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Other documents randomly have
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ski-running
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
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eBook.

Title: Ski-running

Editor: E. C. Richardson

Author: D. M. M. Crichton Somerville

E. C. Richardson
Willi Rickmer Rickmers

Release date: August 31, 2017 [eBook #55472]

Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Anita Hammond, Wayne Hammond and

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKI-RUNNING

***
 SKI-RUNNING.
BY

D. M. M. CHRICHTON SOMERVILLE,
W. R. RICKMERS,
And E. C. RICHARDSON.
Dedicated to

THE SKI CLUB OF GREAT BRITAIN.

Edited by
E. C. RICHARDSON.

WITH NUMEROUS PHOTOGRAPHS AND DIAGRAMS.

SECOND EDITION.
London:
HORACE COX,
WINDSOR HOUSE, BREAM’S BUILDINGS, E.C.
 1905.

LONDON:
PRINTED BY HORACE COX, WINDSOR HOUSE, BREAM’S BUILDINGS, E.C.

“Paa Skare.”
 PREFACE.
Since the first edition of this book was produced two years ago
popular interest in the sport has increased by leaps and bounds. We
have endeavoured to keep pace with the times, and the present
volume is an attempt to give a really complete account of the sport,
which will be useful to beginners and experts alike. To the historical
part has been added a chapter on Continental ski-running, whilst the
technical part has been remodelled, enlarged, and, we trust,
rendered more lucid and complete. Wherever necessary new
diagrams have been added, and the whole-page illustrations have
been chosen with a view to indicating the great beauty and variety
of the snow regions of the earth.

Here and there actual alterations of views previously expressed will

be found. We make no apology for these, but desire frankly to
acknowledge our errors, and to thank those friendly critics who have
pointed them out. With ignorant criticism we have been very little
troubled, and with actual hostility simply not at all.

We are further greatly indebted to the many friends who have

rendered us positive assistance. The frontispiece is from Herr
Halström’s wonderful picture “Paa Skare,” which that gentleman has
given us unqualified leave to reproduce. The ski-runner which it
depicts also serves as a central figure for the cover, designed by Mr.
Nico Jungman. To those who have kindly permitted us to copy their
photographs we hereby take the opportunity of expressing our best
thanks. The outline of the Solberg Hill is from an accurate drawing
by Herr Von de Beauclair published in Ski, to the editor of which
paper we are also indebted for the drawings illustrating Herr Sohm’s
detachable seal’s-skin and climbing-irons. To Herr S. Höyer-Ellefsen,
Herr Fredrik Juell, Herr Trygve Smith, Herr Durban Hansen, and
numerous other skilful Norwegian runners we are grateful for many
a useful hint and word of advice, whilst we owe to Herr Zdarsky a
valuable practical demonstration of his methods of teaching. Messrs.
C. W. Richardson, E. H. Wroughton, and H. P. Cox have been kind
enough to help with the actual production of the little work, and if
there be any others who we have omitted to mention we would
hereby beg them to accept at once both our apologies and thanks.

E. C. R.

November, 1905.
 CONTENTS.

Pages.
Preface iii-iv
The Origin and History of Ski 1-13
Continental Ski-running 13-17
The Elements of Ski-running 18-85
Introduction 18-20
Part I.—The Ground and the Snow 20-27
Part II.—Outfit 28-52
The Ski 28-35
The Binding 35-43
Footplates 44
The Stick 44-47
Footgear 47-49
Other Clothes 49-50
Accessories 50-51
Part III.—Technical 52-85
Preliminary advice 52-53
Lean forward! 53
To lift the point of the ski 53-55
Turning on the spot 55
Walking with ski on the level 55
Up-hill 56-61
Gliding down 61-65
Falling and getting up 65
 Slight changes of direction 65
“Skating” 66
Braking with the stick 66-68
Snow-ploughing 68-69
Side stepping 69
Stemming 69-72
To make a down-hill curve 72-77
The “Telemark” Swing 78-82
The “Christiania” Swing 82-85
Jumping 86-98
How to select and prepare the hill 90-92
How to jump 92-98
Ski Mountaineering 99-104
Odds and Ends 105-116
Antidotes to Sticking, &c. 105-111
Common Faults and Failings 111-113
Ski-running Etiquette 113-114
Some Useful Figures 115-116
 THE YEAR-BOOK
OF THE

