An Inquiry into the Complexities of Snow Skiing
Section 1
History of Skiing
Snow skiing as a form of transportation has been utilized for at least 8,000 years. It originates from the Norse word skio which means “stick of wood.” The fundamental elements in skiing are the skis themselves, the boots, the poles, and the clothing. In this paper we will analyze the history and design of each of these elements in order to understand why they are the way they are today and question if there is still more room to improve. By understanding where these pieces of equipment started we can see that as the sport evolved so did the gear.
Some of the first skis were short and broad and resembled snowshoes more than modern skis. Skiing was not confined to Europe as there are many cave depictions and artifacts found in Asia as well. There are written references to skiing from the Han dynasty which was between 200 BCE and 200 CE.
Fragments of skis are among the oldest wooden artifacts ever discovered. This means that skis predate the invention of the wheel making it the also oldest form of transportation. The oldest ever discovered artifact relating to skis was a ski fragment found in Russia at the Vis site by Grigoriy Burov in 1965 and is dated to 6000 BCE. It is the tip of a ski with a carved protruding moose head [pictured] which is theorized to symbolize the hunt while also serving as a prehistoric friction brake.
Norway and Sweden are other prominent countries in the development of skiing. The oldest ski ever found in Norway is Drevjaskia which is 5,200 years old and the oldest ski found in Sweden, Kalvtraskskidan, is about the same age. “Kalvtraskskidan” is about eighty inches long and six inches wide. Discovered in a swamp, the ski is made from pine wood. A single, shovel shaped pole, approximately 61 inches long, accompanied the ski. Archaeologists speculate that early skiers only used one pole, which doubled as a balancing tool and a weapon for hunting. The shovel shape at the end would allow a skier to disembowel his prey, dig deep into snow to find forage for his herds, or scoop water or ice. Today, skiers in the northwestern province of Xinjiang in China, still use only one ski pole, both as a balancing tool and a rudder in deep snow.
Although some of the oldest skis and ski fragments found have been in Europe and Russia. There is some debate on who the real inventor of skiing is. It is possible that it developed simultaneously in completely different regions around the same time, or perhaps there was travel among the people where trade became possible. It is impossible to know because of how deep skiing runs in the historical record.
The Sami people, also known as the Lapps are the indigenous people of Sweden. They believe themselves to be inventors of skiing. They were renowned for using skis to hunt during Roman times and Vikings used skis from the 9th to 11th centuries. Skis are even still used occasionally for travel in rural areas of Russia and Scandinavia.
The people of the Altay Mountains in Northwestern China also believe themselves to be the inventors of skiing. There is a petroglyph believed to show men on skis hunting an Ibex [pictured] that Chinese archaeologists argue date back 10,000 years. If that date proves accurate this would be the oldest evidence of skiing anywhere in the world. However, other archaeologists believe this particular engraving is only 3,000 years old.
There are many other rock carvings found in Europe that could potentially be older. A large group of petroglyphs were found in 1895 in Steinkjer, Norway that are believed to be the oldest in Norway [pictured] are speculated to be about 5,500 years old.
Although originally skiing was a mode of transportation in the northern regions of Europe and Asia, in the 1800s skiing began gaining traction as a popular sport. The competitive ski field is divided into alpine, Nordic, and freestyle events.
One of the first competitions was a cross-country or Nordic event that took place in Tromsø, Norway in 1843. Competitive skiing began in California in the 1860s with straight downhill courses that would be comparable to modern day alpine skiing, done with 12-foot skis and only toe straps. Freestyle skiing started in Oslo in 1879, it was a ski-jumping event. In 1924 the FIS ( Fédération Internationale de Ski, International Ski Federation) was founded but it wasn’t until 1930 that Norway, Sweden, and Finland withdrew their resistance and allowed Alpine skiing events to be fully sanctioned.
Section 2
History of the gear
The Sami people had skis with leather straps on them that held the foot down. The toe of the boot had a steep curl on it the would keep the boot from coming out of the shoe backwards. The common elf shoe is a Sami ski boot. In more modern times, until the 1870s all boots were made by local cobblers by hand. They were similar to ordinary ski boots. In 1928, Swiss racer Guido Reuge invented a cable binding that would hold the heel down for alpine skiing. Over the next 50 years the ski boot would go through immense change until finally in the 70s the modern boot was developed. See section 5 for more information.
