Timeline

This list of historical events was compiled in 2005/7 by a working group of ski historians from several countries, under the direction of Elisabeth Hussey. It was subsequently corrected and expanded before publication in 2008 on the FIS website. During a redesign of the FIS website the timeline disappeared. It's provided here as a potential research tool.  

Wherever possible the source of the information listed has been added in italics, so that it can be checked.

From 1897 until today about 250 pieces of skis and some poles have been dug up in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.They range in age from about 6,000 BC to 600 AD.  A major source is Gosta Berg’s  “Finds of Skis from Prehistoric time in Swedish Bogs”, Stockholm: Generalstabens Litografiska Anstalts Forlag 1950, whose book, as the title makes plain, analyses only those from Sweden.  Other Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and Russian researchers have also written on bog skis.  The list below of these skis includes the earliest finds from each country and also those which have something special about them.  Inevitably the list is subjective.  In prehistoric times Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia did not exist as political states but we have used 2007 political borders when listing the various skis.

The same may be said of China and – later - when we record information from Germany, Austria and other countries, we use today’s frontiers even though many have changed and some have disappeared.

Historians now use BP for “before present” but we have kept to BC and AD.   Dating is now done by radio carbon and pollen analysis and is given as follows:  5820+/-80BC

                                             6,300BC

-6300-5000BC Oldest skis found in Russia were near Lake Sindor (about 1,200km northwest of Moscow).  Skis made of hard wood. Grigori M Burov “Some Mesolithic wooden artefacts from the site of Vis I in the European North-east of the USSR” in Clive Bonsall (Ed) “The Mesolithic in Europe”.  Papers presented at the Third International Symposium, Edinburgh: John Donald (1985) 392-395

                                                        6,000BC.

 -The word “ski” (from Suksi) is used in Finland. Eino Nikkila 1966 & Eero Niskali 2001.

                                                        5,100BC

-5100+/-150 Oldest ski found in Norway was Vefsn Nordland Ski. Information from Steinar Sorenson, Glomsdal, Museum. Karin Berg, “Ski I Norge” Oslo: Aventura 1993 , 14

                                                       4,000BC

-Rock carvings found at Bolommid, Norway. Rune Flaten. Ski History Conference 2004.

                                                        3,350BC

-3,343-2939BC skis found from Drevja. Rune Flaten. Ski History Conference 2004

                                                        3,300BC            

-The Salla ski (earlier the Kuolajarvi ski) was found in Finland in 1938.  Originally 180cm long. Circa 15cm wide. Eero Naskali. On Ancient Skis. 2^nd Historical Conference. 2001.

                                                      

                                                        3,000BC                                                                         -Bog finds and rock paintings in Russia and Scandinavia prove the use of skis by people at that time.  Half a ski and pole were found in Latvia and ski found in Pskov region.                                                                                                 ``                               2,700BC

-Two complete skis and a pole dating from this time were dug out of a bog at Kalvetrask Sweden, in 1924 .  Berg dated them 1300 but carbon dating proved them to be 2700BC  Jakob Vaage 12 June 1984.

                                                     2,500BC

 -The Hoting Ski Angermanland, dating from about this time was dug out of a Swedish bog in 1921. Gosta Berg “Finds of Skis from Prehistoric Time in Swedish Bogs”  Stockholm Generalstabens Litografiska Anstalts Forlag 1950 Suomen Museo XXXV 86-88 Toivo I eItkoen “Finlands fornskidor” Pa Skidor (1937) 72

-Circa 2,500BC Rock Carving of skier  (carbon dated) were made at Rodoy, a Norwegian island north of the Arctic Circle.

                                                      2,000BC

-Circa 2000 BC Rock carvings in East Karelia by Lake Aaninen & River Uikujoki.  Early Stone Age. Several hunters with skis. Eero Naskali Lahti 1990 & Eino Nikkila 1966

                                                     1,700BC

-1,700-1500BC Bronze Age rock carvings including a skier on Aeskove Cultur.  Also clay vessel with illustration of skier.

                                                     1,500BC

-Southern Finland Riihamaki ski. Suomen Museo XXXV, 86-88   Toivo I Itkonen “Finlands Fornskidor” Pa Skidor (1937) and Eero Naskali 1990 & 2001

                                                       770BC

 - +/- 100 The Sysma Ski in Finland.  Curved edge underneath.   Eero Naskali 1990 & 2001                                                

                                                       450BC

- 450+/-100 Liperi ski found 1897 in eastern Finland with flat sole and rounded boot space.  Eero Naskali Lahti 1990

                                                     200BC-200AD

- 200BC-200AD China.  First known documentary reference to skiing from the West Han period.    In Chinese Shang Caizhen et al (Eds) “The History of Skiing in China.”  Wuhan: Chinese Ski Association and the Cultural and Historical Working Association of the States Sports in China 1993.  In English see Liu Quilu and Liu Yueye, “Sports on Ice and Snow in Ancient China.” In Matti Goksoyr et al   (Eds) Winter Games Warm Traditions. Lillehammer: Ishpes, 1994 70-71

 

                                                    542 AD

 -Skis lined with badger skin and a pair of ancient bindings found at Mantta.  Eero Naskali On Ancient Skis. 2^nd Ski History conference 2001 c.900 Skis mentioned in a 16^th century account by Bishop Oddur in Iceland.  Cited by Thorstein Einarsson.  Winter Sport in Iceland.  Matti Goksoyr. Winter Games Warm Traditions.

                                        

                                                      552

-Procopius in “The Gothic Wars” refers in Greek to Scrithiphini (Finns who glided). 

                                                    

                                                    600

-Written sources of skiing in the north – Procopius, Jordanes, Paulius Diaconus                                                                               

- 7^th-10^th Century – evidence in writing from China of skis used by central Asian people.

                                                      618

-618-907 - The Chinese referred to Mongol-Turkish tribes: “The wooden-horse Turks are accustomed to skim over the ice on so-called wooden horses, that is, on sledges (or runners) which they bind to their feet to run over the ice.  And they take poles as supports and push themselves rapidly forward“. Carl Luther, British Ski Year Book 1952

                                                      629

-Thieh-lo tribe brought tribute “riding on pieces of wood hunt deer over the ice.”  Described by Dr Joseph Needham

                                                      780

-780-799 Paulus Warnefrid from Longobardia describes the Finns as skiing (skritofinns) as does Ignatius in his book “Suomen maatiede” (The geography of Finland) H.S. 1891

                                                      900

-c 900 Skis mentioned in 16^th century by Bishop Oddur in Iceland.  Thorstein Einarsson “Winter Sport in Iceland” Matti Goksoyr: “Winter Games Warm Traditions”.  54.

-c. 900  The old Ladoga ski in Russia.  Eero Naskali & 2^nd FIS Ski History Conference, Lahti 2001

                                                        950

-Ullr appears as a protector of hunters and fishermen in the Elder Edda.  Jakob Vaage. “Milepeler og merkedager giennom 4000 ar” Norske Skiloperer Ostlandet Nord Oslo:Ranheim 1955  Rune Flaten “Wer war Skigud Ull?  Arbok

                                                         995                   

 -Olav Tryvasson boasted that he is “better on skis than other men”   Snori Sturlason, Heimskringla: the Olaf Sagas. Trans: Samuel Lang, London Dent 1915 reprinted 1930 10

                                                      1000.

-1000-1200 The poem “Lemminkainen Skiing after the Elk”.  Eero Naskali Lahti.1990.   Using skis of different lengths, left (lyly) for gliding, right (kalhu) for kicking. Eero Naskali 1990. Helena  Parviainen 2004

                                                      1050

 -Rune stones found from Ballingsta   Falkner: “Schneesport an Schule”

                                                       1199

-Battle between Finnmarkers and Danes who used skis.  Saxo Grammaticus: “History of Denmark.”

                                                       1206

-The Birkebeiners, Thorstein Skevla and Skjervald Skrukka rescued the 2-year-old Prince Hakon Hakonson, heir to the throne, skiing over the Dovre mountains from Lillehammer to Osterdalen.  Since 1932 the “Birkebeiner” race has been run along the supposed route from Rena to Lillehammer.  “The Saga of King Hakon” c. 1270.  Remembered best in the 1869 painting by Knut Bergslien.

                                                        1250                                                           Kongsspielet, a Norwegian Book of Manners with a short section on skiing.  The King’s  Mirror.”Translated by Laurence M Larson.  New York.Twayne 1917 103/104

 

                                                        1518

-Von Herbertstein travelled from Vienna to Moscow and described skiers in his book “Rerum Moskoviticum) published in 1556.  The skiers carried one stick and had short skis.  Eino Nikkila 1966.

                                                        1520

-Rules were promulgated about hunting on skis in Norway.  Vaage. Skienes Verden. Oslo Hjemmenes 1979 251

                                                        1521-2

-Fenno-Sweden’s Kustaa Eeriksson later the king Kustaa Vaasa (Gustav Vasa) led the fight of the Taala people against the Danish troops and they used skis.  He also asked many of his warlords to equip troops with skis. Gustav Vasa had to fly on skis.    Near Salen two farmers from Mora helped him and brought him on skis over 90km to Mora to found the Vasa dynasty to rule Sweden.  The Vasaloppet, from Salen to Mora in Sweden was founded in 1922 to commemorate their journey. Eino Nikkila 1960 “The Story of the Ski.”

                                                         1535

-Norwegian postal decrees were formulated.  Vaage. Skienes Verden.

                                                        1539

-Publication of the Carta Marina (map of Finland) drawn by Olaus Magnus, a Swedish Catholic Bishop shows two men and a woman hunting on skis.  Elfriede R Knauer “Die Carta Marina des Olaus Magnus von 1539” Gottingen Gratia 1981.

                                                        1550

-In the 1550s the situation on the Karelia isthmus was unsettled.  A furious battle broke out late in the winter of 1555 in the district of Kivennapa.  Ivan Bibikovin with Finnish ski troops led a Russian army of 5,000-6,000 men from the east along the Viipuri road to Kivennapa.  Bailiff Juhana Matinpoika led 500 peasants including ski troops at the village of Joutselka.  The Finns won the battle.    Eino Nikkila “The Story of the Ski.”  1966

                                                        1555

-Olaus Magnus, a Swedish Bishop, published his book “History of the People of Septentrionalibus”.  In 1567 it was published in German at Strasburg.   An English translation by Peter Fisher and Humphrey Higgins, edited by Peter Foote, was published by the Hakluyt Society in 1966.  20 editions appeared translated into French, Italian, German and English.  The woodcut illustrations were particularly useful.  As people from Central Europe learnt about skiing from various publications, they began to travel further on skis and write about their journeys.  Their accounts are mostly in museums.  All over Scandinavia, in the Baltic countries and Russia there were soldiers trained to fight on skis.

                                                       1573

-Herman Fleming attacked Inkerinmaa.  Some infantry and 900 peasants used skis.

Eino Nikkila – “The Story of the Ski” 1966

                                                      1578

-“Sarmatiae Eurpeae Descriptio” by Alexander Guagnus has drawings of Russian skiers with skis just over 1meter long. Eino Nikkila “The Story of the Ski” 1966

                                                                                                                                                                      1590

-c1590  The Hameenkyro ski found with raised footspace.  Eero Naskali Lahti 1990

                                                     

                                                           1609

-1609-1617 Skitroops were used for scouting in Fenno-Sweden battle against Russia.

                                                           1616

-In the Glebovan village peace negotiations a Finnish warlord, Jaakko de la Gardie and a Netherlander, Antonis Goeteeris describe how the village was guarded by skitroops.  Eino Nikkila “The Story of the Ski” 1966

                                                       1644

-Johannis Scheffer: “Argentotensis Lapponiae”.  Frankfurt-am-Main, republished in 1673, then in English in 1674 and German in 1675.  The English version is John Shefferus  “The History of Lapland” (Oxford).   At the theater in Oxon 1674.  Well known illustration of unequal length of skis.

                                                       1682

-Second edition of Lapponia by Scheffer with drawings of hunters on skis (both skis the same length).  Eino Nikkila “The Story of the Ski” 1966

                                                       1689

-Janez Vaikard Valvasor of Slovenia described people of the Bloke plateau using wooden boards to “swerve like snakes” to avoid obstacles when coming down steep slopes through snow.  Ales Gucek  In the Tracks of Oldtime Skiing.  Johannes Weichard Valvasor Die Ehre des Hertsogthums Krain, Laibach.

 -Skade, goddess of skiing appears in Presten Jonas Ramus “Norig Regnum”  Rune Flaten  “Skiguddinnen Skade”  Arbok (2000)                                             ………………..

                                                   1700

-1700-1721 Great Nordic War.  Russians used ski troops when attacking the Karelia

 Isthmus.  Eino Nikkila  “The Story of the Ski” 1966.

                                                     1708

-In “Voyage vers le Septentrion” there are drawings of Samojedi hunters with short skis, turned up at both ends.  Eino Nikkila. “The Story of the Ski” 1966.

                                                      1722

-Greenlanders pictured on skis.  Hans Egde.

                                                      1733

-First rules for military on skis made by Jens Henrik Ernahusen (1688-1752).

                                                        1741

-First depiction of skier with two poles.  P Hogstrom  “Beschreibung von des unter schwedischer krone gehorigen Lappland”.  Trans Templin.  Stockholm and Leipzig: von Rother.  Leipzig 1748.                                                                                                            - The Governor of Kymenkartano and Nyland, K.J. Stjernstedt, ordered defending

 ski troops not to hesitate to attack but before the impact to withdraw and surround the enemy.  Eino Nikkila.  “The Story of the Ski” 1966.

                                                       1761

-Waxing mentioned by C Hals, Elverum.

                                                       1767

-Prizes for military ski competitions.

                                                       1775

-Literary reference to skiing in Germany.  “Mineralogische Geschichte des sachsischen Erzgeberge.”  Hamburg 1775 cited by Fritz Benk. “ Geschichte des Skilaufs”. Innsbruck.  Leopold-Franzen Universtat 1953 PhD thesis.  Skiing is again mentioned in the Erzgebirge in 1804 in Kael August Engel “Erdbescheibung von Sachsen 1804” cited in Der Winter VII (January 1933) 106.

 

                                                        1779

-Description of skis of unequal length (95cm short and 160 long) with sealskin. Nicolai Jonge Jordbeskrivelse.

                                                       1780

-Skiing recorded in Weardale, England approximately this date.  Ski Notes & Queries, December 1970.

                                                        1790

-1790s  Russian skiers in Alaska.  M.D. Teben’kov.  “Atlas of the Northwest Coasts of America from the Bering Straits to Cape Corrients and the Aleutian Islands with several sheets on the Northeast Coast of Asia” compiled by Teben’kov when he was Governor of Russian Alaska and published in 1852.  Cited in Dave Brann “Russian skiers the first to make tracks in North America” in  E.John B Allen (Ed) International Ski History Congress 2002  Collected papers. New Hartford ISHA 2002 15-16.

                                                      1791

-In Riesenkopf area, Silesia, a sort of ski was used.  Johan Friedrich Zollner.  “Briefe uber Schlesien auf eine Reise im Jahre 1791” 2 volumes Berlin 1791 and 1792 11 193.

                                                     1793

-1793-1804 Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths, philosopher and founder of new bodybuilding method in Germany, skied in Thuringia and recommended it in his book, published in 1804,  “Gymnastics for the Young”.   Falkner.  Formation of Workers Ski Sport in Germany.

                                                    1797

-Dutch ship’s captain, Cornelius de Jong wrote of Norwegian ski corps and soldiers jumping with illustrations in his “Reizen naar de Kaap de Goode Hoop” Haarlem 1802.

                                                    1800

-In Telemark skiing was well known and in different forms was practised with great skill.  It spread quickly all over Norway for health and enjoyment.   The people from Christiania gradually developed their own Christiania technique.

-Early 1800s.  First ski-jumping competitions in Telemark on jumps made from snow.  Eino Nikkila “The Story of the Ski” 1966.

                                                     1803

-“The costume of Russian Empire” by Miller published in London has drawings of ostjak hunter with short skis and a stick with a spade tip. Eino Nikkila. “ The Story of the Ski.” 196.

                                                    1808

-1808-9  Ski troops fought  the Nordic war between Sweden and Russia about Finland.

Olaf Rye (1791-1849) recorded as having jumped 15 alen (c. 30ft) the start of keeping records.

-1808-9 Mamiya Rinshu visited Japan and described and drew skiing in northern Hokkaido.  “Hoku-Ezo zusetsu Description of the northern Ezo Hokkaido.  Edo.  1855 in Anton Obholzer: Geschichte des Skis und Skistockes.”  Schorndof bei Stuttgart Hofmann.  1974 17-18 (sometimes called Rinzo Mamiya)                                                                                                                                                                                                           

1812

-Napoleon’s forces during retreat were harrassed by Russians on skis.  T.I Ramenskai Lyzhnyi vek Rossii.  3^rd edition Moscow Svetskii Sport 1998 15 and L.M. Butin Lyzhnyi Sport. Moscow Academia 2000. 12 (neither gives sources).

                                                1815        

-17 November – 1895  Oscar Wergeland born Kristiansand NOR.  Norwegian military officer, who trained his troops to ski and wrote two books. “Skilober-exercitie Efter Nutidens Stridsmaade, Skytterlag of Skoler Tilegnet.” about how to ski.  Kristiansand: Steen, 1863 and two years later his “Skilobning, dens Historie og Kreidgsanvendelse; nogle Bidrag dertil samt til Belysning af vore tidligere Vaernepliktsforhold. Christiania Schibsted.” 1865.on skis and skiing in Norway Einar Sunde. “Oscar Wergeland: an Apostle for skiing”.  John Allen (Ed) International Ski History Congress 2002.

                        1825

-10 June – 9 March 1897.  Sondre Norheim born Morgedal, NOR. Improved ski and bnding design. Introduced Telemark. Expert ski jumper.  In 1868 won first ski competition in Christiania aged 42. Emigrated to Minnesota USA in 1884. Died North Dakota.

                                                 1827

-Snowshoe Thompson. 1827-1876 Born Jon Thorsteinson Rui Tinn in Norway. He learnt to ski as a child, emigrating to US aged 10 with his family.  He skied in the Midwest and went to California in 1851, to work briefly as a gold miner, then bought a ranch west of Sacramento, and became mail carrier in 1855.  He was already an accomplished Sierra skier, who made his own skis and taught himself to use them and in 1856 started his 90-mile route - Genoa, Nevada to Placerville California.  He died in Genoa.  Dan de Quille: “Snowshoe Thompson Territorial Enterprise” is hagiographic.  A balanced treatment in Kenneth Bjork: “Snowshoe Thompson, Fact and Legend”.  Norwegian-American Studies and Records 1956 62-88

                                                     1835

-Elias Lonnrot put the Kalevala together from numerous tales making Leminkainen the ski running, elk-hunting hero.  “The Kalevala: epic poem of Finland” translated by J.M. Crawford, New York Columbian 1891

                                                      1840

-1840s. Glassworkers at Schreiberhau used 1meter skis for descent only.