SKI CLUB
OF

Great Britain
CONTAINS

Articles by Practical Men about Ski-running

Centres in

GREAT BRITAIN,
NORWAY,
GERMANY,
SWITZERLAND,
AUSTRIA,
ETC., ETC.
As well as a great deal of other interesting
and useful information about the Sport.
The book is edited by

E. H. WROUGHTON,
and is published for the Club by Horace
Cox, Bream’s Buildings, London, E.C.
PRICE ONE SHILLING.
 THE
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF SKI.
By D. M. M. Crichton Somerville.

There are many people to whom the word “ski” must be an enigma,
and everything connected with the pastime “ski-ing” as a sealed
book. The object of the present treatise is, therefore, to solve the
puzzle, open the pages of the closed volume, and thus throw light
on a sport which, when once learnt, will be found more attractive,
healthy, and invigorating than any other winter exercise, provided, of
course, that it be not carried on (as often is the case) to excess, but
is indulged in only by those who are sound of wind and limb.

For the sake of the uninitiated, it may be explained that ski

(pronounced she) is a word of foreign origin, which, up to
comparatively recent years, has been translated “snowshoe,” a term
which conveys a wrong idea of the appliances in question, even
supposing it might be more fitly given to the forerunners of the ski,
viz., pattens formed of withes or wood, which are used in many
parts at the present day, and of which the Indian or Canadian
snowshoe is a modified type, and best known to British sportsmen.1
The ski, however, are of different construction, being formed of
narrow boards, 7ft. and more in length, upturned at the toe to allow
of their being shoved or slid over the snow, when attached to the
feet of the wearer.
With the exception of snow skates (iron shod runners some 2ft. in
length, for use on roadways and hard surfaces) they are the only
kind of foot gear used for the purpose of gliding on snow, and
possess many advantages over other snowshoes, not the least being
their capability of being used for pleasure, as well as the necessary
outdoor pursuits of daily life.

Until comparatively late years the employment of ski as contrivances

for travelling on the snow was unknown to the majority of those
inhabiting the more populated parts of the civilised globe, where
communication can nearly always be kept open by rail, steamboat,
or other means; notwithstanding that they are, and have been used
from time immemorial during many months of the year by a large
portion of the population of Northern and Central Asia, Russia,
Scandinavia, and even the southern parts of Eastern Europe, where
the winters are severe. Casual allusions to them in the writings of
some few sporting authors did not suffice to bring the ski into other
than mere passing notice; and they would probably have remained
in obscurity but for the somewhat recent discovery that they could
be employed for other purposes than those of mere locomotion, or
keeping open communication in lands and districts where snows are
deep, and highways lie buried or are unknown.

It may be of interest to mention here that, in remote parts of

England, ski appear to have been employed so late even as the
middle of the past century, their use being discontinued as
communication with the outer world became easier. Thus, apart from
information derived from other sources respecting finds of ski, or
their remains in various parts, one gentleman, writing from
Cumberland in February, 1904, states that, in the dales of Yorkshire
and Durham, the sport is by no means new, and that forty years ago
he went to his school on “skees,” which were made of beech wood,
some 5ft. in length, with “nibs” about 3in., and that it was no
uncommon practice in those days for the Weardale miners to go to
and from their work on such snowshoes, it being a fine thing to see
thirty or forty men gliding down the steep slopes from the mines at a
speed equal to that of a railway train. The writer also adds that,
amongst the youths, skee-jumping was a favourite pastime, and that
he believes the practice was a very old one from the fact that he
knew boys of his own age who had come into possession of “skees”
once owned by their grand-fathers.2