Ski bindings originally simply held the boot down to the ski. Navigating steep or rough terrain was nearly impossible due to the flexibility of the heel. Stiff heel cables eventually became the norm, with steel plates to hold the toe, leaving no release mechanism which lead to many injuries. In 1939, while under anesthetic after breaking his leg skiing, Hjalmar Hyam, a Norwegian ski champion came up with the first releasable downhill ski binding known as the Saf-Ski. In 1950, the Look binding was invented which pivoted to absorb shock which revolutionized the ski and lead to the modern binding.
As far as ski poles go, the earliest ski pole was found in Sweden and dates back to 3600 BCE and the earliest depiction of a man with a ski pole was found in Norway in the form of a cave painting, it is dated to 4000 BCE. Early skiers used this single pole for balancing, braking, and turning. Some societies, such as those in the Nordic regions or Altai mountains used their ski poles to hunt as well. Skiers began using two ski poles in 1741.
Helmets were originally just pig skin, the same helmets worn by bicyclists and football players. As snowboarding became more popular so did park culture. With park culture came more head related injuries and there became a need for more protection. Ski helmets became similar to skateboarding helmets but with a warmer lining designed for colder temperatures. From 1995 to 2010, helmets use increased from 5% to 76%. Over that period of time, the rate of serious head injuries caused by skiing accidents dropped about 65%. There are also racing helmets designed for setting speed records on downhill skis. These are trout shaped and designed to reduce drag.
Ski waxing is the last element of ski equipment that I will describe the history and development of. Ski waxing started as a natural requirement for skis as the wood in skis needed to be sealed and sealing it also allowed it to glide better on snow. The first literary reference to ski preparation was a history of Lapland written in Latin by Johannes Scheffer and published in in English in 1674. Scheffer reports that the Sami skiers used pine pitch and rosin to seal and wax their skis. Pine tar glides on snow because it is insoluble in water, water beads on it forming droplets instead of sheets. This means that on the microscopic level the skis are gliding on a bed of liquid ball bearings and air, limiting friction. Pine tar was not replaced until the 1940s with the development of cellulose surfaces, and then in the 1950s by polyethylene. Each ski club had its own continually-evolving formula.
Section 3
Significance in modern history
The first ever record of ski warfare came out Denmark in the 13th century. The Danes saw ski troops as potential replacement for light cavalry because of its potential mobility and speed. Skiing has long been used for military purposes. Ski troops were used in Sweden from 1452 and from the 15th to the 17th century skis were used in warfare by Finland, Norway, Russia, Poland, and Sweden. Norway used ski troops against Sweden during the Napoleonic Wars of 1807-1814. Ski troops also fought in World Wars one and two.
During WW1 the Italian Army mobilized the first modern day ski battalion, the 88 Alpine Battalion. The Alpine Corps of the Italian Army was born in 1872, when Italy was faced with the challenge of defending its borders along the Alps, thus the Alpini became the oldest mountain infantry still active in the world.
The first US mountain infantry was the US 10th mountain division which was deployed during World War 2. On Feb. 18, 1945, the 10th Division took Riva Ridge — to prevent the Germans from being able to survey U.S. positions below — in a nighttime operation. The steep mountain was covered in snow and ice. At night, the Germans did not bother with guard patrols, because the conditions were so difficult that they did not believe any American unit could climb the ridge — day or night. But the Germans were wrong, and the soldiers of the 10th climbed, silently, to the top and secured Riva Ridge with minimal casualties. The next day's operation, the assault on Mount Belvedere, would prove to be very different. The American soldiers ended up victorious, but not without a price: Nearly 1,000 of the 13,000 soldiers in the division died.
Section 4
The Design of Skis
Early skis designed for sport or recreation were made of one piece of wood, usually hickory, which are stiff but still flexible. Laminated constructions began in the 1930s which allowed for greater flexibility, durability and customization. In the 1950s plastic running surfaces on the bottom of ski increased speed and durability. By the 90s skis were typically made of foam core surrounded by wood and fiber glass. Kevlar, aluminum, titanium, or carbon are common materials added to a plastic base.