                                                       1841

-Skier reported in Wisconsin, USA Billed-Magazin (1 May 1869) 172

                                                        1850

-In the Giant Mountains skis about lm long and 15cm wide were used. 

-Sondre Norheim made heel straps using birch tree roots.

-First competitions run in Norway about this time.

                                                      

 

1851

-1851-1938 Fritz Huitfeldt born Borgund, NOR– ski designer and manufacturer, binding inventor. Ski jumper with tips down. 1886-1893 Secretary of Norwegian Ski Association. Organiser of Huseby competitions.   Published “Laerebog i Skilobning.”  Leif Torgersen lecture FIS Ski Historical Conference  2001.

-L.H. Hagen of Christiania sold skis as a business (among many other items for sale)  Vaage. “Skienes Verden.”

                                                        1852

-First newspaper account of a downhill ski race in California.   Ski racing became popular in the goldmining camps of the Feather River Canyon (Northern Sierra).

                                                        1853

-Skiing reported from Danzig and Stettin.  “En Skifaered i Danzig Fra Fjeld og Hari Christiania Cammermener” 1867 72-79.

                                                        1854

-Skiing reported in Australia.  Vaage “Skienes Verden” but it seems unlikely that it was so early.  Certainly by 1861 there were many people on skis, as reported in a number of papers.  “Sydney Morning Herald” 6 August 1861 and “Yass Courier “ 10 August 1861.

                                                        1855

-Skiing reported in New Zealand,  Vaage “Skienes Verden” but no supporting evidence.

-Middle of the 19^th Century.  The first races were organised and skiclubs founded in

Norway.

                                                           1856 

 -25^th February -20^th June 1940  Mathias Zdarsky born Kozichowitz CZE.  Founder of Alpine skiing technique, which he taught at his Lilienfeld school.  Invented competitions through gates.  He shortened skis, invented firmer bindings and taught how to use stem turn on steep slopes. Used single pole. Suffered terrible injuries in avalanche in 1916. Wrote important book on Lilienfeld Technique.

                                                           1859

-Bjornstjerne Bjornson wrote “Der ligger et Land mot den evige Sne.”  Tor Bomann                                                                                                              

 Larson “Den Evige Sne”. Oslo Cappelen 1993

-Skis first appeared in Switzerland at Sils-Maria and Silvaplana, made by the smith,              Pedrun.       

                                                           1860

-Waxes: Moko from Chinese labour who called anything that would “make go” the skis “Moko”.W. Hughes “Australian Ski Year Book (1931) 43

-1860s Engadine children amused themselves on barrel stave skis.

-Sondre Norheim jumped 30 metres without poles so held the record for more than 30 years.  FIS History.

-1860s  Skis were used by miners in Durham, England. “She” TP’s Weekly 12^th February 1904 226.

-1860s  Competition was frequent in winter in Norway and Norwegians who travelled to work or study in Europe took their skis with them – Gerd Falkner.

                                                          1861

-1861-1930 Fridtjof Nansen explorer on skis and writer.  His book, “On Skiing Across Greenland.” published in 1890 and translated into many languages, had an immense influence on the spread of skiing in Europe.

-First newspaper accounts of skiing in Austra1ian goldcamp (Kiandra) probably by miners from California. Yass Courier, 10^th August and Sydney Morning Herald, 6, 12 August.

-Trysil Skytte-og Skiloberforening founded.   First ski club in Norway.  Vaage “Skienes Verde

                                                      1862

-First ski-jump competition, held in Trysil, NOR,         

                                                                                          

                                                     1864

-Johannes Badrutt kept St Moritz open in winter and bet his English guests they would find it as sunny as in summer.  He won his bet so St Moritz became a centre of winter sports.

                                                    1868.

-Sondre Norheim demonstrated Telemark and Christiania at Iverslokkan, Norway ISHA.

-Konrad Wild brought Norwegian ski to Mitlodi, Glarus.  Reported in Aftenbladet 10 February.

-Deutsche Turnerschaft (German Gymnasts Federation) founded.                                                                               

                                                     1870

-Sondre Norheim introduced the Telemark Ski at Christiania.

-Skiing reported from the Otago goldfields in New Zealand. Warburton “Early New                                                                                                             

 Zealand Ski-ing” “The Australian and New Zealand Ski Year Book.” 1936  Jakob                                                                                                              

 Vaage “Norske Ski erobar verden Oslo: Gyldendal” 1952, 218 citing “The New Zealand                                                                                               

 Railways Magazine. (1930.”) 

-Competition on skis became an important part of life in Norway

                                                        1871

-An article in Aftenposten, (Oslo newspaper) reported that two brothers left Norway in June to work in Canada.  One found work on the railroad between Mt Forest and Kincardine and the other between Mt Forest and Georgian Bay.  In winter they both used skis regularly and‘have attracted attention by the speed they go’.  The first nations people and other railroad workers were on snowshoes.  This is considered to be the first evidence of skiing in Canada.  E. John B Allen Plymouth State College NH USA – Canadian Journal of History of Sport Vol XVII No l May 1986.  Carly S King, Curator, The Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa ON Canada.

 1871- 14 March 1954 E.C. Richardson born in Dumbarton, GBR.  Visited Norway and Sweden 1894 Visited Davos in 1903, founded Davos English Skl Club and Ski Club of Great Britain,   Wrote Ski Running with Crichton Somerville and W.R. Rickmers and The Ski Runner with Henry Hoek.

                                                       1873

-8 April 1873-5 October 1949 Wilhelm Paulcke born Leipzig GER Professor of Geology and Minerology. Avalanche expert, ski explorer.  In 1896 led a party which made first ascent of 3,000m Oberalpstock.  In 1897 traversed Oberland glaciers.

-Dr Carl Spengler at Davos made limited experiments on large Lapland hunting skis given to his father.

-11 October- 4 December 1934 Colonel Georg Bilgeri born Bregenz AUT. Began to ski at Linz when 20, joined Tirol Kaiserjager Regiment 3 years later and led his platoon ski-mountaineering in Zillertal 3 years later.  He was generous in teaching big classes in Sweden, Switzerland ,Turkey, Christiania and Telemark without charge and wrote instructions to guides which were captured in war.  Learnt from Zdarsky but used 2 poles.  Friend to British skiers, Honorary Member of Ski Club of GB.  Died on Patscherkofel on  the snow. G Seligman, British Ski Year Book 1935.

-Julius Payer used skis on his North Polar expedition and introduced them to Vienna.

-Skis reappeared on Bohemian side of Riesengebirge

                                                      1875

-In the collection of the Svenska Skidmuseet (Umea north of Stockholm, Sweden) is a ski from northern Canada dating between 1875 and 1877, used by Raatamava in the bush and for hunting. E.John B.Allen, Plymouth State College NH USA – Canadian Journal of History of Sport vol XVII No I May 1986 – Carly S. King Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.

                                                      1876

-1876, 1878 or 1880 foundation of Kiandra Snowshoe Club, Australia.  Percy Hunter, “History of Australian Ski-ing Clubs.” Australian Ski Year Book (1928) 5

                                                      1878

-1878-9 A.E. Nordenskjold (born in Finland) travelled to north-east channel from Europe to the Baring sea via northern Siberia. Eino Nikkila “The Story of the Ski”. 1966

 -Finland raised its own army with skis as essential equipment.  Eino Nikkila “The Story of the Ski.” 1966.

                                                      1879

-Ivar Holmquist born SWE.  First President of International Ski Federation 1924-27.

President of Association for Promotion of Skiing & Open Air Activities in Sweden 1923-1950

-Norwegian Ski Federation founded.  Competitions were organised at Huseby.                c. 10,000 spectators at first Huseby races near Oslo. Jakob Vaage”Skienes Verden”.

-Martin Strand founded industrial ski factory in Minnesota.

-23 March.First official Finnish ski competition held at Tyrnava. Lahti Ski Museum H.S.1891 samoin E&K 1969           

-M Duhamel experimented with Swedish skis in Grenoble.  Skis acquired from 1878 Paris Exhibition.

-Visit of Telemark peasants to Christiania.  Hemmesvedt jumped 23m on Huseby Hill

-Mr A Birch, a Norwegian from Montreal, skied from Montreal to Quebec City

on “a pair of patent Norwegian snowshoes”.   The snowshoes were made of wood

and measured nine feet long and six inches wide.  An illustration shows Mr Birch on

skis. Canadian Illustrated News 1879 Submitted by Carly S King, Curator/Director.

The Canadian Ski Museum Ottawa, ON Canada.

                                                    1880

- 1880-1883 Monks, especially the Prior Henri Lugon, and a monastery servant on St Bernard Pass were given skis by a passing Norwegian and experimented with them.         -Two brothers from Gorlitz skied on the Peterbaude in the Giant Mountains.                      

-1880’s  Lord Frederick Hamilton (brother-in-law and aide to Gov. General  

Lord Lansdowne) introduced skiing in the Ottawa ON area – as illustrated in a

photograph of Archie Gordon on skis on the grounds of Rideau Hall. Collection,

The Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa ON Submitted by Carly S. King,  Curator/

Director The Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa ON Canada.

-About this time skiers (mostly Norwegians studying mining and metallurgy in

Clausthal-Zellerfeld) enjoyed skiing in the Harz Mountains. A Dr Krause brought 3 pairs of skis from Norway to Hirschberg.  Falkner: Formation of Workers Ski Sport in Germany.

                                               1881

-John F. Baddely founded Yukki Ski club at St Petersberg - the earliest English Skiclub. (drawing in Ski Club of Great Britain at Wimbledon, London)

-Advertisement for ski school in Oslo.  Aftenbladet 9^th February 1891.

 

 

                                               1882

-Norske Ski Club founded in Berlin, New Hampshire (apocryphal version puts this date as 1872).

 -Hickory imported from USA used for making skis in Norway. Vaage Skienes

Verden.  260

                                                  1883

-Wilhelm Paulcke, at school in Davos, experimented with ski procured by Norwegian schoolteacher and copied by local wagon maker. Paulcke was first skier in central Europe whose efforts persisted.

-Nordenskjold expedition to Greenland in which two of his Sami, Lars Tuordas and

Anders Rossas, said they had covered about 467km in 57 hours.  On return, in order to prove whether this was possible, the Jokkmokkmokk course was run over 220 kms which Lars Tuordas, won in 21 hours and 22 minutes. “Hier began Schwedens Skigeschichte”.  TMS translated from the Swedish into German, Jokkmokk museum 1968. Falkner.

-Crosscountry and skijumping events were developed at Huseby. Whoever got the most points in the two disciplines was the winner.  A cup was awarded for a womens’ race.  Jakob Vaage Skienes Verden.

-1883-5 German pioneers began to explore the mountains:  Arthur Ullrichs in the Harz, Wilhelm Ofterman in Thuringen 1883 and Otto Vorwerg in the Giant Mountains 1885   Falkner

 -Park Toboggan & Ski Club formed in Montreal QC.  Carly S King, Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa

-Dr Herwig experimented with skis at Arosa but did not persist...

                                                      1884

-First ski ascent of Brocken in Harz Mountains by two Norwegians perhaps studying at Clausthal-Zelerfeld mining academy.  Chief forest keeper in Harz mountains started to use skis.

                                                      1885

-Nicolai Oestegaard born Norway.  President of Norwegian Ski Federation 1927-30, Army Colonel, President International Ski Federation 1934-1951.

-1885-6 Ski clubs founded in St Paul, Minneapolis and Red Wing, Minnesota.

-Skis appeared in Warmbrunn and Leiterbaden.  Dr Otto Vorwerg, an officer in the Norwegian Service, lived in Leiterbadenland where he learnt to ski and explored the mountains.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                 

                                                      1886

-Post delivered on skis at Ballenstadt in the Harz mountains.  First use of skis for post in Central Europe.   TMS Deutsche Ski Verband, Luther Archiv l, 4 Gutachten Braunlage 1909-52.

-Austro-Hungarian landowners in Slovenia sent foresters to ski course held at Gusswerk near Murzzuschlag, Oral evidence collected by Toncica Urbas “Folk Ski-ing” practised at this period in Slovenia especially around Pohorje (Carniola).

-1886-7 First skiers in Czechoslovakia.  Karl Danek.  “Why Us, Here and Thus?” Nove Mesto Sporten 1994.

-First skis appeared in Schwarzental by Hohenelbe.

-9 March.Helsinki Sports Club organised ski competition. 16.5km Crosscountry and skijumping on jump made of snow.   Finns jumped using sticks.  A Norwegian engineer, Nielsen, won – without sticks. Pekka Honkanen. “The History of Skijumping in Finland.” 1990.

                                                      1887

-Graf Harrach equipped hunt servants with ski in Bohemian Riesengebirge.

                                                     1888

-Fridtjof Nansen crossed the lower third of Greenland on skis, spurred on by the experience of Tuordas and Rossas. Falkner and Eino Nikkila.1966

-April 1888 –1974 Arnold Lunn born Madras GBR  Laid down rules for Alpine slalom and downhill racing and persuaded FIS to accept them. Founded Alpine Ski Club 1908.  Co-founder with Hannes Schneider of the Arlberg-Kandahar.  Organised first World Alpine Ski Championships 1931.  Edited British Ski Year Book 1920-1971 and wrote many books.

-First skiers in Denmark.  Wilhelm Munack “Wintersort in Danemark” “Der Winter” VII 9 (28 December 1911). 248.

-Grindelwald opened for winter sports.

-Colonel Napier (GBR) brought Norwegian manservant Nils Nilssen to Davos with skis.  Tobias Branger and a local carpenter copied the skis.  On leaving Nilssen presented skis to Katherine Symonds who skied a little but without success at this point.

                                                1889

-Oula races held on 23 March in northern Finland .  31.1km won by Aappo Luomajoki. The most important races for about 20 years.  H.W. Claudelin. “Oulun Hiihto 1889-1938” Oulu: hiihtomenestyksen tausta Suomen hiihtourheilun alkuvaiheesa.”  Sportsmen and their community – Background of the Success in skiing in Haapevsi.  “Scripta Historica V.” 1977  English summary p 118.

-Olaf Kjelsberg, locomotive engineer from Norway and one of the first skilled skiers in Central Europe, introduced skiing to Winterthur.

-First skis reached Tiefenbach Falkner

-Dr Tholus procured Norwegian skis to help in his rural rounds and experimented with them at Todtnau, Black Forest, but gave up.

-Max Kleinoschegg began to ski at Graz.

-Mathias Zdarsky retreated to Habernreith, near Lilienfeld, and experimented with Scandinavian skis.

                                                             1890

-14 June 1890-1955 Hannes Schneider born Stuben, AUT. Founder of Arlberg Ski School who transformed teaching of skiing.  He taught stem and stem christiania. Co-founder with Arnold Lunn of Arlberg-Kandahar. Exiled to USA after Anschluss and took over Eastern Slope Ski School, Cranmore.

-Publication of “Paa Ski over Gronland” by Fridtjof Nansen. Christiania Aschehoug.  Translated into German  and English in 1891 into Swedish in 1896 and into many other languages.   It inspired many central Europeans to ski.

-Karl Otto made ski ascent of Heimgarten, Bavaria.

-First German ski club formed in Munich.  Members used Karjala skis imported from Finland.

-Skis used in Reichenberg and Gablonz.

-Otto Vorwerg, the first German to master ski technique, began to ski in Riesengebirge; Louis Dufour brought Norwegian skis to Les Avants; Domherr Jules Gross revived ski interest at Grand St Bernard;  Peter Oester senior, a farmer, was first skier in Adelboden.

-Crosscountry skis made at Kerkkoo, Lampinen. H.S.-97.

-Norwegians went to South America to work on Trans-Andean railroad. 

Advertisement in “Verdens Gang” 2 December 1889.

-Mr Knocker, an English farmer, introduced skis to Meiringen.

 

                                                          1891                                               

-1891-6 Mathias Zdarsky, inspired by Nansen, began to teach skiing on Norwegian

skis at his Lilienfeld School.  To make his school better known he developed a new form of ski and pole for use on steep slopes and later a ski binding, becoming the founder of alpine ski technique. Zdarsky is considered the inventor of the stem, or at least its first promoter.

-January.  Gerald Fox brought skis to Grindelwald and was the first to ski there.

Father Leuzinger obtained 5 pairs of skis in the Jura

-Norwegian skis reintroduced to Arosa by Herr Durr, a Harz forester from Brunswick and copied by carpenter for Professor Egger.

-Olaf Kjelsberg climbed the Bachtel (1119m} in the Zurcher Oberland.

- January Major Christof Iselin experimented with homemade ski at Glarus.

 -8 February.  Dr Raymond Pilet, French consul at Colmar, who skied in Alsace and the Black Forest,  appeared at Feldbergerhof on ski.  Mistaken for Carnival clown “The moment, if any, when skiing took root outside Scandinavia” Rickmers.

-Joseph Fischer started to manufacture skis at Freiberg im Breisgau. And Franz Baudisch made skis in Riesengebirge.

-Dr Otto Vorwerg wrote article on skiing in “Wanderer” in Riesengebirge.

-1891-2 The Norwegian competitions were transferred from Huseby Hill to Holmenkollen  20,000 spectators. Vaage Holmenkollen Oslo Sekkelsten 1971. 30-35.

                                                    1892

-1892-1967 Reinhard Straumann born in canton of Basel. Invented S-scoring for Ski Jumping.  Lecture by Max Triet at 2001 Ski History Conference.

-First skier seen on the Rigi

-Georg Bilgeri began to ski at Linz,  Olaf Kjelsberg brought Norwegian skis to Glarus.

-Max Kleinoschegg founded Verband Steirischer Skilaufer at Murzzuschlag where first European ski competitions were held, including a Downhill of 700m and a skijump.

 -First handmade laminated skis made in Norway.    

 -Dr Oskar Kallas returned to Estonia from Finland with skis.  Nuremberg “Sport and Physical Education in Estonia”. PhD dissertation University of California, Berkeley 1972.                           