To judge from the description given by the author of “Lorna Doone,”

a form of ski was, probably, known in Devonshire some 300 years
ago, where also sledges were employed throughout the entire year
instead of wheeled vehicles for carting in farm products. In the story
he relates how when, during the great frost of 1625, John Ridd was
told that, in the Arctic regions, any man might get along with a
“boat” on either foot to prevent his sinking in the snow—such
“boats” being made very strong and light, of ribs with skin across
them, 5ft. long by 1ft. wide, and turned up at each end, even as a
canoe is—he built himself a pair of strong and light snowshoes,
framed of ash, and ribbed of withy with half-tanned calf skin
stretched across, and an inner sole to support his feet. “At first,” he
says, “I could not walk at all, but floundered about most piteously,
catching one shoe in the other, and both of them in the snowdrifts
(just as a beginner would now), to the great amusement of the
maidens who were come to look at me.”

From the above description such ski would have resembled those of
the Chukchis in North-East Asia.

It is due, however, to the youth of Norway that ski-ing has of late

years been reduced to a pleasure and an art; while the notice it has
received abroad is owing mainly to the prominence given to it by
accounts furnished to, and published in, English sporting and
illustrated journals, and to allusions to it in the writings of various
arctic explorers who have lately taken ski with them on their
journeys as part of their travelling outfit.
 Fig. 1.—An early form of Snowshoe.

From a Sketch by Laurentius Urdahl.

In turning to the history of the ski, it will be found that their origin is
as much lost in oblivion as that of the wheel; but it is not too much
to assume that human beings who have been created to adapt
themselves to their surroundings at all times, have, in lands far
separated and entirely apart, invented somewhat similar appliances
with which they could float, as it were, and proceed over depths of
snow that would otherwise bury them, or cross tracts of treacherous
ice which would give way under the tread of a human foot. In this
connection one need not refer solely to inhabitants of wintry
countries, for it will be found that the natives of other regions, who
have to traverse yielding surfaces, such as the great mud flats of
Hampshire and elsewhere, wear pattens on their feet, and are thus
able to wander in safety over a substance too soft to bear them
otherwise. Such pattens are almost identical with those employed
elsewhere for travelling over snow, and consist of slabs of wood,
some 16in. to 18in. long, by 12in. or so in width, which are attached
to the feet by toe straps and thongs. In these pattens, no matter
whether they be made of withes or solid wood, we undoubtedly find
the earliest form of snowshoes or ski, a form which, however, exists
to the present day, and is met with in the north-eastern and
northern portions of Asia, Thibet, the Caucasus, Armenia,
Scandinavia, Germany, Switzerland, and, in a modified form, in North
America, the principle of construction there being identical, viz., a
ring or framework of wood supporting a net work of withes or
sinews. There are, however, various modifications of the original
round pattern; some of the shoes, possibly to prevent straddling, are
more or less elongated, the length being increased as the breadth is
diminished, while some, thus shaped, have occasionally leather
stretched between the frames to allow of their wearer gliding,
instead of walking, over the snow, and thus become veritable ski; for
while the original object of the snowshoe or patten and the ski are
identical, viz., - to support a weight on yielding surfaces, the patten
remains a shoe for walking purposes, while the ski becomes a blade
on which to slide. From this explanation the difference between
patten or snowshoe and ski is possibly made clear for the first time.

While, as previously mentioned, it is impossible to trace the origin of

the ski, mention of snowshoes is made hundreds of years before the
Christian era. Xenophon refers to their being worn (as in Scandinavia
to the present day) by the horses of the Armenians to prevent their
sinking in the deep snow. Historical mention, from a period before
Christ, is also made of the mountaineers of the Caucasus attaching
discs of leather (probably leather-covered wood), studded with nails,
to their feet to enable them to move over the snows of the fells. The
ancient accounts, however, all refer to the patten, but Norwegian
traditions dating back some 1,600 years make mention of the ski.
The Greek historian, Prokopius, as well as other writers, including
King Alfred of England, from 550 A.D. to 1070 A.D., drew attention to
the Lapps, who were called “Skrid Finner,”3 one saying they were the
best of all men at ski-ing, and the fact of it being the Lapps who
wore the ski, or who were the great exponents of ski-ing in those
early times, would tend to confirm the theory of the ski themselves
originating in Central Asia—those parts of the old world from which
the Ugrians or Finns, Samoyeds, and other tribes of Mongols
migrated northward and westward, till stopped by the waters of the
Atlantic on the shores of the Scandinavian peninsula. There can be
little doubt, however, that pattens were used for hundreds, if not
thousands, of years before the thought of sliding over the snow,
which led to the introduction of ski, entered the head of some
inventive genius. The original ski were probably constructed by the
Chukchis, or similar tribes, near the Behring Straits, or Sea of
Okhotsk. They were formed, as already intimated, of elongated
frames covered with leather, and were modified, subsequently, as
migration increased, forests were met with, and wood was found to
be a better and more durable material for the purpose required.