Before the 1850s ski bindings were simple toe binding that attached the ski to the boot only in one place, making it impossible to ski downhill on steep slopes or slopes that require any maneuvering. According to tradition, in about 1860 Norwegian Sondre Nordheim tied wet birch roots around his boots from the toe straps around the boots heels to anchor them firmly to the skis. After drying out the roots became stiff and provided better stability and control than earlier leather straps had. Sondre Nordheim also invented the cambered side-cut skis which were lighter and easier to turn. With these innovations, modern downhill skiing, with its characteristic speed and turns became possible.
Metal edges were introduced in 1928 and sturdy, three-layer skis with better glue were available by 1932. Through the 30s and 40s, ski builders experimented with aluminum and various plastics, such as Bakelite, to improve ski performance and durability. Howard Head’s famous Head standards were introduced in 1950 which consisted of a plywood core, aluminum top and bottom, plastic sidewalls, and one-piece full metal edges. In the 1950s, P-tex and fiberglass came into ski manufacture and ski builders introduced other high-tech materials such as carbon fiber and Kevlar through the 70s. Plastic reduced the need for waxing. In 1990, a revolution in ski shape began when Elan and Kneissel introduced deep-sidecut shaped skis, called parabolics.
Two of the most influential design innovations are the MV2 ski which was a giant slalom ski raced to several victories in the 60s. Its innovative design can still be seen influencing modern ski designs. The other is the deep side-cut, which is a design that has been slowly developing since the 19th century. The side-cut allows for a lighter, more maneuverable ski.
The MV2, designed by Jean Liard and introduced in 1964, was a magnificent giant slalom ski, raced to a downhill win at Morzine that winter by Mariel Goitschel, and to World Championship gold medals at Portillo, in 1966, by Goitschel and Guy Périllat. It was unique in its era for having not two but three layers of aluminum — specifically a hard alloy of Aluminum, zinc and copper called Zicral. Like all top racing skis of the late 1960s, it had a wood core with aluminum layers top and bottom, but the core was reinforced with a third sheet of aluminum, formed into a “hat-section” rib the factory called an omega, for its rough resemblance to the Greek letter Ω. That rib reinforced the MV2 in torsional stiffness, giving it tremendous edgehold when turning on ice. Historically, the MV2 is unique, blending American and French inventions.
The story begins at the Vought-Sikorsky aircraft factory in Connecticut, in 1945. The factory is best known for the Vought F4U Corsair fighter, one of the fastest and, piloted by U.S. Marine aviators, most capable aircraft of World War II. As it became clear that the end of the war was near, Vought-Sikorsky managers expected aircraft orders to drop sharply, so they looked around for consumer products they could build and sell. Because the company knew how to laminate aluminum to balsa wood, some bright soul decided that Vought could build skis. The project was handed to three of the company’s engineers, who happened to be skiers: Arthur Hunt, Wayne Pearce and Dave Richey. In short order they created the prototype of an aluminum “sandwich” ski — a lightweight wood core between aluminum top and bottom sheet. The Vought factory ran off 1000 pairs and created the brand name Truflex. It was the first mass-produced aluminum ski.
The trio then invented the celluloid-plastic yellow TEY Tape, applied to the aluminum base to improve glide speed. By adding a strip of wood under the hat-section top, Dieupart smoothed out the ski’s ride and vibration.
In the mid-50s, fiberglass became available in commercial quantities. In France, Paul Michal’s Dynamic factory, building great wooden slalom skis since 1931, spent seven years experimenting with the new material and learned how to wrap wet fiberglass around a wood core to create, with the help of Charles Bozon, the VR7 of 1960
Meanwhile Liard needed a new aluminum ski. Onto the existing Aluflex structure (flat aluminum base, hat-section aluminum top rib) he added a flat aluminum topsheet. The ski now contained three layers of Zicral aluminum and three strips of wood (one under the “hat” rib, one on each side). It was stable, precise and very fast. Liard named the ski MV2 for “mass times velocity squared,” the formula for calculating energy. And that’s the ski you’re looking at here – a direct descendent of the Connecticut-built Alu 60 of 1947.
When the first “shaped” skis arrived at ski shops in 1993, they were a revelation.
Deep sidecuts to help skis carve short, clean turns had been sneaking up on us for a century – so slowly that only a very few savvy ski designers, largely outside the mainstream Western European factories, could see them coming.