-January, Dr Henry Lunn took Reunion Conference to Grindelwald.  It was successful so he started organising the travel of groups to the Alps.        

-Antti Haataja was first Finn to compete in ski jumping abroad.  Came 30^th at Stockholm.  Pekka Honkanen 1990 . “The History of Skijumping in Finland.”                                                                                                                      -Severe winter in Black Forest.  Dr Tholus told Fritz Breuer and Carl Thoma about his ski experiment and they ordered another pair of skis. On 18^th March.  Dr Pilet and Graf Tiesenhausen skied on the Feldberg.  At the Feldbergerhof they met Breuer and Thoma on their first “Feldbergerfahrt” using Dr Tholus’ old skis.                                                                                                                                                -First reports in German on ski-teaching.

-February – Military skiing began in Germany.

8 November Lower Austria Ski Club founded, encouraged by Wedels Jarlsberg of Norwegian/Swedish Consulate in Vienna.                                       

-27 November, Ski Club Todtnau founded. The first Black Forest club soon attracted many students from Freiberg University.

-Members of Budapest-Ofnen-Turnverein took skis to the High Tatras in Riesengebirge.

First two-day ski tour by 5 skiers.         

-Walter Konig of Glockental, Bern, obtained Hagen skis from Christiania and made local outings by moonight with Paul Montandon.    Son of Herr Oberst Wille brought first skis to Bern.

- The Holmenkollen era began.

-First German books on ski technique were published by von Wangenheim and Schneider.

 

                                                1893

-28-29 January. Colonel Iselin, Kjelsberg, von Steiger and Dr Naef (raquettes) made first crossing of an Alpine peak, the Pragel (1,554m).

-2 February.  First ski competition in Central Europe at Murzzuschlag, including downhill race of  700m, won by W.B. Samson, and a ski jump.

-Skiers seen in Bois de Boulogne, Paris.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       -8 February. Iselin and Jenny climbed the Schild (2,302m) the first real Alpine summit to be climbed on skis.                                                                                                                                 -Henrik Angell visited Montenegro. Morganbladet 14 & 19 February.                                       -Revelstoke Ski Club formed in Revelstoke, British Columbia CAN Carly King, Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa                                                                                                                                 -In New Zealand G.E. Mannering and Marmaduke Dixon made home-made skis and experimented in the Mt Cook area.G.E. Mannering “An Early Use of Ski in the New Zealand Alps”   “The Australian & New Zealand Ski Year Book (1938). 52-53.                --E and W Meisser made first visit on ski to Lenzerheide.   In the Jura, Grosjean and Morel climbed the Chasseral (1607m).  Pharmacist Gentil of Fleurier obtained 12 pairs of skis from Norway.  Jacot in Le Locle ordered 20 pairs of Glarus skis for the SAC and visitors.                                                                                                                                  -23 March Tobias and Johann Branger with Paul Kaiser crossed the Maienfelder Furka (2,436m) from Davos to Arosa, Two returned on same route next day.                                                   -First Swiss ski factory – the Jakober Ski Fabrik - was founded by Melchior Jakober, furniture maker and Joseph Jakober, a saddler, at Glarus.  70 pairs of Norwegian-type ash skis sold in first year.  Telemark and shorter “Mountain” skis.  Design derived from those brought to Arosa by the forester, Durr, in 1891.   “Urgeschichte des Schweizerische. Skilaufes.” 101. 

-Dr Otto Vorwerg published a small book of instruction “Das Schneeschuhlaufen.” The German War Ministry ordered 48 pairs of skis through Vorwerg for trial by the German army.                                                                                                                                        -March. Arosa Rothorn (2985m a new height record) climbed by Dr C Staubli on skis with 3 companions including Carl Egger on Canadian raquettes.   A few days later Staubli returned alone to the summit to collect forgotten photographic equipment.              -Fridtjof Nansen made second journey to North Pole with skis made of maple, birch and hickory Eino Nikkilai “The Story of the Ski 1966”.                                                                               -Franz Raisch climbed the Kitzbuheler Horn.                                                                                                                                                                                             -1893-4 Czech Ski Club formed as it broke away from the Skating Club.  Pierre Minelle “Le Ski dans les Tatras” “La Montagne” Jan-Feb1931.                                                       - Publication of “Auf Schneeschuhen” by E.H. Schollmayer-Lichtenberg, manager of forestry personnel on the Snesnik Castle estate, Slovenia.   Described Stemming, Snowplough and Telemark technique.  He also proved survival at Reifnitz near Klagenfurt of the Krain/Bloke/Carniola technique, described by Valvasor in 1689.            -Swiss Federal Post Office sent skis from Todtnau for use by postmen in the Dischmatal, Davos.                                                                                                                                                    -Ski runners appeared in the Bois de Boulogne.                                                                  --22 November.  First Swiss Ski Club founded at Glarus by Christof Iselin after initial meeting on 19 November.  Joachim Mercier Aus der Urgeschichte des Schweizer Skilaufer 106. Jubilee of Glarus Ski Club, 1893-1928.                                                   -Federal military authorities arranged for skis to be used by soldiers on the Gotthard.                         -December.  Immer, Thoni and Berg crossed the Joch Pass from Meiringen to Engelberg.  The first skiers to reach the slopes of Engelberg.

                                                    1894                                                

-Krebs-Gygax of Schaffhausen crossed the Gotthard from Airolo to Andermatt.                    A Bernese Colonel from Thun obtained skis from Todtnau.                                                                                                                                           -Ski classes were given at Murzzuschlag by a Norwegian.
-Fritz Huitfeldt invented “bolt” binding, patented it and went into production (Torgersen).

-Racing at Kiandra, Australia.  Record was a quarter-mile in 18 seconds (c. 50mph).  Letter in Norsk Idraetsblad 20 November 1995. 383                                                                   -March: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made first visit to Davos and met Johann and Tobias  Branger . With them he crossed Maienfelder Furka and made ski ascent of the Jakobshorn from Davos.

-Dr 0tto Vorwerg published a short brochure on skiing called Das Schilauferverein.

-Moscow Ski Club founded. Algemeine Sport Zeitung (8.12.94) 1334.

                                                           

1895

-Zdarsky took on first pupil at Lilienfeld.

-The first ski race in Western Canada was held at Red Mountain, Rossland, BC, Canada, organised and won by Olaus Jeldness. Carly S King, Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.

-Publication of “Arbok” of the Norwegian Ski Association, edited by Karl Roll.

-Publication of Henrik Angell Gjennem’s “Montenegro paa Ski”, Christiania.

-Edward and William Richardson (GBR) visited Norway to skate but skied instead.           - lst December Schwarzwald Ski Club formed an association of Black Forest clubs on the  Feldberg from which developed the German Ski Federation   The Schwarzwald Ski Club organised the first downhill race in Germany from Seebock to Feldbergerhof. 160m vertical.                                        

-Arbeiter-Turnerbund (Workers Gymnasts Association) formed in Germany.

Paul Montandon of Thun with his wife obtained skis from Norway, Glarus and Lilienfeld. 

                                                         1896

-Publication of “Alpine Lilienfelder Skifahr Technik” by Mathias Zdarsky.  It started a long battle between those who followed Paulcke’s Norwegian technique and those who followed Zdarsky’s stem.  Zdarsky patented his metal sole binding.

-Copenhagen Ski Club founded. Jorn Hansen “Come to Norway my Friend” Danish Winter Sport as tourism in Goksoyr “Winter Games Warm Traditions”.

-Publication of Huitfeldt’s book, “Larebog  i Skilobning”

-4 January Paulcke, de Beauclair, Baur and Steinweg climbed the Oberalpstock (3360m).

Paulcke published pamphlet on the manufacture of homemade skis.  It was widely circulated in Germany and Switzerland.

-First military races in Central Europe were run on the Feldberg.

-Ski Club des Alpes was formed by friends of Duhamel, Grenoble.

 -First Ski Club in Riesengebirge founded at Hohenelbe.

 -May. Freiburg students under Paulcke and de Beauclair climbed Fibbia and Piz Lucendro.

                                                       1897

-Dr Payot used skis to visit his patients in Chamonix, France.

-In January Samuel Brawand and brothers, with the Russian Alfred Belaieff, crossed Strahlegg Pass (3351m) to the Grimsel.

-17-23 January Wilhelm Paulcke with de Beauclair, Lohmuller, Ehlert and Moennichs crossed the Bernese Oberland glaciers on skis.

-L.A.Kind, a Swiss engineer at Turin, introduced skis into Italy.

-Johannes Branger and Herbert Aldridge skied from Davos to St Moritz over the Scaletta Pass and back over the Fuorcla d’Eschia (3008m) and the Porchabella Glacier.

-The Owen sisters, the Bostock brothers and Canon Savage made adventurous tours at                                              Grindelwald.

-Martin Conway’s expedition crossed Spitzbergen on ski.

-August .Von Arlt made first summer ski expedition on glaciers, climbing Johannisberg (3467) in Austria.

                                                            1898

-New Year: Paulcke and Helbling climbed Monte Rosa to a height of 4,200m.

Four Bernese ski-runners, led by Emil Cardinaux, made traverse from Kandersteg to Lauterbrunnen, crossing the Petersgrat and Tschingel Pass using Lilienfeld technique.

The winter mountaineer, Paul Montandon, took skis to the Great St Bernard, the Furka and Piz Lucendro.                                                                                                                  -Ehlert and Moennichs crossed the Oberalp and Lukmanier passes.

-Professor Schweitzer and friends discovered Vorab near Flims as a ski district.

-Henry Lunn brought a group of British to Chamonix. His 10-year-old son, Arnold accompanied them.  Skis and an instructor were brought from Switzerland to entertain them. Arnold Lunn: Story of Skiing.

-The War Eagle Trophy was presented to Olaus Jeldness at Rossland BC for the Ski Jumping Championships of Canada at Rossland BC.  Carly S King, Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.

-Dom Gross returned to the Grand St Bernard Pass and encouraged further skiing by the monks.

                                                             1899

-1 January Ehlert and Moennichs (Paulcke’s colleagues on Oberland traverse) killed by avalanche on Susten Pass.  The first skiing fatality recorded in Europe.

-Publication of Paulcke’s “Der Skilauf”.

-McGill University professors P.E.Nobbs, J.B. Porter and R.J. Durley, skied on Mount  Royal in Montreal, using “10ft Finnish skis – narrow, light and turned up at both ends”. Bob Soden, Montreal, QC Canada.

                                                          1900                   

-Early 1900s.  Ski factories Ilola Sag & Snickers made skis in southern Finland to sell to Russian army. Goran Selen.1997 The J. Hiltunen factory in Puolanka moved to Kajaani, then Viipuri in 1916. The Uusitupa factory started in Jyvaskyla, closed in 1940. Parviainen 2002

-First German ski championships on the Feldberg won by Nielssen. Falkner.

-The Dominion Ski Champion title won by Olaus Jeldness at Rossland BC.  He won both ski-running and ski jumping events Carly S King Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.        -First Nordic Ski Games in Stockholm.  Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games called them the Scandinavian Olympiade and suggested they should be organised every two years alternating between Stockholm and Christiania (Oslo).                                                                                                                           -Arnold Lunn (with Bostock brothers) made first expedition on ski from Grindelwald to the Kleine Scheidegg.                                                                                                        -First ski course for mountain guides held at Meran, run by SC Schwarzwald and DoeAV Freiburg.                                                                                                                               --O. Eckenstein of London skied for much of the winter in the Loch Ness district of Scotland.                               

                                                            1901                                                                                                                                                                                   

-First Nordic Ski Games took place in Stockholm.  Baron Pierre de Coubertin called them  Scandinavian Olympics, to be run every 2 years alternating between Oslo and Stockholm -Lampinen factory founded at Porvoo, Kerkkoo, Finland.  Goran Selen 1997.                                  -First ascent of Dammastock (3633m) by Hoek and Schottelius.  Hoek made first ascent of the Finsteraarhorn (4,275m).                                                                                              -Foundation of first Italian ski club in Turin.                                                                        -Col.Bilgeri started to train Army skiers in the High Alps.                                                                                                                        -13 December Foundation of Zurich Ski Club by de Beauclair,                                           -December. The Richardson brothers went to Davos from Britain in search of snow.         -1901/2.  W.R.Rickmers opened Adelboden for its first winter season.                                                                                                                                            

                                                         1902                                                                               -Rickmers with his wife Mabel (nee Duff) went to Zdarski’s Lilienfeld School and in March with Zdarsky climbed through Sulzbach valley to the Gross Venediger without rope or axe to test the limits of skis.  They were driven back from the col by blizzards.      -“Battle of the bindings” flared up between Zdarsky and the Black Forest Nordic school.                                                                                                          -February/March.  First courses for guides in Eastern Alps led by members of SC Schwarzwald.                                                                                                                         –26/7 January. First Swiss National Championships, Glarus. Mercier, “Urgeschichte des Schweiz Skilaufes.” 101                                                                                                               -9 February  Bern Ski Club organised races on the Gurten.                                                   -22nd February.  Grindelwald Ski Club founded.                                                                 -Kitzbuhel Winter Sports Club founded .                                                                              -Norwegian officers invited to Briancon to instruct 159^th Regiment in ski-running.                        -Club Alpin Francais actively encouraged ski-running and gave skis to postmen, road repairers, guides and schoolmasters.  Military school provided very cheap skis to officers, NCOs, policemen, foresters, customs men and children.                                                      -First Eton and Harrow winter party taken to Adelboden by Dr Henry Lunn.                             -First skiers in India in Baltoro and Godwin-Austin region. J. Guillarmod. “Record dans l’Himalaya” “Jahrbuch des Schwitzer Alpenclub XXXVII.” 1902. 226                                -First ascent of the Jungfrau by Dr J David.                                                                            -First Swiss Military Championships.                                                                                      -Geneva Ski Club founded by Georges Thudicum.                                                               -1902/3 Norwegian consul in Kobe, Peter Ottesen, ordered skis for Japanese army after troops had suffered snowstorm deaths. Ny Tidning for Idrott 12. 19 March 1903. 101-102                                      

                                                                 1903                                                                      -6 January.Davos English Ski Club founded by E.C.and C.W. Richardson and E.H. Wroughton.  Article in Davos Courier by the Richardsons: “Davos as the Skiers’ Paradise”. E.C. Richardson organised  first ski races in Davos.  The term “ski-ing” was used.  12 February, Davos Ski Club founded by Bartolomeus Caflisch.                                                                                                       -January.  Dr Payot led first party along the Haute Route.  Followed a month later by Dr Heibling and Dr Reichert (unaware of Payot).                                                                                      -First ski hut built in Swiss Alps at Spitzmeilen.                                                                  -First ski jump in Tirol at Kitzbuhel.                                                                         -Gotthard Ski Club founded.                                                                                                  -Hannes Schneider was given his first pair of skis and joined ski course run by Viktor Sohm. Gerald Fairlie biography .                                                                                               -23 January Adelboden Ski Club founded.                                                                 .                         W.R. Rickmers made “snake-track of Laret” at St Moritz, which was seen by E.C. Richardson so they met.                                                                                                         -January: Ski course for guides organised at Zermatt led by de Beauclair and A.Weber.                                                                                                                                -27 January First Swiss ski races at Sack, Glarus.  Won by Fritz Steuri, postman from the Mannlichen and Kleine Scheidegg.                                                                                          -February - Konig and Flender killed in crevasse on Grenz Glacier, Zermatt.                           -Count Bonacossa, alone, climbed Corno Grande in Appenines, 2,914m.                                 - Officers’ Club of Chur held ski course.                                                                              -Bjarne Nilssen demonstrated Norwegian jumping on the Feldberg.                                        -5 May.  W.R. Rickmers read paper on “The Alpine Skee and Mountaineering” at the Alpine Club, London.                                                                                                            -6 May Ski Club of Great Britain founded at the Café Royal, London with 12 members.                                                                                 -Rhaetian railway regularly used for return uplift by skiers descending to Kublis and the Prattigau.                                                                                                                       -1903/4 Skiing reported in the Guadarramas by two Norwegians but only when Juan Manuel Madinaveitia and others founded “The Twenty Club” did skiing become popular there. M.G. Arostegui y J.L. Gilabert “El Gran Circo Blanco. Historia del Esqui Alpino”. Valladolid Minon 1980. 38-40. The Barajones used in Riano in the province of Santander were not even the forerunner of skis                                                                     -November. “Ski-Running” by E.C. Richardson,W.R. Rickmers and Crichton Somerville was published.  The first work on ski-running in English.  “Stemming” was proposed as an improvement on the term “snowploughing”.   Estimate of some 10,000 skiers: sporting, professional and military then in Central Europe.

                                                           1904                         

-January.  First course of instruction by Norwegians held in Switzerland at Lenzerheide.   Organised by the SAC Chur under the direction of de Beauclair.  Instruction given by Trygve Smith, Thor Heyerdahl; and the Swiss Guide, Christian Klucker.                                         -Rickmers taught in January at Adelboden and at Easter took British touring group to Ben Nevis, Scotland.                                                                                                                                -Ski Club of Great Britain brought group to the Jotunheim where they made many ascents. Year Book of the SCGB 1905.                                                                                                                                            -First ascent of Mont Blanc by Hugo Mylius (S.C. Schwarzwald) and Meiringen guides.                                                                                                                                    -21 January.  First ascent of Titlis by Willy Amrhein and Josef Kuster.                               –E.Wroughton and C Wingfield made two-day tour over the Derbyshire moors.                              -Rhaetian railway used regularly by skiers reaching Kublis and Prettigau.                               -23 October Founding of Swiss Ski Federation at Hotel Aarhof, Olten.  15 Swiss clubs with 731 members. Albert Weber (from Bern) President.                                                               -The Montreal Ski Club formed in Montreal QC. Carly S. King, Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.                                                                                                                                   -Berg and Bjornstad ran courses at Engelberg, Glarus, Andermatt, Grindelwald, Les Avants, Lenzerheide, Zuoz and St Gallen.  Some 700 qualified skiers were trained.                      -Hannes Schneider joined ski course run by Viktor Sohm. Gerald Fairlie biography.                                                                                                                                                              -First Bulletin “Ski” published.”                                                                                                     -An estimated 10,000 sporting, professional and military skied then in Central Europe.                                                                                                         -Skiing reported in the Atlas Mountains, Algeria. La Montagne 11, 4 (20 April 1906) 189.

