The earliest report (unconfirmed) of ski-racing in Norway is of a contest between Heming Aaslsken (the Norwegian William Tell) and his king during the first century AD. According to the book De Gentibus Septentrionalibus, published by the Swedish archbishop Olaus Magnus in 1555, the Lapps were racing for silver and other prizes from early in the second century. However the first confirmed race in ski history was held at Tromso, in northern Norway, in 1843 and this surprisingly included langlauf (cross- country), jumping and downhill. The downhill event was soon to be dropped, however, and until 1930 the Holmenkollen competition, first held just outside Oslo in 1892 and consisting solely of langlauf and jumping, remained the standard event for all Scandinavians. Norway neglected the downhill more and more, and when the sport of skiing spread into Central Europe at the end of the nineteenth century the strong Norwegian influence remained against downhill races, so that most competitions continued with the two disciplines, cross-country and jumping, alone.




It was probably the redoubtable Norwegian Sondre Norheim who first launched himself into space in about the year 1840, and in 1860 he is known to have jumped 100ft. It was not until 1900 that this record was beaten. Today, in comparison, the record stands at more than six times that distance, a jump of 636ft having been made by the Pole, Piotr Fijas, at Planica in Yugoslavia, where 'ski flying' first started, during March 1987. For a long time jumping officials have felt that such an event, which is extremely dangerous in windy conditions, has been developed far enough, and it is now treated separately to the Nordic competitions and held on 230ft and 297ft jumps only. Ski jumping is judged on both distance and style and the key to success is not, surprisingly, just bravado but superb technique, particularly on the staz or take-off, where the jumper must explode into the air with incredible precision and no undue wind resistance. The prefect jump is an aggressive one with the body stretched far forward, motionless, with the skis parallel, followed by a firm telemark landing but one that is also as light as a feather.




There are several ways to die skiing; it is a dangerous sport, but the surest way is to try skiing several thousand feet down a 50 to 60 degree snow mountain. That is precisely what Sylvain Saudan set out to achieve when in October 1969 he launched himself off the top of Aiguille de Bionnassay, a 13000ft peak in France which is the steepest and iciest slope on which such a descent was then, and still is, considered possible. Amazingly he survived. Saudan, a Swiss mountain guide, was considered by many to be crazy, is the only one of a growing number of skiers who have taken downhill skiing to the limit. Amongst others Heini Holzer from Italy and Gerhard Winter, on of the early pioneers from Austria, are particularly well known for their daring. Foolhardiness, no; the planning is meticulous. Holzer tackles the problem differently from Saudan, for whereas Saudan usually makes a detailed reconnaissance of each awesome slope by helicopter, Holzer climbs them, if they are climbable, in order to choose his precise rout down from the ground. Safety equipment is hardly considered, sharp edges to skies and points to the sticks are essential, but the rest is a gamble with death. Although both skiers will then descent in a rapid, almost staccato, succession of turns, Holzer jumps but Saudan just bounces. There is one other ski maniac, however, Yuichiro Miura, who prefers to take it straight. Muira, one of Japan's great post-war heroes, in May 1970 attempted the incredible feat of skiing from above the dizzy heights of the Sough Col of Mount Everest down a sheer slope to the Western bottom, a terrifying drop of over 4000ft. Near the base of this icy wall, which is so steep that it has never been climbed, a bottomless crevasse awaited its first victim. Muira relied entirely on a parachute to break his speed, which he calculated would open in the rarefied atmosphere at about 108mph. It opened, but failed to slow him down. He fell and slid to a halt within a few feet of the crevasse.




At the inaugural Olympic Games held at Chamonix in 1924 there were no downhill or slalom events and only Nordic skiing was included. Ladies, however, were not allowed to compete until the 1952 Olympics in Oslo. There were three main competitions at Chamonix, the 13 mile cross-country, or langlauf, race, the 31 mile race and the ski jumping. The jumping points and the 13mi points were also added to give a 'combined' result. Now the 'Nordic Combined' is a separate event altogether and is scored on the results of 230ft jumping on the first day and a 9 mile langlauf race on the second day. A Norwegian, Thorleif Haug, won the first Olympic 13 mile race. He beat another Norwegian by a wide margin and then repeated his victory in the marathon, defeating his fellow countryman, Thoralf Stroemstad, by nearly two minutes. His bronze medal in the jumping then gave him the gold for the Combined. However, in 1974, no less than fifty years later, Stroemstad, who had been examining the points again, proved to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the placing in the jumping at Chamonix had been incorrect. As a result Haug, who had been long since dead, was relegated to fourth position and an American, Anders Haugen, at the age of eighty-three, was awarded the bronze and America's one and only Olympic jumping medal.

Today the competition remains equally ferocious. But, unlike ski jumping, at least langlauf, or ski de fond as the French prefer to call it, continues to be a sport for the millions of skiers, both young and old, who are just out to enjoy themselves.




It will not be long before there are some 200 million people skiing the world's snow fields. Longer holidays and improved mountain transport systems are bound to encourage a growing number of young people to put on skis, but nothing will excite them more than the rapidly increasing availability of slopes spread with man-made snow. In particular the Australian, recently patented, Permasnow, in which 99% water is sprayed on as frozen foam (a great future for indoor ski slopes). Many such centers are already being planned in Japan and it will not be long before they are to be seen everywhere.

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