Skiing Heritage News

This history of ski technique shows how our determination to make skis take us where we want to go has been more and more successful over several thousand years, and especially in the last 120 years. The book is written in Slovenian but each chapter is followed by a translation in English and each of the many useful illustrations is also captioned in both languages.

The Scandinavians used skis at least 4,000 years ago. In the deep winter snow, they could not visit their friends or fight their enemies in winter without them. But Scandinavia was relatively flat, so they did not need to turn steeply to avoid trees and rocks when descending mountains. Skis did not reach the rest of the world until the Norwegians brought them to the Alps and America in the middle of the 19th century. Until then people avoided deep snow by living in the valleys in winter, only taking their herds up to mountain meadows in summer.

There was one small area on the Bloke plateau, in what is now Slovenia, where people skied in the middle of the 17th century and, because the slopes there are steep, they taught themselves to turn. Ales Gucek, a Slovenian ski historian, tells how Janez Vajkard Valvasor, who visited the Bloke plateau in 1689, described his countrymen: "They have swerved like snakes at an incredible speed to avoid obstacles."

Skis had been brought to the area during a migration of tribes in the sixth century. They were approximately 150cm long, 12cm wide with a toe strap and twisted willow bindings. A single, heavy pole was used to provide balance and to dig into the snow for turning. Ordinary everyday clothes were worn.

The book covers the various changes in ski technique, through Telemark, the Lilienfeld School, the Arlberg turn, French rotation, Austrian counter-rotation, and Avalement. Cross-country, speed skiing and jumping are also included. In each case, skis and bindings are described along with the impact they had on technique. Clothes are also illustrated for each period.

This book does a commendable job of explaining how skiing has developed through the years. Although the English translations may sometimes go awry, the explanations are always clear and the illustrations particularly helpful.

In the Tracks of Old-time Skiing, 158 pages, softcover, black and white photography. US$24 + $8 airmail to U.S. or EU20 +EU6.50 airmail to Europe. Obtainable from the author by standard mail at Zdruzenje uciteljev in trenerjev, Smucanja Slovenije, Parmova 33, SI.1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia or email ivan.gruden@slovenija-ski.net.

JOURNAL OF ISHA, THE INTERNATIONAL SKIING HISTORY ASSOCIATION
The International Skiing History Association is a not-for-profit corporation, whose mission is to preserve and advance the knowledge of ski history and to increase public awareness of the sport's heritage.

ISHA, PO Box 644, Woodbury CT 06798 (203) 263-2176