                                                    1905                                                                                               January: W.R. Rickmers taught at Adelboden.  Adelboden English Ski Club was founded by T. Smyth Hughes.                                                                                                                  -21 January.  First meeting of Swiss Ski Federation at Glarus to organise activities of the inconveniently large number of Swiss ski clubs.                                                                  -Glarus Ski Club organised the first Grosse Skirennen der Schweiz.  Crosscountry over Pragel Pass.  Military Crosscountry and Jumping; Women’s Crosscountry; Crosscountry for Youth on Fassdauben.  Leif Berg won the jump with 27metres.   He also skied from Titlisgipfel to Trubsee in 29 minutes.     

-First issue of Year Book of the Ski Club of Great Britain.                                                    -English Officer on skis in Gulmarg region, India.  “Year Book of the SCGB”.

-“The Battle of the Bindings” was concluded, thanks to diplomatic visits of Schwerdtner to Christiania and Horn to Lilienfeld.

-Finland’s first wooden skijump built in Alppila, Helsinki. Pekka Honkanon: “The History of Skijumping in Finland.”

-19 March.  Zdarsky set the first gate race, precursor of the modern slalom on the Muckenkogel near Lilienfeld.

-4 November. German Ski Federation founded in Munich.   A few hours later the Austrian Ski Federation and Central Europe Ski Federation were founded.

-Japanese fought on skis in Russo-Japanese war. Tokyo Morning Post cited in Algemeines Korrespondenzblatt 12. 24 February 1905. 119.

-National Ski Association of America founded at Ishpeming, Michigan. E. John Allen.  The Modernization of the Skisport:  Ishpeming’s contribution to American Skiing. Michigan Historical Review 16.1.  Spring 1990 1-20.                                                                                                                     -Public Schools Winter Sports Club founded from Eton and Harrow parties by Henry Lunn.  He took over hotels at Montana, Klosters, Lenzerheide and Villars.

                                                        1906

-24-27 February.  Helsinki Ski Club organised its first international ski competition   . Eljanko Harri & Kirja Vainen: History of Skiing in Finland 1969.

-Italian troops trained by Harald Smith and Christian Klucker at Sauze, Italy.

-“The Ski Runner” (“Der Skilauf” in german) published by H, Hoek and E.C.Richardson.  Combination of Norwegian technique with Zdarsky’s stem.                                                                                                             -First Arbeiter Skischule founded in Vienna.   Falkner.

-Finnish explorer, Professor Artturi Kannisto made his first expedition to study the language in western Siberia.  He used skis to travel from one village to another and described skis used by local people - short broad skis, without tar.  Good in late spring when the snow holds. Eino Nikkila.1966.                                                                         -Colonel Georg Bilgeri began to teach civilians.    He also provided the Austrian government with 150 page memorandum on Alpine warfare (later captured and translated by the Italians.)                                                                                                                                                            -Paravicini made ski tour near Fujirama.    Paravicini “Ski in Japan” Ski (Mittel Eur Ski Verband (16. 30 March 1906).                                                                                                                                                                                                              

                      1907

 -Hannes Schneider started to teach skiing to guests at Hotel Post, St Anton am Arlberg Gerald Fairlie biography.                                                                                                     -Grand Combin climbed by Professor Francois Roget and Marcel Kurz with guide, Maurice Crettex                                                                                                                      -Ottawa Ski Club formed in Ottawa ON  Carly S. King, Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.  -New ski jumps built at Vyborg and Tempere, Finland. Pekka Hokanen History of Ski Jumping in Finland 1990.                                                                                                       -1907-8 Skiing reported in Iran near Sultanabad c.180 SW of Teheran.  British Ski Year Book  XVI (1955) possibly before this, as a race meeting was being planned in 1906.                                                                                                                       -20 March First Concours International de Ski held at Mont Genevre. La Montagne III 3.                                                                                                                     -Norwegian Ski Association founded.                                                                                    -Zakopane Ski Society founded.                                                                                            -24 October Gstaad Ski Club founded.                                                                                  -22 November Scottish Ski Club founded.                                                                                -First Concours International de Ski held at Mont Genevre. La Montagne III 3. 20 March 1907.                                                                                                                                         -First accident insurance for skiers and mountaineers offered by “Naturfreund” of Austria in Vienna.                                                                                                                               -First ski competitions held in Italy.                                                                                       -30.12-1994 Sigmund Ruud, born Kongsberg, Norway. World Champion Ski Jumper 1929.

                                                                1908           

-The first skilift in the world was set up in Schollach (Schwarzwald).  It rose 75m and was 550m long  Falkner

 -17 February.  First Ski Club of Great Britain meeting in Kitzbuhel, with Nordic and Alpine events organised by W.R. Rickmers. Year Book of Ski Club of Great Britain, 1908                                                                    -26 February.  Finnish Ski Association founded.  H Nygren, Antero Reivuori and Terno Makokuutti 1983.                                                                                                                     -7 March Alpine Ski Club founded by Arnold Lunn.                                                                                                                                                                 -Italian Ski Association founded.                                                                                   Arnold Lunn and Cecil Wybergh skied dangerous mule path on Rawyl Pass on the way from Montana to Lenk.  Choice of route publicly criticized.                                                                                     -1908-9 Hotel was built for winter sporting at Kosciusko, Australia. Der Winter V 15 10 February 1912. 236 and Bernard Head “Five Weeks in New South Wales” Year Book of the Ski Club of Great Britain 1911 53I.                                                                                 -3.2-26.7.92 O Hagen born NOR.  Won Nordic combined 1934, 1935 and 1936 - 3 medals in 4 days at Garmisch-Partenkirchen Olympics 1936. IOC Museum.              

 

                                                              1909                                                                           -Kosciusko Alpine Club founded.  Stewart Jamieson “Skiing in Australia” Australian Quarterly (14 March 1932): 106                                                                                           -Ski Club of GB organised tour to Montenegro and Turkey, introducing skis to the region.                                                                                                                                     -Thomas Cook started to offer ski holidays.                                                                           -French and German skiers competed at Holmenkollen.                                                         -Triberg in the Black Forest held first international winter sports meeting in Germany.                                                                                                                          -F. Noelting from Alsace introduced skis to the Caucasus.                                                    -Arnold Lunn and Professor Francois Roget made first full-length Oberland traverse via the Petersgrat from Kandersteg to Meiringen.                                                                       -Bernard Head skied on Tasman Glacier. Year Book of Ski Club of GB 1910 23-4.            -Vivian Caulfeild wrote first attack on use of sticks.  He promoted Telemark and Christiania for S-turns.These matters had been emphasised in “Ski-Running” in 1904 and 1905 but many British skiers had since fallen into bad habits.                                                                                                                                        Arnold Lunn broke his leg badly climbing in Wales.                                                            -25 December.  Austrian Egon Edler von Kratzer made first Japanese ski tour. “ Alpine Skilauf in Japan” Der Schnee IX 24. 4 April 1914. 207.                                                                                                                  -Harold Smith jumped 45m – a world record.

                                                           1910                                                                            -5th January-12^th March.  Theodor von Lerch arrived in Tokada, foothills of Japanese Alps and made first tour in February.   Theodor von Lerch. “Erste Winterhochturen in Japan.”  “Zeitschrift des Deutschen und Osterreichischen Alpenvereins 63 (1932) 74         -18 February First International Ski Commission, Oslo NOR.    Karl Roll became president.  22 delegates from 10 countries. Bruno Morovetz, FIS Bulletin No 127 1999.        -Hilltop resort in Truckee, California, opened steam-driven toboggan tow, which also hauled skiers to top of slope.                                                                                                 -Ottawa Ski Club founded in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.  Carly S King. The Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.                                                                                                                   -Hannes Schneider developed the Arlberg technique and taught a turn which became known as the stem-christiania. Gerald Fairlie Biography.                                                                                                                                                                     -First skiers were reported in Bulgaria on lower slopes of Mt Vitosha near Sofia. Sir Francis Lindley, “A Diplomat Off Duty.”  Ernest Bann, London, 1928.  81.                                                                           -Publication of 2 important books:  “Der Alpine Skilauf” (synthesis of Norwegian and Zdarsky techniques tailored for ski-mountaineering) by Colonel Georg Bilgeri and “Skiing for Beginners and Mountaineers” (pioneer work on mountain and avalanche craft). by W.R. Rickmers.                                                                                                        -Mountain railway at Wengen opened in winter to allow skiing.                                          -Arnold Lunn allowed to join Ski Club of GB (previously banned as father ran tours)      and Henry Lunn knighted for promoting Anglo-German relations.                                                                                                                                                      

1911

-7 January, Montana.  First Roberts of Kandahar Cup for Downhill, won by Cecil Hopkinson. Lunn. “The Kandahar Story.”

-5 March First Baron von Willibrandt challenge cup run in Sweden and won by Sulo Jaaskelainen of Finland.  Pekka Honkanon The Story of Skijumping in Finland.1990.

-Canada’s first professional ski instructor, Emile Cochand, was brought to the Laurentian Mountain region in Quebec from Switzerland. Carly S. King, Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.

-Murren railway opened in winter so skiers could use it as lift.                                            -First mention in print of the term stem-christiania. Der Moderne Skisport by C.J. Luther.                                             -Downhill Telemarks become fashionable with English skiers.  Single pole almost extinct.                                                                                                                                   -Cortina d’Ampezzo opened for winter sports.                                         

-Ski Club Echigo founded in Japan and one at University of Sapporo.  Wolfram  Manzenreiter “Die Soziale Konstruktion des Japanischen Alpinismus.”  Wien: Institut fur Ostasienwissenschaften. Vienna University 2000. 90.

-Second International Ski Commission, Stockholm SWE. Morovetz FIS Bulletin 1999.    Long uphill sections in races are banned.                                                                              - Publication of “How to Ski and How Not To” by Vivian Caulfeild.  First clear analysis in English of ski dynamics, including his theory of rudder action.

-Publication of “With Ski in Norway and Lapland” by J.H.W. Fulton.                             

 -December: Roald Amundsen with 4 others reached South Pole on skis.                                       -Arnold Lunn able to mountaineer again.  Decided to concentrate on ski-mountaineering but in summer climbed Dent Blanche on foot from Zermatt.                                                -23 August -13 June 1998 Birger Ruud, born Kongsberg, NOR.  Only competitor ever to win both Alpine and Nordic gold medals in Olympics – Downhill and Skijump in 1936.   Also world champion ski jumper 1931, 1935, 1937 and won Olympic Games Ski Jump 1932.  With his brother Sigmund he dominated ski competition in the early 1930s.

                                                      1912                                                                                             

-24-25 January, Third International Ski commission, Munich GER. Bruno Morovetz FIS Bulletin 1999.

-11 February foundation of first Japanese ski club, - Takada Ski Club.  Also first ski competition in Japan took place.  In December, Alpine Ski Club of Japan was founded by von Kratzer, Ottgo Euchler and Leopold Winkler but was disbanded in World War I.  Franz Klaus. “Lerch-Gedenken” Zdarsky-Blatter. March 1986. 5.                                                                                    -3 March. First Australian Ski Championships. Stewart Jamieson “Skiing in Australia” Australian Quarterly (14 March 1932): 106.                               

-The Jungfraubahn was completed and kept open in winter to the Jungfraujoch.                         

-“The Alpine Ski Guide to the Bernese Oberland” by Arnold Lunn was published.    First ski guide to any part of the Swiss Alps.                                                                                                                       -First Russian instruction book. Lt Eimelejous “Le Ski dan l’oeuvre militaire.”  St Petersburg: Th Gastew 1912 La Montagne IX 3 March 1913 77St Petersburg.                   -Very poor season in the Alps due to snow shortage and recurrent thaws.                            -First ascent of Lauterbrunnen Breithorn (3779m) by Arnold Lunn and Edward Tennant.                     -Nels Nelson emigrated from Norway to Revelstoke, BC.  Shortly after, he established himself as a driving force in the Revelstoke skiing community, organizing its first winter carnival and ski tournament. Carly S. King, Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.                       -25 February Emile Allais born Megeve, FRA. Alpine world champion 1937 Chamonix and 1938 Engelberg.  Helped to develop French parallel skiing technique by teaching and writing books. After the war he visited Quebec, Canada; Portillo, Chile; Meribel, France, Mont Tremblant Canada, Sun Valley and Squaw USA.  Returned to be Technical Director at Courchevel from 1954-64, then La Plagne and finally retired to Flaine and Megeve.  Skiing Heritage 2005.

1913.  

- “Skiing” by Arnold Lunn published.  First book to veto stick-riding in Downhill races                                                                                                                                -Sepp Allgeier of Freiburg and Arnold Fanck filmed the first High Alpine ski film, “Monte Rosa on Ski” at the invitation of Dr O.D. Tauern.                                                           -First crossing of Cairngorms on ski by Sang and Arthur of the Scottish Ski Club.                                  -20-21 March Fourth International Ski Commission Bern-Interlaken SUI. Bruno Morovetz FIS Bulletin 1999.                                                                                                                           -Simple stemming competition organised by Kosciusko Alpine Club.  G.R.T. Ward Diamond Jubilee of the Kosciusko Alpine Club.                                                         -McGill University newspaper carried a notice of a meeting of those interested in skiing to discuss formation of club.   The McGill Ski Club was formed as an affiliate of the Montreal Ski Club.  A crosscountry and ski-jumping meet was held with McGill college and Dartmouth college of Hanover, NH, USA in January 1914 – the first intercollegiate meet in America. – Bob Soden, Montreal, QC, Canada.                                                       -First Finnish Championships E&K-69                                                                                 -Mt Ruapehu Ski Club formed  R.C. Murie  New Zealand Skiing. Ski Notes & Queries 53 (May 1934) 297                                                                                                                     -2 December – 9 July 1999 Esme (Muffie) Mackinnon GBR. Winner of First Ladies Alpine Ski Championships in 1931, held at Murren.  She won both Slalom and Downhill despite stopping politely when a funeral crossed the Downhill course near Lauterbrunnen Station.

                                                            1914                                                                                  -27-28 February, Fifth International Ski Commission, Christiania, NOR.

1915

 -January, Villars.  First competition for Army, Navy and Air Force Cup                            -Skidalfjaviker founded (Reykjavik, Iceland)  Der Winter 27 (September 1934).

-Skiing first mentioned as a tourist attraction, when the Hermitage at Mt Cook, New Zealand, opened early. Nan Bowie “Nick Bowie: The Hermitage Years”.  Wellington Reed.1969.32.                                                                                                                 

                                                    1916                                               

 -Skiing recorded in Morocco near Tinihardit (near Meknes) “La Montagne XIII (July-

September 1917)

-Emil Lampinen sold his ski factory to Oy Urheilutarpeita C (owned by Arno

Hohenthal), in Helsinki.  Factory burnt down in 1939, rebuilt with extension 1954 as Oy Urheilu Karhu.  Merged 1973 with Tiitola Oy as Karhu Titan Oy.  Moved to Kitee in eastern Finland.  Renamed Ke                                                     rko Sport. Ski production ceased there in 1990s.

-British and French prisoners of war were sent from Germany to Switzerland.  Arnold Lunn organised their adminstration.  He began to study snowcraft systematically and in April skied from Zinal to Zermatt with Joseph Knubel.

-December.  About 3,000 soldiers on the Austrian front in the Dolomites were killed by avalanches. 

-1916–1919 Professor Sakari Palsi made expedition to eastern Siberia.  His diary recorded  “There is only slight powder snow so there is no friction between the ski and the snow.  People use snowshoes or very short skis for walking.  Eino Nikkila 1966.

-1 July-28 September 2004 Christl Cranz (m Adolf Bochers) GER  Ladies Alpine FIS Ski  Champion 1934, 1935, 1938, 1939; Ladies Alpine Olympic Ski Champion 1936.    The most successful lady ski racer of the 1930’s

                                                         1917

 -18 June.  First ski ascent of the Dom, the highest mountain entirely in Switzerland, by Arnold Lunn and Joseph Knubel.

-Emile Cochand built the first Canadian ski resort, Chalet Cochand in Ste Marguerite QC. Carly S King, Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.

                                                           1918

-26 October – 18 October 2006 Marc Hodler, born Berne SUI.   President of the International Ski Federation 1951-1998.  Learnt to ski as a boy in Murren.  At Berne University joined Swiss Alpine Racing team and became expert in early development of Slalom and Downhill ski racing. Injury at Engelberg in 1938 stopped him racing.  Elected chairman of FIS Downhill-Slalom Committee 1949 and FIS President aged 32.  Changed ski racing from amateur to professional to avoid abuses.  Represented skiing on International Olympic Committee from 1963 where he condemned bribery.     

                                                          1919

 -24 November:  The Cliffside Ski Club was formed in Ottawa ON at a meeting in Carnegie Library Carly S King, Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa,

-In Germany ATB became ATSB – Arbeiter Turn und Sport Bund Nitsch 1984 Simon 1969  

 -11 February 1919-13.February 1994 Gretchen Fraser USA. First non-European Lady to win Olympic Gold Medal for skiing (Downhill 1948, St Moritz).                                 -14 November- 22 February 2005 Honore Bonnet born Barcelonnette FRA.  French Ski Team Manager 1959-68 who inspired Jean-Claude Killy, Guy Perillat, Marielle and Christine Goitschel, Henri Duvillard and JeanVuarnet. Fought in Maquis in World War 2. With Serge Lang, Sepp Sulzberger and Bob Beattie created the World Cup at Portillo.  Founded Pra Loup resort.                                           

                                                          1920

-6 June-21 November 1999, Serge Lang born Alsace FRA.  Founder of World Cup.  Journalist on l’Equipe, who, with Honore Bonnet (FRA), Bob Beattie (USA) and later Sepp Sulzberger AUT, laid down rules for FIS World Cup.   At Portillo, (CHI) in 1966 the idea was proposed and on 11 August Marc Hodler announced its acceptance by FIS.  The first event was held at Berchtesgaden on 5 January 1967.   Until his death he directed the World Cup.

-In the 1920s Finns adopted Norwegian competition of crosscountry, jumping and nordic combined.  Used solid metallic bindings instead of leather and then trap bindings.  Waxing improved.  Parviainen 2002

-“Wunder der Schneeschuhs”, first of Arnold Fanck’s films with Hannes Schneider.

Fanck’s films and the development of the Arlberg technique taught by Schneider had a big influence on the popularity of skiing.                                                                                Foundation of Ski Club of Australia.  Ski Notes & Queries 47 (May 1932) 350                  -Canadian Amateur Ski Association formed in Montreal.  H. Percy Douglas elected president.  First annual general meeting held in 1921. Carly S. King Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.

