The 1910s: Early Innocent Suffering Enthusiasts

Authored by Morten Lund

The 1910s saw the triumph of the new technique known as the stem. Mathias Zdarsky, an Austrian ski teacher far ahead of his time, had invented it in the 1890s and subsequently taught thousands of Austrians to control their descent with it. Unfortunately, an even greater number had never heard of the stem.

The typical well-heeled client in 1910 at a resort in the Alps was ignorant of technique, making them juicy targets for artist Reginald Cleaver in A Winter Sport Book, published in London in 1911 with pen and ink sketches as yet unmatched in ski cartooning.