It will thus be seen that ski were extensively used in olden times by
the Scandinavians as well as others. They also found their way from
Norway to Iceland and Greenland. Of ski there are many types. The
skridsko (sliding shoes), or ski of the Lapps, appear, if one is to
judge from old illustrations from the sixteenth century (Figs. 2 and
3), to have been veritable shoes, the feet being placed in a hole
made for the purpose at the heel of the ski. They are thus depicted
as elongated (some 3ft. long) sabots. There is, however, no reason
for assuming these sabot skis to have been the original form, for
they were, at best, but a hybrid type of ingenious construction,
possibly only used by the inhabitants of certain districts. The true
Lapps’ ski, on the other hand, were comparatively short and broad,
attached to the feet by toe straps and thongs, and covered with the
skins of reindeer calves for the purpose of letting them glide easily
without accumulating snow on the soles, of keeping the wood from
splitting or fraying, and because, when thus covered, it was easier to
ascend the slopes of the hills, the hairs which lay fore and aft,
checking the tendency to slide backwards.
Fig. 2.—Skrid-Finner hunting (Olaus Magnus, ca. 1550).
 Fig. 3.—Skrid-Finner (Olaus Magnus, ca. 1550).

Such skin-clad ski were, and are still, employed by the Lapps, as well
as by others in Scandinavia, Finland, and throughout Siberia; but
several other types have, nevertheless, been used in Lapland for
centuries. In Scandinavia and the North, these skin-covered
appliances go by the name of “aandre,” “ondurr,” “andor,” to
distinguish them from the plain ski. As, however, the advantages of
the skin are not now generally considered sufficient to
counterbalance the disadvantages, they are gradually disappearing.

There can be little doubt but that the greatest development of the
ski has taken place in Europe, notably in Scandinavia, where they
have been modified to suit the different requirements of the districts
in which they are employed. Thus have the varied types hitherto
been many, but may be divided generally into two groups, viz., the
short and broad, or loose snow ski, and the long and narrow, or
compact snow variety (“skare ski”), this latter pattern being
represented by the Oesterdal and Swedish ski (originally one very
long and one short ski, but now generally of equal length). These
are the most suitable for open country, whether in the lowlands or
mountains, and on level or undulating land are superior, so far as
speed is concerned, to all others; but in broken country, or on
mountains where obstacles such as trees, rocks, &c., are to be met
with, the shorter or “loose snow” patterns, owing to their handiness,
are invariably employed.

Almost every province, it may be said almost every district,

throughout Scandinavia possessed its own type of ski. In Russia they
have possibly been of a more homogeneous character than
elsewhere, owing to the snow-clad portions of that empire consisting
of vast plains which call for no variety of form. Of comparatively late
years, however, there has been a tendency in Norway to adopt one
sort for universal use, and a sub (lighter) variety for leaping
purposes. It is a modified Telemarken (loose snow) type, eminently
suited to every purpose, and is gradually superseding all other forms
throughout Scandinavia.