                                                      1921                                                                                                                                                                   

-Henrik Jacobson became the first professional ski instructor in US.                                         -The first National Ski Championships  to include Alpine events – a Slalom judged on style and a Downhill - were run by the British above Wengen, Switzerland. (Men’s Slalom result cancelled due to weather).

                                                      1922  

-10 February Sixth International Ski Commission, Stockholm SWE .Morovetz FIS Bulletin 1999

-21 January .Arnold Lunn changed the slalom rules and organised at Murren the first modern slalom through awkwardly placed gates and judged on speed not style. Lunn, The Kandahar Story.

-United States Eastern Amateur Ski Association formed (Amski 1966).

-Emil Lampinen opened new ski factory in Kerkoo, S Finland.  Most skis exported until the 1970s.  In 1984 Oy Lampinen Sport specialised in roller skis and water skis.G.S. -97                                                                                                                                    -4 March Vasa Race first run.

- Lahti Ski Club founded LHS 1982.                                                                                                                                  -December – First skijump built in Lahti Sports Centre, designed by Norwegian Robert Pehrson.

                                                       1923

-6 February  Seventh International Ski Commission. Prague TCH. Morovetz FIS Bulletin 1999

-Ladies Ski Club founded by British at Murren to encourage alpine racing for ladies. “The Story of Skiing”

-10-11 February First Japanese National Ski Championships.  Also first jumping in Otaru.  Winner jumped 16.10m.  Massaji, Iguro  “Development of Skiing in Japan in Federation Internationale du Sport Universitaire FISU 17-21 January 1968.  Innsbruck. Graz. Zentraler Hochschulsport Ausschuss Osterreucgsm 1968 71.

-Norway’s Ski Museum opened. Vaage Skienes Verden.

-First Lahti Ski Games .  50km winner T. Niku, 10km winner A. Collin. Pekka Honkanon The History of Skijumping in Finland 1990.

                                                             1924

-24 January-4 February  Chamonix. Eighth International Ski Commission which founded the International Ski Federation (FIS). President Ivar Holmquist NOR.  International Winter Sports Week – later recognised as first Winter Olympic Games.  Nordic events only -  18km crosscountry, 50km crosscountry, ski jumping and nordic combination (Morovetz FIS Bulletin 1999.)  Haug mistakenly declared winner but medal given later to Andreas Haugen USA  Allen: “We showed the world the Nordic way” “Skiing, Norwegians and the Winter Olympic Games in the 1920s”in Kay Schaffer and Sidonie Smith (Eds) “The Olympics at the Millennium: Power Politics and the Games.”  New Brunswick Rutgers University Press 2000.                                                                            -Toronto Ski Club Incorporated. Carly S. King Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.                                                                                    -2 complete skis and a pole found buried at Kalvetrask, Sweden, dating back to 2,700BC.  -29 January.  Kandahar Ski Club founded at Murren. Lunn.  The Kandahar Story.            -Walter Amstutz founded the Schweizerische Academische Skiklub (SAS) A History of Skiing by Arnold Lunn. Oxford University Press 1927 253.

 

                                                             1925                                                                                                                                                

-31 January- 2 February. Ist Workers Winter Sports, Schreiberhau, Riesengebirge, Germany. Organised by Karl Buhren and including skijump (Men and Youths), Combined, Obstacle race, 30km and 15km Crosscountry (Youths and Women)                                                                                                                       -15 February. Foundation of Japanese Ski Association. Massaji 72. Changed its name to Japanese Zen Nippon Ski Renmei in 1938. Der Winter 32 5 December 1938 309.               -Nels Nelson of Revelstoke BC broke the world’s longest ski jump record with a leap of 224 feet (73.125m) in February. He later extended this to 240 feet. Carly S. King, Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.                                                                                                –9/14 April     Capt de Gennes, Schwindler, Michelet and Armardeil made expedition in the Pelvoux range                                                                                                            -Middle 1920s.  Rudolf Lettner invented metal edges for skis. Falkner.                              –FIS Rendezvous Races Johannisbad, Czechoslovakia (later recognised as Nordic World Ski Championships).                                                                                                                      -5 December –7 October 1962 Henri Oreiller, born Paris FRA.  Fought with Maquis in World War 2;  won France’s first Olympic gold medals for  Downhill and Alpine Combined at St Moritz 1948; killed motorracing.

                                                                       1926

-Foundation of Ski Club of India.  Dermot Norris, “Kashmir: the Switzerland of India,” Calcutta: Newman, London. Groom.

-Publication in English of “The Wonders of Skiing” by Hannes Schneider and Arnold Fanck .

-Oscar Hambro of Norway opened first US ski shop in Boston.  Amski 1966  446.                                   

-1926-7 Reinhard Straumann, an ex-jumper published in “Ski” the aerodynamics of ski jumping.  He also used the wind tunnel at the University of Gottingen. Max Triet and Marcel Muller.  “The Hindered Revolution or Reinhard Straumann and his struggle for  S-Scoring in Ski Jumping.” Esaprint 2001.77.

 -FIS Rendezvous Races, Lahti. 30km and 50km crosscountry and Hors Concours race for women. 

-Emil Lampinen awarded gold medal at World Fair, Philadelphia for his skis.  

-8 March  First US modern Downhill race held at Mt Moosilauke, New Hampshire by Dartmouth Outing Club. Won by Charles N. Proctor   1942 American Ski Association pp 26-30.

                                                                      1927                                                      

-Otto Schniebs was first Arlberg instructor to arrive in US.  He became coach of Harvard team, official instructor for Appalachian Mountain Club in Boston.  Finally set up ski school at Lake Placid in 1936.

-FIS Ski Championships, Cortina d’Ampezzo ITA

-Arnold Lunn visited Hannes Schneider at St Anton.  He set a small Slalom for local

boys and the two men decided to run a Downhill and Slalom event the following year.

-First Ounasvaara Ski Games in Rovaniemi, Finland.  E&K .69.

-2 September-1952 Trude Beiser, born Lech AUT  Ladies Olympic Ski  Champion 1948, at St Moritz.  Also won Gold Medal for Downhills 1950 World Championships, Aspen  and 1952 Olympics, Oslo.       

-11 December Stein Eriksen born Oslo NOR  Olympic Gold Medal GS in 1952 Giant Slalom. Silver in  Slalom.  Also Gold Medal, for Slalom, Giant Slalom and Combined in 1954 World Championships.   Excellent acrobatic skier, performing somersaults and swan dives, encouraging freestyle.  Ran skischools in several resorts including Heavenly Valley, Portillo and Aspen Highlands.  Founded luxurious Deer Valley in Utah.

                                                                  1928

-Winter Olympic Games at St Moritz.  Nordic events only.  Japan entered for the first time.   Race organisers were encouraged to try out Arnold Lunn’s Alpine rules.                                                                                                              -First Inferno race run at Murren. 14 men and 4 women competed.  Alan d’Egville “Adventures in Safety” London . Sampson Low, Marston 272-274

-Foundation of Netherlands Ski Federation.

-Norwegian Erling Strom built Mt Assiniboine Lodge Carly S. King Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.

-31 March-1 April The first Arlberg-Kandahar was organised at St Anton, by Hannes Schneider and the Kandahar Ski Club.   The oldest open Combined Downhill and Slalom event in the world. Until the World Cup started it was the top alpine event each year. British Ski Year Book 1928.                                                                                                   –New Ski Jumps built at Rovaniemi and Kuopio FIN.

 

                                                                   1929

-International Ski Championships in Zakopane, Poland.  A Downhill was included in which 2 women raced with the men. British Ski Year Book 1929.

 -First crosscountry ski manual published in Finnish. Roni Ranne Murtormaahiihto Helsinki.                                                                                                                      

-Foundation of Schweizerische Damen Skiclub. Hopp Schweiz, edited by Max Triet.                                                         -Chateau opened at Tongariro, New Zealand.  Ruapehu Ski Club organized first New Zealand Championships. J.C.Graham. Ruapehu.  Tribute to a Mountain. Wellington, Reed. 1963 32.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          -Two skiers at Fonteintjisberg, S Africa. “The Cape Times” 15 July 1929.       

-Visit to Japan of three Norwegians, Kolterud, Snersrud and Helset.  Helset letters in Aftenposten 9, 15, 28 February. 3 April 1929.                                                                       -Publication of “Schneeschuhlauf” by Karl Buhren and Waldemar Richter – a lasting influence on working class skiers.                                                                                        –Peckett’s-on-Sugar-Hill Arlberg ski school near Franconia NH was founded by Katherine Peckett to become the first resort-based ski school in the US,   Adler Congress paper.                                                                                                                                    -9 March.  First American slalom set by Professor Charles A Proctor of Dartmouth College following Arnold Lunn’s experimental FIS rules.   Hooke p 231.                                                                                                      -First ski train ran in the United States from Boston to Warner New Hampshire.Amski 1966 447.  

                                                              1930                                                                                                                                                             -Optrekk style of jumping no longer considered valid in competition. Vaage Skienes    Verden.  265.                                                                                                                                         -First Kilometre Lance was run at St Moritz by Kurdirektor Walter Amstutz.  British Ski Year Book. 1930 697-700.                                                                                                     -Lauberhorn Race founded at Wengen and won by locals, Ernst Gertsch (Slalom) and Christian Rubi (Downhill).                                                                                                     -13 March-4 April Hannes Schneider visited Japan. and gave ski lessons there.  Hannes Schneider “Auf Schi in Japan” Innsbruck Tyrolia 1935.                                                      -FIS Congress in Oslo at which it was agreed that Arnold Lunn’s Downhill and Slalom rules should be used in international FIS races.

                                                         1931

1 February Madeleine Berthod born SUI  Won Downhill and Combined  1956 Olympic Games Cortina.                                                                                                       -Skoki backcountry ski lodge built at Banff, Alberta by pioneers Clifford White and Cyril Paris. Carly S. King, Curator/Director, Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.                                            -Laminated ski construction patented simultaneously by Ostbye-Splitkein in Norway and Anderson and Thompson in Seattle.                                                                                       -First Hahnenkamm run at Kitzbuhel.                                                                                    -5-8 February.  Workers second Winter Sports Olympics held at Murzzuschlag AUT.                                                                                                                           -First FIS Alpine World Championships, Murren, SUI organised by the British. British Ski Year Book 1931 FIS Nordic World Championships at Oberhof. GER.                        

                                                            1932                                                                           -First Winter Olympic Games outside Europe held at Lake Placid USA. Nordic events only.    FIS World Alpine Championships held at Cortina d’Ampezzo.                                                                                                                                   -First North American rope tow was in use at Shawbridge, Quebec.                                                  -Esko Jarvinen started to produce skis in Lahti, Finland with the name Uheilukeskus Oy. In 1939 the name was changed to Esko Jarvinen Oy, supplies were sent to Boston and New York, USA and big supplies were sent to Finnish troops.   The factory was expanded four times.  In 1974 they made fibreglas skis.   Jarvinen skis won 387 Olympic and World Championship medals.   The company closed in 1991. P & T 1992.                                    -19 April Andrea Mead Lawrence born Rutland, Vermont USA.  Won Slalom and Giant Slalom, 1952 Oslo World Championships.  Active environmentalist in Eastern Sierras. Morten Lund I Skiing Heritage December 2002.

                                                            1933                 

-FIS World Nordic Championships at Innsbruck included Mens Relay for the first time.    -Ski jumping record of 281 feet, held by Alf Engen of Salt Lake City, Utah broken by Robert S Lymburne with a jump of 287ft. Carly S King Canadian Ski Museum Ottawa.                                                                                                   -Alex Foster (CAN) a Montreal student, invented a rope ski tow that was installed on a hill at Shawbridge QC.  A contemporary newspaper article refers to it being in operation in January 1933 Morten Lund, editor of Skiing Heritage.   Moise Paquette, a mechanic in Ste Adele QC may have built some ski tows for tourist hotels prior to 1933 Paul McMorris – ski historian http//www.skiing.history.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=63 –Bob Soden, Montreal West, QC. Canada.                                                                                          -New Zealand Womens Championships first organised in Downhill and Slalom.Graham. Ruapehu. Tribute to a Mountain. Wellington, Reed 1963:33.

         1934          

-Ski flying hill built at Planica, Yugoslavia SLO.                                                                  -FIS Nordic Championships Solleftea SWE.                                                                         -First Teleski (Bugellift) installed at Davos by E. Constam.                                                  -1934-1951 Nicolai R. Oestgaard of Norway succeeded Ivor Holmquist as President of FIS.

1935                                                         

 -FIS Nordic Championships Hohe Tatra TCH.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            -Ernst Skadarasy from Zuers, Austria, spent season at Kosciusko.  Janis M Lloyd. “Skiing into History 1924-1984.  Toorak:Ski Club of Victoria 1986 556.                                            -17 November Anton (Toni) Sailer born Kitzbuhel AUT.   First Triple winner at  Cortina Olympics in 1956.  Technical Director of Austrian Ski Association  1972-6.  Chief of Race at Hahnenkamm  1986-2006. Filmstar, author, appointed Chairman of FIS Alpine Committee 1983.

                                                      1936

-First Winter Olympic Games to include Alpine races (Slalom and Downhill but medal awarded for Combined only) for men and women.   Held at Garmisch-Partenkirchen.                                                                                                                     -FIS World Alpine Championships, Innsbruck.                                                                     -First chairlift built in Sun Valley, Idaho, USA.                                                                   -First Jumping manual published by Paavo Nuotio in Finland - Lauri Valonen Maenlaskun opas P&N 1969.                                                                                                            -“Snow Structure and Ski Fields” by Gerald Seligman was published.  It analysed the structure of the snow crystal and aided avalanche prevention.                                      --Asoh Takeharu was first Japanese to take the Austrian Teachers exam. 75 Jahre Japan Oesterreich Skifreund. 1911-86.  Lilienfeld Zdarsky Gezellschaft mit Unterstutzung der Staatgemeinde Lilienfeld TMSn.p.                                                                                          -18 March Ingemar Stenmark born, Tarneby, SWE.  Won World Championship  Slalom and Giant Slalom in 1978, Olympic Gold for Slalom and Giant Slalom in 1980, World Championship Slalom and 2^nd in Giant Slalom in 1982.  Won Overall World Cup 1976,1977, 1978.

                                                      1937

-FIS Nordic Championships Chamonix FRA.                                                                       -12 November, J.B. Ski Club formed in Montreal QC by a group of the Montreal Junior Board of Trade.  Carly S. King, Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa                                          -August. First ski tow in Australia (120 yards long) powered by a V-8 Cadillac engine on Mt Buffalo, built by Victorian railways. Australian and New Zealand Ski Year Book (1938): 17                                                                                                                               -New ski jump in Rovaniemi, FIN following new safety rules E & K                                                                                                   -First Citadin race (Duke of Kent Cup) set in Murren by Arnold Lunn.   Lunn.  The Kandahar Story.                                                                                                                                   -3^rd Workers Winter Sports Olympiade. Johannisbad. Giant Mountains   Gerd Falkner. .  -Publication in France of “Ski Francais” by Emile Allais and Paul Gignoux in which Emile Allais promoted a direct-to-parallel ski teaching method that discouraged the use of snowplough and stem – Bob Soden, Montreal QC Canada.

                                                       1938

-Veli Saarinen takes over as Finnish trainer until 1948.  Nygren,  R and T 1983.                                           –February.  Joseph Ryan opened Mont Tremblant ski area in the northern Laurentian Mountains of Quebec. - Carly S King, Curator/Director,  Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.                                                                                           -Canadian Ski Instructors Alliance /Alliance des Moniteurs de Ski du Canada (CSIA) founded in the Laurentian Mountains ski region of Quebec just north of Montreal by Heinz von Allman and Louis Cochand Normand Lapierre, president and CEO CSIA.                                                                                                                                 -FIS Nordic World Championships using new Ski Jump, Lahti, FIN.  Alpine World Championships, Engelberg SUI.                                                                                                        -First chairlift in Europe at Frydek-Mistek, Czechoslovakia.                                               -First U.S. Ski Patrol established at Stowe under Minot Dole as chairman of national committee.  Amski 1966 p448 Friedl.                                                                                    -Hannes Schneider imprisoned by Nazis and then sent to Garmisch-Partenkichen in the care of Karl Roesen. Arlberg-Kandahar cancelled by Arnold Lunn.                                    -17 November Karl Schranz born St Anton AUT.  Won World Championship Downhill and Combined, Chamonix 1962.  Won Overall World Cup 1969, 1970.  President of successful St Anton World Championships 2001.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

                                                             1939

-Hannes Schneider through aid of Harvey Dow Gibson allowed to emigrate with wife and children to USA.   Took over Eastern Slope Ski School at Cranmore, New Hampshire.  Fairlie biography                                                                                                                      -Hjalmar Hvam invented the world’s first useful release binding in Seattle. Amski 1966 p448 -7- Friedl

-Zakopane, POL.  FIS Nordic & Alpine World Championships including Crosscountry, Jumping, Nordic Combination, Slalom, Downhill and Combined.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

-11 January  Anne Heggtveit born Ottawa, CAN.  Olympic Combined Champion,  Squaw Valley 1960.  Youngest ever winner of  Holmenkollen Giant Slalom when 15.

                                                            1940

-Canadian Ski Patrol System organised by Dr Doug Firth, Toronto ON Carly S King, Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.   Canadian Ski Instructors Association  published its first ski teaching manual - Normand Lapierre, President & CEO CSI.

-Unofficial World Championships at Cortina but not recognised when the war ended.

                                                          1941

-Publication of “Parallel Skiing” by E. Fritz Losli, in which he describes how he teaches parallel skiing from the start without using snowplow or stem.  He taught as head instructor of the Ski Hawk School at the Chateau Frantenac in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada – Bob Soden Montreal, QC Canada.

                                                    

                                                          1942                                                                                                                                      -US Army’s Tenth Mountain Division activated at Camp Hale, Pando, Colorado; National Ski Patrol named as official recruiting organization and Minot Dole rounded up 2000 volunteers and sent them to Pando in two months. Friedl                                               

                                                          1943

-11 May.  Nancy Greene, born Ottawa CAN, learnt to ski as soon as she could walk, in Rossland, British Columbia. Overall World Cup 1967 and 1968.  Ladies Olympic World Champion 1968 Grenoble.  Married Al Raine (successful Canadian Team Manager) and, with him, developed Whistler resort and founded Sun Peaks in British Columbia.

-30 August, Jean-Claude Killy born St Cloud, FRA.  Overall World Cup winner, 1966, 1967, 1968.  Triple Olympic winner Grenoble 1968.  Fronted successful Olympic Games, 1992, Albertville.

