Evidence has been found to suggest man has been skiing, or at least using implements to slide over snow, for at least 6,000 years. Where snow covers the land for many months of the year skiing of some sort aided hunting and moving home from place to place.
The word ‘ski’ originates from the Norwegian word ‘skith’ meaning ‘snow shoe’.
In 1825 Sondre Norheim was born in the Norwegian region of Telemark. He would become a skiing pioneer and is widely seen as the father of telemark.
As a youngster he was a keen carpenter and local postman. Travelling distances over snow he learnt to understand how different lengths and shapes of skis affected their handling and manoeuvrability. He began making shorter skis, poles and designed prototype telemark bindings.
In 1868 he won the first national skiing competition in Christiania (now Oslo) beating younger opponents in the process.
In 1884 he emigrated to the United States. Norheim died in 1897 and is buried in North Dakota.Skiing became known internationally after the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen crossed Greenland in 1888, using rudimentary skis and two-metre long poles.