Of accessories to the ski, the staff has invariably been recognised as

a necessity (except in leaping competitions, when it becomes a
source of the greatest danger) and should always form part of the
outfit on all long excursions or journeys. It assists the skier both in
aiding him when ascending, and as a brake when descending
difficult slopes, or as a means of defence if attacked by animals. The
Lapps use it, too, as an offensive weapon when attacking wolves,
which they occasionally run down on their ski, and kill by a well-
directed blow on the snout, or across that most vulnerable spot, the
loins of the beast. The most effectual use of the staff can only be
learnt by experience or teaching. The fastenings may be regarded as
other important accessories, and but a few years ago, and in many
parts even still consist solely of toe straps formed of withes or
leather. These simple contrivances suited all the requirements of the
expert peasants, and it is only of late years, when leaping was
introduced, and the ski put to other and harder purposes than
originally intended, that stronger and more secure bindings became
necessary. Of these, there are many sorts, all good, but none perfect
as yet. In some instances the latter may be a source of great danger
owing to its being impossible, when peril faces one, or accidents
occur, to remove the ski from the feet, and notably so when a man
breaks through treacherous snow-covered ice, owing to the ski
preventing him from regaining the surface. But while several fatal
accidents have occurred in this manner, it is possible that others
have been avoided by the greater command of the ski afforded to
most people by secure fastenings.

Holmenkollen.
 Photo by Rude, Christiania.

Having now given an outline of the history and origin of the ski, it
may be well to refer to the movement by which ski-ing has been
brought into the prominent notice of sportsmen and admirers of
winter pastimes. In the extensive and mountainous district of
Telemarken, Norway, one in which ski were employed possibly more
extensively than in any other, owing to its remoteness, and the
wretched state of the few highways and byways to be found there,
the peasants discovered that the ski might be used for pleasure as
well as ordinary pursuits, and arranged meetings at which races
were run, and the leaping powers of competitors tested on the
slopes of selected hills. By degrees news of these trials of skill found
its way to the towns and the populated districts in their
neighbourhood, and some few citizens having found ski-ing to be a
good, and to them attractive, exercise, determined to hold similar
meetings at Christiania each winter. The accounts given of those
meetings are very ludicrous, the hill being neither steep nor long,
the competitors riding astride their poles down the track, and only
jumping, if jumping it could be called, a few yards. The exhibitions
did not “catch on,” and were discontinued for many years. The
townsfolk knew too little about the sport to appreciate it, and the
absurd, if not painful, appearance of the competitors was not
encouraging to aspirants. Towards the end of the seventies,
however, owing chiefly to the exertions of the Christiania Ski Club—a
select institution with but few members—some Telemarken
peasants4 were induced to visit the capital, and in the early part of
1879 a ski meeting was held on the slopes of the hill at Huseby, near
Christiania, which was attended by a couple of the countrymen, who
took part, together with other competitors, in the races and leaping
that had been arranged. The Huseby slope was one which, only a
few years previously, had been described as highly dangerous, and
impossible to descend when the snow was fast and in good
condition.
The leaping competition proved most highly interesting. though in
some respects quite comical. Every man, except the Telemarkings,
carried a long, stout staff, and on that, so they thought, their lives
depended. Starting from the summit, riding their poles, as in former
times, like witches on broom-sticks, checking the speed with frantic
efforts, they slid downwards to the dreaded platform or “hop” from
which they were supposed to leap, but over which they but trickled,
as it were, and, landing softly beneath, finally reached the bottom
somehow, thankful for their safe escape from the dreaded slide. But
then came the Telemark boys, erect at starting, pliant, confident,
without anything but a fir branch in their hands, swooping
downwards with ever-increasing impetus until with a bound they
were in the air, and 76ft. of space was cleared ere, with a
resounding smack, their ski touched the slippery slope beneath, and
they shot onwards to the plain, where suddenly they turned,
stopped in a smother of snow dust, and faced the hill they had just
descended! That was a sight worth seeing, and one never to be
forgotten, even if in after years such performances have been, in a
way, totally eclipsed.