                                                         1944                                                                              -Tenth Mountain Division inactivated.                                                                                  -Benno Rybizka a top instructor from the Hannes Schneider Ski School in St Anton, came to Mont Tremblant. QC Carly S King, Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.                                -9 September Christine Goitschel born Ste Maxime FRA.  Elder of 2 ski-racing sisters. lst in 1964 Olympic GS, 2^nd in Slalom.

                                                        1945

-18 October Allied Control forbad all National Socialist organisations, among them the NSRL (national socialist organisation for physical exercise) which included skiing.

-6 November.  Founding of the Bavarian Ski Club, the first local ski club after the war.

17 December.  Directive 23 of Allied Control restricted and unmilitarised all sport in Germany.   Skiing was allowed only locally and all clubs and federations were disbanded.

Winter 1945/6.  First Bavarian Ski Championships after World War 2.

 -28 September  Marielle Goitschel born Ste Maxime, FRA. Ladies World Champion 1962 and 1966, Ladies Olympic Champion 1964.

                                                             1946

-P-Tex base invented by the Swiss firm Muller and Co. (Ski/R 1983 p41). Dynamic came out with a Cellulix base. (Her V8-1 1996)

-July. Donald Gomme GBR patented first ski made of wood and metal bonded.  He had learnt the technique while making aircraft during the 2^nd World War.  A revolutionary water-repellent tough plastic surface gave extra speed.                                                             –Aspen, Colorado opened with 1 chairlift.

                                                          1947

-6 December Workers South German Community Ski Federation founded in Esslingen, as forerunner of the German Ski Federation.

                                                         1948

 -Winter Olympic Games. St Moritz SUI.  Officially no German entries. Individual racers, men and women.                                                                                                               -Sporting goods manufacturer Jean Beyl introduced a releasing plate binding for alpine  skis, in Nevers, France; named it Look.                                                                                 -February. The Bavarian Ski Club reemerged under its prewar name.                                  -1 December. The Federation founded in the Soviet zone (which became East Germany)  was later to become the East German Ski Federation.                                                                                                                                                                    -Mt Norquay introduced the first chairlift in the Canadian Rockies. Carly S King Curator/Director Canadian Ski Museum,                                                                                                                        -First US national periodical, “Ski Magazine” evolved out of merger of Ski Illustrated (the changed name of the original Ski magazine), Ski News and Western Skiing. The new magazine was published by William T. Eldred. (Amski 1966 p449).                                     -First Lowlander Championship run by the Kandahar Ski Club between the Belgians, British, Danes and Dutch skiers.                                                                                           -First mass production of aluminum skis, by Chance Vought and TEY in Connecticut and Howard Head in Maryland.                                     

                                                       1949                                                                                                                                     -Russians became member of FIS and demanded rejection of Spain.  Arnold Lunn resigned in protest.                                                                                                                  -11-15 January.  German Ski Championships held in Soviet zone at Oberhof. Alpine events in Oberwiesenthal.                                                                                                            -Lasse Johansson took over as Finnish Jumping Trainer.                                                          –Squaw Valley, California opened.                                                                                         -9 October German Ski Federation re-established in Heidelberg.                                       -Art Hunt, Milton Pierce and Dave Richey - working together as TEY Manufacturing in Connecticut - field-tested the first snowmaking device at Walt Schoenknecht’s Mohawk Mountain in Cornwall USA.                                                                                                    -Canadian Ski Instructors Alliance (CSIA) incorporated.  A legal status was obtained to train and qualify ski instructors in Canada. Normand Lapierre, CSIA

                                                       1950

-FIS World Nordic Championships at Lake Placid.  Alpine World Championships, at Aspen USA.             

 

1951.  

-28 February Gustavo Thoeni born Trafoi ITA.  Combined Olympic Champion Sapporo 1972 and 1976.  Won World Championship Slalom and Giant Slalom St Moritz 1974. Won Overall World Cup 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975. Coached Alberto Tomba and Italian National Team                  

 -1951-98  Marc Hodler of Switzerland elected President of FIS succeeding Nicolai Oestgaard

-Steve Bradley introduced first “mogul cutter” slope grooming machine at Winter Park, Colorado.

                                                        1952                                                                                -Winter Olympic Games Oslo, NOR.  West Germans entered but no East Germans.  Giant Slalom became an Olympic discipline. Women’s races included. Falkner

-Hannes Marker invented his binding. Falkner.

                                                         1953

-27 March Annemarie Proell born Kleinarl, AUT. (m Moser)  Began skiing aged 4. Ladies Olympic Champion 1972 Sapporo, Ladies World Champion, 1978, Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Won Overall World Cup 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1979.                                                                                                                         

-3 December Franz Klammer born Mooswald, AUT.  Combined World Champion St Moritz 1974 Won 25 World Cup Downhills including Olympic Downhill 1976. Promotes skiing in Austria. Golfer.

                                                        1954

-FIS World Championships in Falun, SWE.   30km race for men and also womens’ relay included for first time..                                                                                                       -US National Ski Hall of Fame dedicated at Ishpeming, Michigan. -Henke Speed Fit buckle boots launched. Ski Racing 1983 44.                                                                    – Taos Ski Valley opened by Ernie Blake in New Mexico USA.                                                  -First Pirkan Hiihto track tour over 90km from Niinisalo to Tampere Nygren, Revuori, Makokuutti   “A Long Track” 1983.                                                                                                                     -Taos Ski Valley opened by Ernie Blake in New Mexico USA.                                                                                                                    

                                                1956

-26 January-5 February.Winter Olympic Games. Cortina d’Ampezzo, ITA.  Tony Sailer of Austria won first everTriple Gold in Giant Slalom, Slalom and Downhill.  Sixten Jernberg of Sweden, won gold in 50km, silver in 30km and 15km and bronze in the relay race. First Winter Olympics to be televised.

                                                    1957

-Bob Lange made the first plastic ski boot. Commercial introduction came in 1964 after adoption of buckles.  Also first step-in binding made by Cubco.

                                                     1958

-FIS World Nordic Championships, Lahti, FIN, with new Ski Jump.   18 countries compete. LHS-82 F.H.-91 P.H.-90.  Alpine World Championships, Badgastein AUT.

-First World Biathlon championships held in Saalfelden, Austria.                                      –Killington Vermont and Mount Bachelor, Oregon, opened inUSA.

-11/2 October.  Foundation of East German Ski Federation.                                                  -First Biathlon world Championships  held at Saalfelden AUT                                                                    1                                             1960

-Winter Olympic Games Squaw Valley, USA.  Anne Heggtveit, CAN won gold in Slalom and Combined so became the first non-European to claim the FIS Overall and Slalom World Championships.

-Start of Acrobatic Skiing.  Stein Eriksen performed amazing feats.

-Franz Kneissl made first ski of epoxy glass fibre, and marketed it with Seiler and Plymold.  It was to revolutionise ski production. (Ski/R 1983 p47).                                     –Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) founded.

-The Rendezvous races from 1929-34 were relisted as FIS World Championships.                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                  1961         

-“Instant Skiing” by Clif Taylor was published.  It explained how to teach beginners on short skis.

-The Canadian Ski Patrol System became accredited as a National Charitable Organization – operating independently from the Canadian Ski Association, Carly S King, Curator/Director Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.

                                                     1962

-Alpine Ski World Championships, Chamonix FRA. Nordic World Championships Zakopane, POL. Jumps from two heights 70m and 90m instituted for Olympic Games and World Cup events.

-Publication in USA of “Skiing for Beginners” in which Walter Foeger updates the description of his direct-to-parallel ski teaching method. –Bob Soden Montreal QC Canada.                                                                                                                                   –Vail opened in Colorado USA.

-12 January, Gunde Svan born Vansbro SWE.  In 1984 Olympics at Sarajevo he won 15km – the youngest man ever to win an Olympic crosscountry race.  Also 2^nd in 50km, 3rd in 30km and in winning relay team.   

6 March Erika Hess born Grafenort SUI won Combined World Championships 1982 Schladming, 1985 Bormio and 1987 Crans Montana. Overall World Cup Winner 1982 and 1984.

                                                     1963

-18 July, Marc Girardelli born Lustenau, LUX.  Won Overall World Cup 1985, 1986, Alpine Combined World Championships Crans-Montana 1987, Vail 1989and Sierra Nevada,1996.                                                                                                                    ,  Erika Hess born Grafenort SUI Won Slalom 1985;  Slalom and Combined, Crans-Montana 1987, World Cup 1989, 1991 and 1993

-29 January-9 February Winter Olympic Games, Innsbruck.

-First ski race for the blind.                                                                                                           -Ski Club of Great Britain set up the National Ski Federation of GB to control 

British ski racing. The British Ski Year Book 1964

-The start of snowboarding.

-Steamboat, Werner and Park City, Utah opened                                                                          1964                                       1964                                                                            

-26 November. Vreni Schneider born Elm SUI   Won Giant Slalom, Crans-Montana 1987 World Championships; Slalom and Giant Slalom, Calgary Olympic Games 1988, Giant Slalom, Vail, World Championships, 1989, Slalom, Saalbach-Hinterglemm 1991. Won Overall World Cup 1989, 1994 and 1995.                                                                        -Ski Club of Great Britain set up National Ski Federation of GB as governing body to control ski racing.                                                                                                                   –  Winter Olympic Games, Innsbruck AUT

                                                

                                        1965

-The first Canadian ski demonstration team attended the 5^th Interski Congress at Badgastein, Austria. Normand Lapierre, president and CEO CSIA.                                    –Lange produced first plastic boot.  

                                                 1966

-12 February Anita Wachter born Schruns AUT.  Won Combined at Calgary Olympics 1988.  Won Overall World Cup 1993.

7 April Michaela Figini born Prato SUI won Combined 1985 Bormio and 1987 Crans Montana.                                                                                

-16 December Alberto Tomba born Lazzaro di Savenna, ITA Won Olympic Giant Slalom Albertville 1992, Slalom and Giant Slalom Sierra Nevada 1996,Won Overall World Cup 1995,

                                                 1967                                                                                                    -5 January  Serge Lang with Honore Bonnet, Bob Beattie and Sepp Sulzberger launched the FIS World Cup with a race at Berchtesgaden.                                                                                                                     -19 June Bjorn Daehlie born Elverum NOR.  In 1992 Albertville World Championships won 10km C+15kmF and 50km C and in winning team for relay.  In 1993 won 10kmC+15kmF and 30kmC and in winning team relay.  In 1994 Lillehammer Olympics won 10km and 10kmC+15kmF.  In 1997 World Championships, Trondheim, won 10kmC, 10kmC+15kmF.  In 1998 Nagano Olympics won 10kmC and 50kmF and in winning team relay.

 

                                                  1968                      

-6-18 February. Winter Olympic Games at Grenoble.

-Schilthornbahn opened in Murren by Ernst Feuz.  Cablecar used in James Bond film “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”.  Used by about 2 million people annually.  Piz Gloria, revolving restaurant on top, opened in 1969.                          

-1968-72 Arto Tiainen official trainer for Finnish team.                                     –Introduction of NASTAR testing.             .              

                                                     1969

-21 February Petra Kronberger born Pfarrwerfen AUT.  Won Downhill Saalbach 1991World Championships; Olympic Slalom Albertville 1992;  Overall World Cup 1990, 1991, 1992.

-24 March Stefan Eberharter born Brixlegg AUT.   Won Giant Slalom Salt Lake City Olympics 2002, Super G St Moritz 2003, Overall World Cup 2002 and 2003.                                                                                                                                  

                                                    1970

-4 June Deborah Compagnoni born Sondrio ITA.  Won Super G, Albertville, 1992; Won Giant Slalom, Lillehammer Olympic Games 1994 and Sierra Nevada World Championships 1996;   Slalom and Giant Slalom at Sestrieres World Championships 1997; Olympic Giant Slalom at Nagano.   Olympic Giant Slalom, Salt Lake City 2002.   Won Overall World Cup 2002, 2003.

-FIS Nordic World Championships Hohe Tatra, (TCH).  Alpine World Championships, Val Gardena (ITA).                                                                                                                   –Crosscountry skis made with fishscale bottoms.  The Story of Modern Skiing.

                                                       1971

-2 September Kjetil-Andre Aamodt born Oslo NOR.   Won Super G Albertville Olympics 1992, Slalom and Giant Slalom, Morioka World Championships 1993,  Combined Sestrieres World Championships 1997,  Combined Vail World Championships 1999;  Combined St Anton World Championships 2001, Combined Salt Lake City Olympics 2002.  Overall World Cup 1994.                                                                           –The first National Championships of Exhibition (Freestyle) competition were held at Snowbird.

                                                       1972

-Copper Mountain USA opened

-10 May Katya Seizinger born Eberbach GER.  Won Super G Morioka 1993; Olympic Downhill Lillehammer 1994, Olympic Downhill and Combined, Nagano 1998.

-7 December Hermann Maier born Altenmarkt AUT.  Won Giant Slalom and Super G 1998 Nagano Olympics; Downhill Vail World Championships 1999; Giant Slalom Bormio World Championships 2,000; Overall World Cup 1998, 2000, 2001.

-Winter Olympic Games, Sapporo, JAP.  First FIS World Championships in Ski Flying. Planica JUG.                  

-New big ski jump built of concrete at Lahti.  Lahti Ski Museum opened.   H +K+I.                                                                                                                                                             

LHS-82 2005.                                                                                      

-1972-83 Heikki Kantola Trainer for Finnish Team                                                                                                                                                                                                 

                                                      1973  

-18 June Alexandra Meissnitzer born Abtenau AUT.    Won Giant Slalom and Super G Vail, 1999, Won Overall World Cup 1999                                                                                        -Second Ski flying championships, Oberstdorf.

 - How the Racers Ski by Warren Witherall published.                                                              .                                                1974

- Nordic World Championships, Falun SWE. Women’s relay (4x5km) won on fibreglass skis.  Alpine World Championships, St Moritz.SUI                                                                                                                                  -First Finlandia Ski Race at Hameenlinna, Lahti.                                                                        -Ski Museum opened at Lahti

-Thorlief Haug’s daughter gave father’s 1924 Olympic medal to winner Andreas Haugen          

 -The new Canadian Ski Instructors Alliance, Level 1 Ski Instructors Course introduced. Normand Lapierre Presdent & CEO CSIA.                                                    

                                                     1975

-Thomas Wassbergille on fibreglass skis beat John Mieto on wood skis by one hundredth of a second after 30km

-Ski Flying championships, Mitterndorf Tauplitz.                                                              ---The Canadian Ski Museum was incorporated in Ottawa. ON Canada. Carly S King Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa, Canada.

                                                      1976                                          

-Winter Olympic Games, Innsbruck, AUT                                                                

    -Canadian Association for Disabled Skiers (CADS) formed and Canadian Ski Coaches Federation (CSCF) incorporated. Carly S King. Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa

                                                        1977

-12 October Bode Miller born Franconia USA. Giant Slalom and Combined St Moritz 2002, Downhill and Super G Bormio 2005.                  

 -Ski Flying Championships, Vikersund  NOR                                                        

                                                        1978

-28 February Benjamin Raich born Arzl im Piztal AUT. Won Slalom and Combined, Bormio World Championships 2005, Olympic Slalom and Giant Slalom, Turin 2006.

-Steve McKinney breaks 200kph speed record.                                                                    -Nordic World Championships, Lahti FIN. Alpine World Championships, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, BRD.

                                                          1979

-Ski Flying Championships Planica JUG

-Master Racing recognised and FIS Masters Committee set up

                                                     1980                                                                                                  -Winter Olympic Games, Lake Placid, USA.                                                                        -Immo Kuutsa took over as Finnish Trainer  

- Steve Podborski became Canada’s first male skier to win an Olympic medal (bronze) at Lake Placid.  Carly S King, Curator/Director of Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa ON Canada.                                                  

                                                         1981

-Ski Flying Championships Oberstdorf BRD.                                                        

                                                         1982

-5 January Janica Kostalic born Zagreb CRO. Won Olympic Slalom, Giant Slalom and Combined Salt Lake City 2002;  Slalom & Combined St Moritz 2003, Slalom Downhill and Combined Bormio 2005; Olympic Combined, Turin 2006; Overall World Cup 2001, 2003.                                                                                                                     -Alpine World Championships Schladming AUT.  Nordic World Championships Oslo NOR New skating step adopted with shorter skis made of carbonfibre. Nordic combination team event and 90m jump team event included. Parviainen 2002.                                    -Honour Roll of Canadian Skiing -Canadian Ski Hall of Fame - founded by Canadian Ski Museum.   Carly S. King, Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa.                                                                                                                -At Les Arcs, Steve McKinney USA set new Speed record at 201 kph

                                                             1983

-Ski Flying Championships Harrachov TCH

                                                             1984

-Winter Olympic Games Sarajevo JUG. The Gundersen method of Nordic combination is introduced.  Competitors start the crosscountry according to points awarded for their jump and the winner is the racer who reaches the finish first.

 -Frank Meatto and Ed Pilpel of Olin Ski Co. apply for patent on alpine ski with radical sidecut

                                                              1985

 -Nordic World Championships Seefeld AUT.  Alpine World Championships Bormio ITA,  Ski Flying Championships, Planica JUG

                                                            1986                                                                           -Ski Flying Championships Kulm AUT

-First Freestyle World Championships. Tignes FRA                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                           1987

-First Snowboard World Championships held at Livigno ITA and St Moritz SUI.    At the Nordic Ski World Championships in Oberstdorf GER crosscountry races were held using both classical and skating steps.  At the Biathlon World Championships at Lahti FIN  women competed for the first time.   At the Alpine World Championships at Crans-Montana SUI the Super-G was introduced as an official discipline.                                                  -At Boklov, Sweden, V-style ski position shown in jump.  Parviainen  (as experimented by Straumann in 1972) Triet (Ed) Hopp Schweiz! 28.                                                                                               -First Telemark World Championships held at Hemsedal..                                                   -Canadian Ski Instructors Association ran 13th Interski Congress held at Banff, Alberta. (Nomand Lapierre President  CSIA)

                                                            1988

-Winter Olympic Games Calgary CAN. Super-G and Ski flying added as Olympic disciplines.  Alpine events at Nakiska.  Crosscountry and Biathlon at Canmore.

-Jurij Franko began work at Elan on radical sidecut skis.