Sidecut – the subtle hourglass shape of the ski – goes back to skiing’s prehistory. It was invented by now-forgotten artisans sometime before 1808 and was adopted universally after being popularized by Sondre Norheim and his friends in Telemark, Norway, around 1856. Early skiers, who carved their own skis, found that pinching in the waist of the ski made it easier to turn. Since that time, the “straight” ski with parallel edges has been a rarity, enjoying real popularity only as a light cross-country ski for use in modern machine-set tracks, and for modern jumping skis. In alpine skis, sidecut shape has grown gradually deeper over the decades, stalling for about five decades starting in 1936, and at a greatly accelerated pace since 1988.
The original Telemark skis were carved by hand in home workshops, and the dimensions could vary quite a bit. But a typical Norheim-era ski, as represented in modern replicas from Morgedal, measured 81mm across the shovel, 67mm at the waist, and 70mm across the tail, for a sidecut depth of 4.25mm.
Telemark dimensions worked well for Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen, and this standard shape was still relevant midway through the 20th century, when ski manufacturers began to think about making skis of metal and fiberglass in elaborate molds.
Sidecut depth means that if we put the ski on a table and tilt it up so the base or sole is at a right angle to the tabletop, resting on the widest points of the tip and tail, then the distance from the ski’s waist to the table is, in the case of the original Telemark model, 4.25mm. (Today’s turny slalom skis have a sidecut depth of about 18mm.) Based on the ski’s running surface length (that is, the length of edge in contact with the snow, excluding the turned-up tip), the radius of the sidecut curve is 83 meters – very long by modern standards, but certainly not straight. The geometry worked well enough for running and jumping skis, and it changed very little into the 1930s, when a typical 230cm jumping ski (91-77-80mm) still had a sidecut of 4.25mm, and an agile 192cm women’s cross-country ski might be 88-73-80mm, for a sidecut depth of 5.5mm and a turn radius of 47m – about half that of the jumper. This basic shape was still viable when Howard Head cranked out his first aluminum Standards in 1950. The 79-inch version of that ski (203cm) measured out at 81-68-77mm, for a sidecut depth of 5.5mm and a 62 meter radius.
The 7mm sidecut depth became the new standard for race skis, good for the next four decades. The Kastle slalom used by the 1964 medalists Pepi Stiegler, Billy Kidd and Jimmie Heuga had a 6.75mm depth on a 64mm waist; the 1968 Rossignol Strato and Dynamic VR17 measured 6.75 and 6.5mm on a 69mm waist; and as late as 1983, the Rossignol SM GS ski still used the Strato shape (the contemporary FP slalom ski was narrower – and straighter). The big innovation, introduced by Dynamic in 1967, was to move the waist back about six inches, from the ball of the foot to the heel. The change was hardly noticeable to the eye, but it helped the great French racers of the era to accelerate out of the end of the turn.
By 1991 Franko and Skofic had finalized a 203cm mold for a GS race ski with a 110-63-105mm profile – that’s a 22.25mm sidecut, three times what most racers were using for slalom at the time. Sidecut radius was just 15 meters – about 35 percent of Jure Franko’s medal-winning Elans from ‘84.
Atomic, Fischer and Head had taken notice and quietly began to design 15mm sidecut skis of their own. There was the Fischer Revolution Ice (92-62-92mm), the Head Cyber 24 (94-61-90mm), and a whole group of identical skis marketed under the Atomic-built labels: Atomic, Dynamic, Hart, Rohrmoser, Colt. “It turns out that everything we thought we knew for forty years was wrong,” admitted one Austrian ski designer. But the big Western factories – notably Rossignol/Dynastar, Salomon and K2 – seemed somnolent in the face of impending revolution. “Shapes are a fad,” snorted a senior executive for one French skimaker.
By 1994, The word was out: If you wanted to keep up with the hot guys, you needed shaped skis. Traditional 7mm “straight” skis began to pile up in warehouses. Salomon and Rossignol had hundreds of shipping containers full of slick, straight, heavily discounted cap skis. In ’96, playing catch-up, Salomon began work on the Axendo series (99-64-89mm; 15mm) and hired Mike Adams away from Elan. Rossignol created a series of Cut 10.4 shaped skis (104-62-94; 19mm) at a dramatically reduced price By 1997, shapes had proliferated in all directions. There were fat shapes for powder, called Chubbs and Fudds and midfats. It was possible to buy deep shapes, moderate shapes, race shapes, carver shapes, powder shapes, expert shapes, learn-to-carve shapes and learn-to-ski shapes.