use in ski goggles, though polycarbonate is the best choice of these three. Despite these findings and analysis, in 1984, shortly after the passing of these regulations, it was found that "the mix of lens materials was approximately 78% glass, 11% plastic, and 11% polycarbonate." and the replacement of these lens can allow the user to swap the amount of tint through which they look to adapt to different lighting situations.

Gallery

File:Ullr.jpg|11th-century depiction of a hunter on skis from the Böksta Runestone

File:Nordiska taflor - no-nb digibok 2014031428009-131.jpg|Norwegians skiing with a single pole, 1870.

File:Goldi hunter on skis on ice, holding long spear LCCN2004708051.tif|Asian Nanai hunter on asymmetrical skis, 1895

File:Kiandra carnival 1900 Charles Kerry.jpeg|Kiandra "Snow Shoe" (Skiing) Carnival, New South Wales, Australia, in 1900.

File:Lappar i snöstorm av John Bauer.jpg|Depiction of Samis skiing, by John Bauer ca. 1905.

File:Theodor von Lerch in Japan.jpg|Austrian soldier teaching skiing to the Imperial Japanese Army in 1911.

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