 -Ski Flying Championships Oberstdorf BRD

                                                            1989     

-World Nordic Championships, Lahti FIN. Different events for classical and skating step.  30 countries competed.  Alpine Ski Championships Vail/Beaver Creek USA.            World Freestyle Championships Oberjoch BRD

                                                            1990

 -Ski Flying Championships Vikersund NOR

                                                            1991

-Val di Fiemme. Nordic World Championships, Technique for jumpers forming V with skis adopted.  Alpine World Championships, Saalbach-Hinterglemm AUT  First use in FIS alpine competition of radical sidecuts.

-Freestyle World Championships Lake Placid USA

                                                            1992

-Winter Olympic Games Albertville FRA.

-Ski Flying Championships, Harrachov TCH  .

                                                             1993

-FIS Nordic World Championships in Falun SWE . Alpine World Championships Morioka JAP. (Super-G cancelled). Freestyle World Championships, Altenmarkt GER       

                                                             1994

-Winter Olympic Games, Lillehammer NOR.  Winter and Summer Olympics were no longer to be organised in the same year.                                                                    -Canadian Association of Snowboard Instructors (CASI) founded Carly S King, Canadian Ski Museum, Ottawa                                                                                                          Ski flying Championships Planica SLO

                                                              1995

-Nordic World Championships Thunder Bay, CAN. Freestyle World Championships. La Clusaz FRA                                                                                                               

                                                              1996                                                                                                                            -First FIS Snowboard World Championships. Lienz, AUT . Giant Slalom, Parallel Giant Slalom; Parallel Slalom, Halfpipe and Snowboard Cross.                                                   -Alpine Ski World Championships, Sierra Nevada, SPA.  Ski Flying Championships Tauplitz/Bad Mitterndorf AUT. 

                                                                 1997

 -Snowboard World Championships San Candido/Innechen ITA included Giant Slalom, Parallel Giant Slalom, Parallel Slalom, Halfpipe, Snowboard Cross. Freestyle World Championships Nagano JAP.  Nordic World Championships, Trondheim NOR.

                                                                 1998

-Winter Olympic Games, Nagano JAP. Snowboard Giant Slalom and halfpipe included.

-Retirement of Marc Hodler as FIS President during Prague congress.    Gian-Franco Kasper SUI elected President.                                                                                                  -First FIS Ski Historical Conference (Meeting of Ski Museum Directors) Holmenkollen NOR.                    

                                                              1999

-Nordic World Championships. Ramsau AUT; Alpine World Championships Vail;  Freestyle World Championships, Meiringen Hasliberg SUI.   World Snowboard Championships, Berchtesgaden GER                                                                                    -Darron Powell AUS raised the snowboard speed record to 201.90kph.  

                                                          2000                                                                                   -Swiss Ski Federation had 878 clubs with 106,000 members.                                              -Ski Flying Championships Vikersund NOR.                                                                       -Snowboard World Championships Berchtesgaden.

                                                           2001

-Nordic World Championships. Lahti FIN. New events: 10km free and classical races together.   Team jumping competition.  15km Crosscountry & Jumping.  Alpine World Championships. St Anton AUT.  Freestyle World Championships Whistler CAN.  Snowboard World championships Madonna di Campiglio ITA.                                        Second FIS Ski Historical Conference Helsinki & Lahti FIN.

                                                          2002

-International Ski History Congress. Park City, USA.

-Winter Olympic Games. Salt Lake City USA. Including Snowboard Parallel Giant

Slalom and Halfpipe.

-Ski Flying Championships Harrachov CZE. 

 -At the German/Austrian Four Jump championships, Sven Hannawald was the first ever to win all four competitions and the combined.

-23 April.  Philippe Goitschel at Les Arcs raised record speed to 250.70kph, beating  248.105kph  made by Harry Egger AUT .                        

                                                          2003                                                                                -Nordic Ski World Championships. Val di Fiemme ITA.  Alpine Ski World Championships St Moritz, SUI.    Freestyle World  Championships Deer Valley USA.

                                                        2004

-FIS Ski Historical Conference. Murzzuschlag & Graz AUT.

-Canadian Ski Instructors Association national office doubles in size, moved to new location in Montreal and established a museum.  Normand Lapierre, President and CEO CSIA.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                             2005

-30 January-13 February.  Alpine Ski World Championships in Bormio ITA.  A new team event, won by Germany, consisted of 4 slaloms and 4 giant slaloms (2 women and 2 men in each team).

-20 March, Nordic World Championships included a Biathlon team event (2 women 2 men).

-30 April, at Les Arcs, Xavier Cousseau FRA  raised the monoski speed record to 206.07kph,

                                                           2006

-10-25 February: Winter Olympic Games, Turin, ITA. New event - Snowboard Cross

FIS Congress Vilamoura. POR.

-Simone Origone ITA made a new speed record at Les Arcs of 251.40kph, also raising the Women’s speed record.   Sunna Tidstrand SWE reached 242.59kph.

To view Lou Dawson's, Timeline of Ski Mountaineering, visit: http://www.wildsnow.com/backcountry-skiing-history/backcountry-skiing-ski-mountaineering-chronology/

The National Ski Areas Association has compiled this chronology of 354 American ski resorts.

 

HISTORY OF SKIING – DRAFT TIMELINE  - MARCH 2005

Compiled by Elizabeth Hussey

Complete FIS timeline (2007-08), a committee effort by six or eight historians from around the world, has gone missing from the FIS website. This is the first draft from March 2005, to be replaced when a copy of the final version can be found.

• 7,000-6000BC Remnants of skis from late 7^th millenium found near Lake Sindor, Russia,
• 4,000 BC Skis of this date found in Russia  Also, rock carvings found at Bolommid Norway
• 3,623-3110BC skis were brought out of a bog in 1924 in North Sweden dating from this period. 
• 3,343-2939BC skis found from Draya.
• 3,000 BC half a ski and pole found in Latvia and ski found in Pskov region
• Approx 2,500 BC  The Hoting ski dating from about this time was dug out of a Swedish bog in 1921. Also about the same date, rock carvings of skiers were made at Rodoy, a Norwegian island north of the Arctic Circle.
• 2,000 BC 2 complete skis and a pole dating from this time were dug out of a bog at Kalvetrask in 1924 
• 1700-1500 BC Bronze Age rock carvings including skier on Aeskove Cultur.  Also clay vessel with illustration of skier. 
• 550-540 AD 1 pair of historic bindings found an Mantta.
• 1335-1215 AD ski found Steinhanger Rana 
• 552 Procopius I The Gothic wars refers to Scrithiphini (Finns who glided)   Peter Lunn in The Guinness Book of Skiing considers this a doubtful reference to skiing Finns.
• 629 Thieh-lo tribe brought tribute “riding on pieces of wood hunt deer over the ice.”  Described by Dr Joseph Needham
• 618-907  “The wooden-horse Turks are accustomed to skim over the ice on so-called wooden horses, that is, on sledges (or runners) which they bind to their feet to run over the ice.  And they take poles as supports and push themselves rapidly forward. “.
• 1206 The future King Haakon, aged 2, was carried across the Dovre Mountains to safety by skiers loyal to the royal family.
• 1522  Two skiers brought Gustav Vasa to found the Vasa dynasty to rule Sweden   The Vasaloppet, founded in 1922, commemorates their journey
• 16^th Century  A map produced by Olaus Magnus, a Swedish Catholic bishop, shows 2 men and a woman hunting on skis.
• 1689 Janez Vaikard Valvasor of Slovenia described people of the Bloke plateau using wooden boards to “swerve like snakes” to avoid obstacles when coming down steep slopes through snow. 
• 1825-1897 Sondre Norheim of Morgedal
• 1850 Sondre Nordheim  makes heel strap using birch tree roots
• 1851 Snowshoe Thompson (born Jon Thorsteinson Rui Tinn in Norway in 1827) came to California and started to carry the mail over the Sierra Nevada.  He made his own skis and taught himself to use them.
• 1856-25^th February 1940.  Mathias Zdarsky
• 1861-1930  Fridtjof Nansen.
• 1868 Sondre Norheim demonstrated Telemark and Christiania at Iverslokkan Norway.(ISHA)
• 1870 Sondre Norheim introduced Telemark Ski.
• 1879 Norwegian Ski Federation founded.  Competition in Huseby.
• 1890 Publication of “Paa Ski over Gronland”” by  Fridtjof Nansen.  Translated into German in 1891, it encouraged spread of skiing.
• 24^th June 1890-1955  Hannes Schneider. 
• 1892 The Norwegian competitions were transferred from the Huseby Hill to Holmenkollen
• 1892 Reinhard Straumann, inventor of S-scoring for skijumping,  born in canton of Basel (Triet)
• 26^th January 1893 Austrian Ski Federation founded .
• 2^nd February 1893  First ski competition in central Europe at Murzzuschlag. Won by W.B. Samson
• 1893 Skiclub Glarus, first Swiss ski club was founded . 
• 1894 Fritz Huitfeldt invents “bolt” binding (Torgersen)
• 1896 Publication of  “Lilienfeld Skilauf Technik by Mathias Zdarsky
• 1897 Dr Payot uses skis to visit his patients in Chamonix France.
• 1898 Henry Lunn sends group of British to Chamonix. His 10-year-old son, Arnold accompanies them.  Skis and an instructor are brought from Switzerland to keep them amused.
• 1903 Davos British Ski Club founded by E.C Richardson.
• 12^th May 1903 Ski Club of Great Britain founded
• 1905 National Ski Association founded at Ishpeming, Michigan (ISHA)
• 1905 First issue of “Yearbook of the Ski Club of Great Britain”.
• Hannes Schneider starts to teach skiing to guests of Hotel Post, St Anton am Arlberg,
• 1906  First Arbeiter=Skischule founded in Vienna.
• 1907 First International Ski Week at Mont Geneve, France.
• International Ski Commission set up in Norway
• Roberts of Kandahar race in Crans-Montana – world’s senior challenge cup for downhill. 
• 17^th December 1911   Roald Amundsen using skis, is first to reach the South Pole.
• First of Schneider/Fanck films
• First Lahti Ski Games (Parviainen)
• The British run the first National Ski Championships to include Alpine events (Slalom & Downhill) above Wengen, Switzerland. 
•  Arnold Lunn changes rules of modern slalom so that it is judged on speed not style and through awkwardly placed gates. 
•  Vasa Race founded
• Seventh International Ski congress, Prague
•  2 complete skis and a pole found buried at Kalvetrask, Sweden, dating back to 2,000BC
• 24^th January-4^th February 1924 Chamonix. International Winter Sports Week and Eighth International Ski Congress (later called first Winter Olympic games. International Ski Federation set up with  Ivar Holmquist (SWE) first president.  
• 29^th January 1924  Kandahar Ski Club founded at Murren .
•  First Nordic World Championships, Chamonix First World ski champion was Thorleif Haug of Norway
• –“Rendezvous Races in Czechoslovakia were listed and numbered as Nordic Ski World championships
• 1926 The Wonders of Skiing” by Hannes Schneider and Arnold Fanck published.
• 1927 Nederlandse /Ski Vereniging founded.
•  World Ski championships, Lahti
• 1927 Arnold Lunn visited Hannes Schneider, set a small slalom for local boys and the two men decided to run a downhill and slalom event called The Arlberg-Kandahar.
•  The first Arlberg Kandahar was organised at St Anton, by Hannes Schneider and the Kandahar Ski Club.   The oldest open combined downhill and slalom event in the world, it became the top alpine event each year.
•  FIS Meeting and Winter Olympic Games, St Moritz at which FIS agreed to try out Alpine races.
• 1929 Major International Downhill Race in Zakopane, Poland.
•  Ernst Gertsch founded the first Lauberhorn race at Wengen.
• 1931 First World Alpine Championships, Murren, Switzerland
• 1931 First Hahnenkamm  at Kitzbuhel.
• 1932 First Winter Olympics outside Europe held at Lake Placid USA. 
• 1934-1951 N.R. Oestgaard of Norway succeeded Ivor Holmquist as President of FIS 
•  First Winter Olympics to include Alpine races (slalom and downhill) and women’s events. Medals awarded for Combined only.   Held at Garmisch Partenkirchen.
• First chairlift built in Sun Valley, Idaho,
• 1938 First Citadin race (Duke of Kent cup) set in Murren by Arnold Lunn.
• 1951  Marc Hodler appointed President of FIS
• 1952 Winter Olympics Oslo, Norway
• 1956  Winter Olympics Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.  Tony Sailer of Austria won Gold in giant slalom, slalom and downhill.  Sixten Jernberg of Sweden,won gold in 50km, silver in 30km and 15km and bronze in the relay race
• 1960 Winter Olympics Squaw Valley.
• Citadin Racing adopted by FIS.and first meeting of Citadin subcommittee. 
• The Ski Club of Great Britain set up the National Ski Federation of GB to control British Ski Racing
• 5^th January 1967   Serge Lang launched World Cup at race at Berchtesgaden
• The FIS Master committee set up and Master racing recognised

References:

Berov. 2004 Ski History conference, Murzzuschlag

Rune Flaten. Ski History conference,Murzzuschlag

Peter Lunn: Guinness Book of Skiing 1983

Date and Location of Past Winter Olympics

 

 

Before 10,000 years ago: With the retreat of glaciers after the last Ice Age, tribes move into the forest and tundra south and east of the Baltic Sea. Travel and hunting across the frozen lakes and swamps encourages development of snowshoes and sleds. Stone Age hunters follow herds of elk and reindeer. Snowshoes evolve into longer fur-covered skis, which enable hunters to move faster over snow than elk and deer can move. Skiing tribes migrate eastward across Asia and north into Scandinavia.

About 6,000 years ago: Skiing is well established across the Eurasian arctic regions. Archaelogical evidence is strong that hunters used skis from Norway to northwestern Russia. Unrestricted travel across Siberia possible only when rivers and bogs are frozen.

350 BCE: First direct reference to skiing in Chinese literature.

16th century: First mentions of skiing in European literature, usually in reference to the "Scridfinns" ("Skiing Finns" or Lapps), the people who called themselves Saami.

18th century: Military units across Scandinavia have organized brigades of ski troops. First organized military competitions. Russian trappers bring skis to Alaska.

Early 19th century: Evidence of skis with sidecut and camber.

1843—First newspaper reference to an organized cross-country ski race, in Tromso, Norway. 

1840s—Sondre Norheim, of Morgedal, Telemark, discovers the perfect heel strap, cleverly entwined shoots of the birch tree root, with enough stiffness to provide sufficient control of the ski to steer it and enough elasticity to stay snugly around the heel to keep the toe in the toestrap even going off a jump, making possible both modern downhill and ski-jumping. (HerW1996 p7)

1850s—Norwegian sailors jump ship in San Francisco to join the California gold rush. They teach skiing to the winter-bound residents of mining camps, who organize longboard racing. Similar process in Austalian gold rush. First ski clubs outside Scandinavia.

1866—In a competition conducted by the Centralforeigning, or Central Ski Association in the Norwegian capital Christiania (now called Oslo), Sondre Norheim and his fellow Telemarkers demonstrate what is later called the telemark turn and the Christiania skidded stop turn. (Ski/R 1983 p33) (Her W1996 p7)

1868—Steam trains begin carrying mail, passengers and skiers into the mountains in Europe and North America.

1870—Sondre Norheim popularizes the first modern sidecut ski, the “Telemark ski,” setting the basic pattern followed for a century thereafter, producing a narrow-waisted ski that flexed more readily when edged, facilitating turns in soft snow. (Friedl )

1870s—Development of machine tools with carbon-steel blades enables mass production of hardwood skis, including skis made from expensive American hickory.

1879—First North American ski manufacturing undertaken by Norwegian immigrant Martin A. Strand in Minnesota.

1882—Norske Ski Club, Berlin, New Hampshire, first modern ski club in America, is organized by resident Norwegians to remain oldest U.S. ski club with a continuous history. (Amski 1966 page 445)

1890—Publication of Paa Ski Over Grønland by Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen, detailing his pioneer 1888 traverse of southern Greenland, on skis dragging sledges for 300 miles, using oakwood skis with three grooves, using one long stick for part of the journey and two sticks on the inland ice. (Lunn 1952 p179)

1896—Retired school teacher Mathias Zdarsky of Lilienfeld, Austria, a village 90 miles west of Vienna, publishes the first book, Lillienfeld Skilaufer Technik, on the methodical use of the double stem brake and the stem turn, with the use of one long pole, in Alpine skiing for the ascent and descent of steep mountain sides. (Amski 1966 p445)

1905—National Ski Association founded at Ishpeming, Michigan with Carl Tellefsen, former jumper and head of the Ishpeming Ski Club, elected first president, following the first national jumping championship at Ishpeming. (Amski 1966 p445 )

1908—First mechanical ski tow, powered by a water mill, built by Rober Winkelhalder at his hotel in Germany's Schwarzwald region. French Army organizes first ski races for alpine troops.

1910—First International Ski Congress is held at Christiania, Norway, an organization which became the forerunner of the Federation Internationale de Ski, the international ruling body of skiing. (Amski 1966 p446)

1910—In January, Johannes Schneider, the ski guide at the Hotel Post in St.Anton, Austria, since 1907 at 17 years of age, created the stem christie with an up-movement to close the skis in the turn in order to complete turns more easily, producing a sliding turn; its use later extended to all conditions as the expert turn that stood atop an integrated ski technique that began with the double stem brake or snowplow, and progressed through the single-stem to the stem christie, the basis for what became known as the Arlberg Technique. (Friedl) (Fairlie pp71-72)

1910—Skiers ride a steam-powered toboggan tow in Truckee, California.

1911—Ole Ellevold, St. Paul, Minnesota, founds a ski factory, later called the Northland Ski Company. Its hickory skis dominated the market for another 30 years. (Amski 1966 p446)

1911—First run of the world’s first downhill classic, the Roberts of Kandahar Cup, run over the Plaine Morte Glacier in Montana, Switzerland: winner, Cecil Hopkinson. (Friedl ) (Lunn 1952 p182)

World War I—Thousands of Austrian and Italian troops fighting across the Dolomites are taught to ski.

1916--Christian A. Lund gains control of the Ellevold ski factory in St. Paul, renames in Northland.

