Charlie O´Malley gets to the bottom of the skiing craze
Only 75 years ago skiing was an elitist pursuit practised by a few privileged people, rich and royal, on the European Alps. Now it's a world-wide endeavour, enjoyed by millions in places as diverse and unlikely as India and Mexico. For the snow bum it's a way of life, for the athlete a serious sport. Needless to say it generates millions of dollars in revenue for the tourism industry and manufacturing sector.
Its history goes back further than a mere century however. Scandinavians used rudimentary skis as a means of transport as far back as 2000 BC. Skis helped the hunter-gatherer get around in the long winters and Norwegian cave paintings depict early man on long slats hunting elk. The oldest ski in existence is the 2,500-year-old Holig ski, unearthed from a Scandinavian peat bog. The Vikings realised the ski race was a great opportunity for a spot of gambling. Icelandic legends worshipped those skilled on skis. It was a talent highly valued by the arctic aristocracy. In the saga of Kalevala, a Finnish epic, the hero skied so fast his ski pole smoked. Skiing was even enjoyed by the Gods. An Icelandic poem tells the tale of the Goddess Shadi abandoning her God husband Njord to go skiing – the first known case of a ski widower. And then there was the gliding Finns, famous for skiing into battle and beating all before them - a feat they repeated on the Russians a millennia later in World War II.
Early skiing was not as graceful as it is now. Back then they only used one stick and the skis were shorter and broader. One method, called stick riding, more resembled a witch on a broomstick. The rider used the pole in the rear, sticking it in the snow and leaning, then turning if he wanted to stop; hardly elegant.
Modern skiing can be traced back to 19th Century Norway. Mountain farmers in the Telemark region, notably the national hero Sondre Norheim, improved the tools and perfected the method. He invented a better ski foothold, adding a heel trap. This allowed the rider to turn and manoeuvre and take to the air. One pole became two and the skis became longer with a narrow middle, allowing the wood to flex when turned on a bend. Now a skier could thunder down a slope, zig-zagging and leaping with quick precise movements and then suddenly, stop. In 1868, a demonstration of the new Telemark method caused a sensation in the Norwegian capital Christiana. Then in 1888, the Norwegian explorer Fridjtof Nansen crossed Greenland on skis. His book On Skis Over Greenland spread the word. His countryman Roald Amundsen trekked the whole way to the South Pole, beating the doomed Scott, largely because of his skillful use of skis.
Soon the popularity of skiing began to spill out of Scandinavia. Many Norwegian Telemarkers emigrated to the United States, including the father of Telemark skiing Sondre Norheim (to the flatlands of North Dakota of all places). Some took their skis with them. Skiing became an important means of transport in the mining communities of the western states. One John "Snowshoe" Thomson became famous for delivering mail on skis between Nevada and California.
It was in the European Alps however that skiing next took off. Hotel owners realised they could lenghten the tourist season if they offered skiing in the winter to their well-to-do guests. An Austrian Mathias Edarsky introduced techniques such as "the plough" to reduce speed and make it easier for beginners to learn. The British introduced the concept of racing in 1911. The Swiss built the first cable car expressly for skiing in 1928. Four years later one Gerhard Muller from Zurich patented a rope tow run by a motorcycle engine. The first chair lift came along in 1936.
Early movies like White Ecstasy publicised skiing and gave it a certain glamour. Writers like Ernest Hemingway took to the slopes enthusiastically and wrote about it. It soon became a major Olympic sport. Resorts began to appear in such places as Maine and the Rockies in the United States. Technology made the equipment easier and safer to use. Indeed snowfall no longer became a necessity with the introduction of machines that made snow and groomed the slopes. The ski craze had begun in earnest.