This wonderful exhibition of the peasants’ skill naturally excited the

greatest interest, and acted on the townsfolk like a charm. Their
leaping was regarded as one of the wonders of the world, and in
subsequent years people flocked to Christiania from far and wide to
witness it. Then came the turn of the tide, the eyes of the city
youths became opened—the eyes of those who, during the long
winter days had, for want of better occupation, frequented billiard-
rooms or ill-ventilated cafés, where the seeds of idleness and vice
lay ready to strike root. By degrees such old haunts became
forsaken, for the attractions of the newly-found sport proved greater
than those of the bottle, and even if they failed to attract and reform
the majority of men just at that period, they certainly had a most
beneficial influence on many, and, as time advanced, on the younger
generation, who were able to take to the pastime before bad
customs could affect their ways. Like other things, especially before
its novelty had worn off, ski-ing was, and often still is, carried to an
excess, but that it is a healthy pastime is a fact beyond all doubt. To
men it came as a boon and a blessing, and subsequently to women
and girls, who, in the short winter days and close confinement to the
house, suffered terribly from anæmia and all its attendant evils. At
the time referred to the fair sex was debarred by public opinion from
participating in masculine pursuits, and it is not so very long ago
that pater and materfamilias looked askance at girls who donned the
ski. That is all changed now, however, and ski-ing has produced of
later years a race of robust men and healthy women, presenting the
greatest possible contrast to those who lived “in the good old times,”
unconscious of the benefits of exercise and fresh air, shut up in close
and dingy rooms to escape from the dreaded cold and the touch of
an icy blast.

For some years the peasants carried all before them, both in the
racing and leaping competitions. They were steady on their legs,
accustomed to the mountain slopes from their infancy, and could
out-pace and out-distance all competitors. They did not, however,
understand the art of training; the townsmen soon saw they could
not get on without that, and ended at last in beating their teachers
on all points, first in jumping, which they practised as an art, and,
secondly, in racing given distances.

It may be well now to touch upon ski-ing proper, or the employment

of ski for the purpose for which they were originally intended, viz.,
travelling over snow-clad land or ice. By means of these appliances
people are enable to roam at will, enjoying the fresh, crispy air, the
pretty landscape, and changing scenery, combined with the pleasant
sensation of gliding, instead of tramping, over the surface of the
country. The speed attained is certainly not very great, and is about
the same in hilly as on level country, for in the former the time lost
in ascending slopes is made up on the descent. In racing, the time
made by the best men, travelling lightly clad, and under the best
conditions of snow and weather, works out at about eight and a half
miles an hour on a course of a little over nine miles, and nearly eight
miles an hour on one of eighteen and a half miles. In racing, the
longest distance ever run at a stretch was covered by a Lapp, who,
at Jokkmokk, in Sweden, made a good 137 miles in 21 hours and 22
minutes, over comparatively level ground, thus at a rate of about six
and a half miles an hour. Ordinary travellers, or soldiers on ski,
would find five to five and a half miles an hour quite sufficient to tax
their powers. In 1900, a detachment of the Norwegian Guards
accomplished a march of 125 miles in seven and a half days, an
average of some seventeen and a half miles a day, which must be
looked upon as a very good performance, considering that they
carried canvas wherewith to improvise tents, sleeping bags, and
provisions, and moved up hill and down dale, once ascending to a
height of 4,000ft. above the sea level. It will thus be seen that, in
marching trim, soldiers on ski do not travel faster, or to any great
extent faster, than infantry at other times, the only advantage of the
ski being that, when the snow lies, they are able to move about, and
get along in parts where men not provided with such appliances, or
snowshoes, would be compelled to remain idle.

Attention may now be drawn to leaping, which was originally learned

by the Norwegians on the slopes of their hills when inequalities of
ground would, during a rapid descent, cause the wearer to bound
through the air for some distance, possibly only a yard or two, but
sufficient, anyway, to create a longing for a little more. This led the
peasants to make an artificial rise on the face of a hill, and there
meet to see who could leap farthest. In no other country was the
leaping ever attempted, and it is primarily due to it that ski-ing
caught on, and became so popular in Norway as to throw all other
pleasures into the shade, and attain its present position as the
national pastime of the people. To be understood ski-leaping must
be seen. No photograph or description can ever give a proper idea of
it. Many of those who now appear as the best leapers are men who
devote their chief energies to this branch of the sport, and who
attend all the meetings they possibly can. They might be called “pot
hunters,” but this term can, fortunately, be hardly applied to them as
yet, for the remuneration of a prize can scarcely repay the expenses
they incur in loss of time, travelling, &c. They, in fact, perform for
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