1918—Johannes Schneider, returned from war service to the Hotel Post and, having taught thousands of WWI mountain troops to ski, used that disciplined structure to teach a growing influx of, mostly Swiss and British, his new technique.(Amski 1966 p446)

1920—First paid instructor in a U.S. ski school, Norwegian Henrik Jacobsen, hired at the Lake Placid Club, Lake Placid, N.Y. (Friedl )

1920-24— Hannes Schneider formalized his technique into an instructional system which became known as the Arlberg Technique. (Amski 1966 p446)

1921—First modern slalom race, the Alpine Ski Challenge Cup, held at Mürren, Switzerland, on Jan. 6, after rules set down by Arnold Lunn: first place, J.A. Joannides. The following fall, the first systematic exposition, complete with diagrams of two-gate slalom, was published was published by Lunn in the British Ski Year Book. (Lunn Story1952 p183)

1921—German documentary film maker Arnold Fanck shows history’s first instructional film, Wunder des Schneeschuhs, based on the Arlberg System and demonstrated by “Hannes” Schneider and it has a successful premiere in Freiberg, Germany, Fanck’s home town. (Amski 1966 p446)

1921—In a disagreement with Walter Schuler, proprietor of the Hotel Post, over his taking time off from his ski school to make movies with Dr. Arnold Fanck, Hannes Schneider separated his ski school from the Hotel Post and became a seminal independent ski school.

1921—After encountering Germans at St. Moritz during WWI, Baroness Noemie de Rothschild opens the first purpose-built French ski resort, the Hôtel du Mont d'Arbois at Megève. 

1922—United States Eastern Amateur Ski Association formed. (Amski 1966 p446 )

1922—Arnold Lunn organizes the first timed slalom race, held January 1 at Murren, Switzerland. Previously, slalom competitions were judged on style in telemark and christiania turns. The first race won by English WWI veteran Johnson A. Joannides.

1924—First Olympic Winter Games held at Chamonix, France, with Nordic ski events only. (Amski 1966 p446) Norwegian Thorleif Haug becomes world’s first triple-gold-medal winner: He won the 18-km and 50-km cross-country and Nordic combined. He also won the bronze medal in jumping; Norwegians took home 11 of the 12 gold medals. (CompXc Dial p229 )

1924—The International Ski Congress becomes a permanent organization, the Federation Internationale de Ski (FIS); Col. Ivar Holmquist is named first president. (Amski 1966 p446 -7-) (CompXc Dial p229 -5-) (Lunn 1952 p184 )

1925—NSA recognizes USEASA as an affiliate, and it later recognized the other regional ski organizations, forming a truly national organization. (Amski 1966 p446 )

1925—Hannes Schneider and Dr. Fanck publish The Wonders of Skiing (Wunder des Schneeschuhs), with stills from the movie as illustration, sell 100,000 copies in first year, making it the most important and widely read book about skiing in history; translated into English in 1931. (Friedl ) (Ski/R 1983 p36)

1926—First ski shop in the United States opens in Boston under owner Oscar Hambro from Norway. (Amski 1966 p446)

1926—Rudolf Lettner, an amateur mountaineer from Salzburg, patents a segmented steel edge to help skis hold on icy terrain.  

1927—On March 8, the first modern downhill race in the United States was run on Mt. Moosilauke, NH, by the Dartmouth Outing Club. It was won by Charles N. Proctor, of Dartmouth. (1942 ASA pp26-30)

1927—Otto Schniebs emigrates from Germany to Waltham, Mass. to become the first Arlberg instructor in the U.S.; becomes coach of the Harvard team, official instructor for the Appalachian Mountain Club based in Boston, then history’s most successful college ski team coach beginning in 1930 at Dartmouth College, finally setting up an early ski school at Lake Placid in 1936.

1928—On March 9, the first American slalom set by Prof. Charles A. Proctor at Dartmouth College under Arnold Lunn’s experimental FIS rules was won by freshman Bob Baumrucker. (Hooke p231)

1928—Arnold Lunn and Hannes Schneider organize the first open international alpine combined—the Arlberg-Kandahar, March 31-April 1 at St. Anton, Austria, won by Austrian Benno Leubner. (Lunn 1952 p185 -7-) (Ski/R 1983 p36 ) (Amski 1966 p446 )

1928—Second Winter Olympics at St. Moritz held without alpine events, but FIS agrees to let The Ski Club of Great Britain organize FIS-sanctioned downhill and slalom races; U.S. Team, captained by Rolf Monsen, does creditably but wins no medals. (Friedl ) (Lunn 1952 p185)\

1928--Guido Reuge invents the Kandahar binding, which allows an Alpine racer to lock the heel down. In combination with steel edges, the new binding revolutionizes Alpine racing, marking a final break with Nordic-style freeheel skiing.

1929—Peckett’s-on-Sugar Hill ski school, near Franconia, NH, founded by Katharine “Kate” Peckett to become the first resort based ski school in the U.S. Two German instructors taught that first year followed, in 1930, by the Duke Dimitri von Leuchtenberg. In 1931, Sig Buchmayr joined him and became school director the following year when the Duke left. Kate Peckett brought in more European instructors, e.g. the Marquis Nicholas degli Albizzi, or just “The Markee,” and Austrians Harold Suiter, Harold Paumgarten and Kurt Thalhammer to teach the Arlberg system. Among pupils were Nelson Rockefeller, Averell Harriman, Lowell Thomas, Minot Dole and Roger Peabody. (Adler Congress paper p17)

1929—First ski train in the United States runs from Boston to Warner, New Hampshire. (Amski 1966 p447)

1930—At the Univerity Winter Games at Davos, Switzerland, Austrian racers use the steel Lettner edge for the first time. They make razor-sharp turns and win easily. Alpine racing is transformed.  

1931—First FIS World Alpine Championships at Mürren, Switzerland, Swiss racers Walter Prager wins the downhill and David Zogg wins the slalom; British racer Esme Mackinnon wins both women’s downhill and slalom. (Amski 1966 p447)

1932—Third Olympic Winter Games held at Lake Placid, New York, with downhill and slalom still excluded. (Amski 1966 p447)

1932—North America’s first rope tow is invented by Alex Foster and installed at Shawbridge, Quebec. It is powered by a Dodge automobile, jacked up on blocks, with a rope looped around a wheel rim. (Ski/R 1983 p37 ) (Amski 1966 p447 )

1933—Laminated ski construction patented simultaneously by Ostbye-Splitkein in Norway and Anderson & Thompson in Seattle.

1933—First National Downhill Championship is held at Mt. Moosilauke, New Hampshire, and won by Henry (Bem) Woods. (Amski 1966 p447 )

1933—Civilian Conservation Corps under Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt cuts ski trails. Vermont CCC director Montpelier’s Perry Merrill cut the first trails on Mt. Mansfield and became the Father of Vermont Skiing. (MAD 1993 )

1934—January 28 saw the first rope tow installed in the U.S. by Bob and Betty Royce, proprietors of the White Cupboard Inn, in Woodstock, VT. The Royces made sketches of Alec Foster’s first rope tow in Shawbridge, Quebec, and employed David Dodd, a local mechanic, to construct it for them on a sidehill owned by farmer Clinton Gilbert which the Royces leased for the winter. The tow, originally called the Ski-Way, consisted of a continuous loop of rope running over a series of wheels and was driven by the rear wheel of a Model A Ford. Bob Bourdon, a Woodstock native, was its first rider. Wallace “Bunny” Bertram took it over for the second season, improved the operation, renamed it the Ski Tow and eventually moved it to The Gully and then Suicide Six. (interviews Bob Bourdon, Betty Royce, et al)

1934—Ernest Constam, a Zurich engineer, builds world’s first J-bar, debuting in Davos in December, it is converted to a T-bar in 1936 (Ski/R 1983 p37) (Her v8-4 1996 p 15)

1934—Mt. Mansfield Club forms at Stowe, Vt. to encourage use of trails cut on the mountain by CCC. (Friedl )

1934—Limited production of a solid aluminum ski by M. Vicky in France.

1935—First U.S. National Downhill and Slalom championships at Mt. Rainier, Washington; open combined category won by Austrian Hannes Schroll of Salzburg, Austria; amateur combined by Dick Durrance. (Amski 1966 p447 )

1935—The first Kandahar cable binding holding the skier’s heel to the ski is introduced. (Amski 1966 p447 )

1935—The first overhead cable lift, a J-bar is built at Oak Hill in Hanover, New Hampshire, by the Dartmouth Outing Club. (Amski 1966 p448 -7-) (Friedl )

1935—The first U.S. Winter Sports Show, commonly referred to as ski shows, opened in the Boston Garden followed, in 1936, by New York’s first such show in Madison Square Garden. It drew an estimated 80,000 people and turned away thousands more.

1935—First European T-bar: the J-bar at Davos, is converted to a T-bar.

1936—First issue of Ski magazine is published in Seattle by Alf Nydin. Ski/R 1983 p38)(Amski 1966 p448)

1936—First Arlberg ski school at Mt. Mansfield with the arrival of Sepp Ruschp from Austria (Amski 1966 p448 ) under a contract with the Mt. Mansfield Club, starts teaching on a rope tow set up on the Toll House slope; (Friedl), becomes the first Certified Ski Instructor to graduate from the U.S. Examinations held at Woodstock, Vermont. (Ski/R 1983 p40 )

1936—Sun Valley, built by Averell Harriman as a Union Pacific project, opens with world’s first chairlifts put in on Dollar and Proctor hills, designed by Union Pacific Engineer Jim Curran, copied from the banana lifts used in Central America to load United Fruit cargo vessels. (Friedl)

1936—The Third Winter Games holds world’s first Olympic alpine events, a downhill and slalom combined, at Garmisch. Toni Seelos, barred as a professional (along with all the Austrian and Swiss men), foreruns slalom and is timed 12 seconds faster than the winner, Franz Pfnur of Germany. Birger Ruud of Norway wins the downhill segmen of the combined, and also wins the gold medal in jumping. (Amski 1966 p448 ) (Friedl)

1936—Benno Rybizka, a top instructor from Hannes Schneider’s St.Anton ski school, brought to Jackson, NH, by Carroll Reed to head up Reed’s new Eastern Slope Ski School headquartered in what is now the Wildcat Tavern. Mary Bird (Young) was European trained and Rybizka’s top assistant at Jackson. (Rybizka, Reed & Young interviews, local records)

1936—Ski survey of Aspen-Ashcroft area by Andre Roche, Ted Ryan, Billy Fiske, principals in the Highland Lodge, the first ski lodge in Roaring Fork Valley; Roche leads Aspen citizens in forming the Roaring Fork Winter Sport Club, later the Aspen Ski Club (which builds a six passenger boat tow in a clearing at the bottom of Aspen Mt., built from an old mine hoist and a truck engine). (Skico, 1986)

1937—First chairlift installed in the East at Belknap, New Hampshire. (Amski 1966 p448)

1937—Dick Durrance wins first Harriman Cup race at Sun Valley. (Amski 1966 p448 )

1938—Mt. Tremblant, Quebec opens in February with the first Canadian chairlift, built by Joseph Ryan at Mt. Tremblant, Quebec. (Amski 1966 p448) (Friedl)

1938—First certification examination of ski instructors held at Woodstock, Vermont. Sepp Ruschp becomes the first certified instructor in the United States. (Amski 1966 p448 )

1938—America’s second funicular, the Skimobile, installed on Mt. Cranmore at North Conway, New Hampshire. (Ski/R 1983 p40 ) (Amski 1966 p448 ); first Aerial Tramway in the United States is installed at Cannon Mountain, Franconia, New Hampshire. (Ski/R 1983 p40 ) (Friedl) (Amski 1966 p448)

1938—First U.S. Ski Patrol established at Stowe under Minot Dole as chairman of national committee.(Amski 1966 p448) (Friedl)

1938—Chairlift opens at Alta, Utah, constructed from mining hoist parts, financed by Salt Lake businessmen.

1938—Dave McCoy sets up rope tow at Mammoth Mt., California. (Friedl)

1939—Hannes Schnieder arrives in the United States and takes over leadership of the ski school at Mt. Cranmore. Schneider also developed the first groomed slope by cutting down trees and completely clearing the south slope of Mt.Cranmore. (Amski 1966 p448)

1939—Otto Lang presents the first American theater release ski film, Ski Flight at Radio City Music Hall on the same bill with the premiere ofSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs. (Ski/R 1983 p40)

1939—Hjalmar Hvam invents the world’s first useful release binding.(Amski 1966 p448 -7-) (Friedl)

1939—Sugar Bowl in Norden, California opened by John Wiley and Hannes Schroll. (Friedl)

1940—Alta Lodge is built by the Denver and Rio Grande; in 1941, James Laughlin buys the lift and the lodge, hires Dick Durrance as manager, lodge keeper and ski school director. (Friedl)

1940—T-bar, considered the first in America, is installed at Pico Peak, Vermont. (Ski/R 1983 p40)

1940—Second single chair in the East installed at Stowe, Vt. (Ski/R 1983 p41)

1940—Friedl Pfeifer installs three chairlifts to open Mt. Baldy at Sun Valley. (Friedl)

1941—Big Bromley opens under Fred Pabst in Vermont, with two J-bars (Friedl)

1941—Fred Willoughby leads Aspen Ski club in cutting the country’s most expert trail, Roch Run, part way up Aspen Mt. after the design drawn by Andre Roch. (Friedl)

1942—Tenth Mountain Division activated at Camp Hale, Pando, Colorado; National Ski Patrol named an official recruiting organization and Minot Dole rounds up 2000 volunteers and sends them to Pando in two months. (Friedl)

1945—Friedl Pfeifer meets with the City Council at Aspen and outlines the plan for creating a top international resort at Aspen. Later that year Pfeifer opens the Friedl Pfeifer Ski School, with partners Percy Rideout and John Litchfield as co-directors, and only instructors.(Friedl ) Paepcke meets with Friedl Pfeifer and plans begin for Aspen’s first ski lift. (Skico, 1986)

1946—Aspen Skiing Corporation formed under Walter Paepcke, replacing Pfeifer’s original Aspen Ski Company. (Amski 1966 p448 ) American Steel and Wire signs contract with Pfeifer to build #1 Chair (Friedl). Chair #1 opens, Dec. 14 (Skico 1986) Dec 15 (Ski/R 1983 p41). First lodges, bars, restaurants open: Skimore Lodge, The Alpine Inn, Crystal City Inn and the Red Onion; Aspen Ski Club holds 1946 SMRSA meet (Friedl) and the first Roch Cup in March.

1946—first Pomalift developed in Europe by Jean Pomagalski. (Amski 1966 p448)

1946—P-Tex base invented by the Swiss firm Muller and Co. (Ski/R 1983 p41) Dynamic comes out with a Cellulix base. (Her V8-1 1996)

1948 —The first national periodical, Ski magazine evolves out of merger of Ski Illustrated (the changed name of the original Ski magazine),Ski News and Western Skiing. The new magazine is published by William T. Eldred. (Amski 1966 p449 )

1948—First chairlift in Midwest built at Boyne Mountain. (Amski 1966 p449 )

1948—Gretchen Fraser becomes the first American to win Olympic ski medals – a gold in the special slalom and a silver in the Alpine combined on February 5 at the Winter Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland. (Ski/R 1983 p42) (Amski 1966 p449 )

1949—Mad River Glen, Vermont; Squaw Valley, California, both opened. (Amski 1966 p449 )

1949—Howard Head markets the aluminum Head Standard, the first commercially successful aluminum ski. (Ski/R 1983 p43)

1950—First U.S. FIS World Championships at Aspen (alpine) and Lake Placid, New York. (jumping) and Rumford, Maine (cross-country). (Amski 1966 p449 ) Feb 12-18: races at Aspen held under the direction of Dick Durrance and Dave Bradley; Pfeifer coaches the U.S. women’s team. (Friedl)

1952—First artificially-made snow is made at Grossinger’s resort in New York; Fahnestock, New York, two years later, becomes first ski area to make snow on regular basis. (Amski 1966 p449)

1952—Andrea Mead captures gold medals in slalom and giant slalom at the Winter Olympic games in Oslo. (Ski/R 1983 p44 ) This is the first Winter Olympics at which giant slalom is recognized as a separate event. (Amski 1966 p449 -7-) First women’s cross-country in Winter Olympics, Oslo, 10 km. (CompXc Dial p229)

1954—Ski Hall of Fame dedicated at Ishpeming, Michigan. (Amski 1966 p449)

1955—Henke Speed Fit buckle boots appear. (Ski/R 1983 p44 )

1957—The first useful aluminum ski poles are made by Scott. (Ski/R 1983 p46

1958—Buddy Werner becomes first American male to win a major European combined, the Lauberhorn. (Amski 1966 p449)

1958—First U.S. gondola lift installed at the Wildcat area in New Hampshire. (Amski 1966 p450)

1958—Clif Taylor, considered the inventor of Graduated Length Method (GLM) graduates his first pupil, Ann Hedges, on a pair of 100 cm skis. (Ski/R 1983 p46)

1958—Sugarbush opens in Warren, Vermont; Damon and Sarah Gadd, founders. All-day lift ticket was $5.50. (MAD 1993)

1958—Buttermilk and Aspen Highlands open on Thanksgiving, Nov. 26 making Aspen the country’s largest ski resort. (Frield ) (Skico, 1986)

1960—Eighth Olympic Winter Games at Squaw Valley, California. first alpine Games in the U.S.; Penny Pitou wins silver medals in downhill and giant slalom, and Betsy Snite wins a silver medal in slalom. France’s Jean Vuarnet wins men’s downhill on metal skis. (Amski 1966 p450)

1960—Kneissl, Sailer and Plymold market the first commercially successful fiberglass skis. (Ski/R 1983 p47)

1961—Ski Industries of America (SIA), first nationwide trade organization, opens New York City offices. (Amski1966 p450)

1961—Instructors form Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) in Whitefish, Montana, under Bill Lash. All division demonstration teams show final technical forms of skiing. (Ski/R 1983 p47) (Amski 1966 p450 )

1962—Chuck Ferries becomes first American to win a European classic gate race, the Hahnenkamm slalom. (Amski 1966 p450)

1963—First U.S. resort association, the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) founded. (Amski 1966 p450)

1964—Billy Kidd and Jimmy Heuga become the first American men to win Olympic medals for alpine skiing, being second and third, respectively, in the slalom of the ninth Olympic Winter Games at Innsbruck, Austria. Jean Saubert ties for second in the giant slalom and places third in the slalom. (Amski 1966 p450)

1964—The first Lange all plastic buckle boots are commercially available. (Ski/R 1983 p49)

1967—The first World Cup Competitions staged. Credited with the Cup’s inception are U.S. Ski Team Coach Bob Beattie, French Ski Team Coach Honore Bonnet and French journalist Serge Lang. (Ski/R 1983 p49)

1980—The 13th Winter Olympics held in Lake Placid, New York, for second time; third time in USA. Swede Thomas Wassberg wins 15-km race by one hundreth of a second, closest ever in cross-country ski racing. (CompXc Dial p231)