History of Skiing
Skiing, or traveling over snow on wooden runners, has a recorded history of almost five millennia.
The first hints to the existence of skis are on 4500 to 5000 year old rock drawings, e.g. at Rødøy in Norway (discovered 1933) or at Steinkjer (discovered 2001), which depict a man on skis holding a stick. There are also remains of skis in bogs, with the oldest ski found in Russia 8000 years old. The earliest people to ski in Fennoscandia were probably the distant ancestors of modern day Samis. The word ski goes back to the Old Norse word skíð meaning "a stick of wood". In modern Norwegian this word is pronounced. This word is now used in most languages in the world. Languages like English and French use the original spelling "ski", and modify the pronunciation. Languages like Italian pronounce it exactly as in Norwegian, and modify the spelling: "sci". German and Spanish adapt the word to their linguistic rules; "Schier" and "esquís". Interestingly, many languages make a verb form out of the noun, such as "to ski" in English, "sciare" in Italian, or "schilaufen" in German which is not possible in Norwegian. In Swedish, a close relation to Norwegian, the word is "skidor" (pl.). However Finnish language has its own ancient words for skis and skiing. In Finnish ski is suksi and skiing is hiihtää.
Other history sources have it that skiing in Iran dates back to 2000 BC, when ancient tribes are believed to have devised a ski board made from animal hide
Invention
There are six possible roots from which skis might have developed:[citation needed]
* The pedal snowshoe, which was an oval wooden board later on covered with fur.
* The sledge runner, which seems to be a very obvious model for the ski.
* The fur shoe, which was a combination of moccasins and sandals and worn together with pedal snowshoes.
* The marsh shoe, later was taken to colder regions.
* The canoe or the coracle, both used in northern regions from very early on. Having been used as sledges, small ones might have served as proto-skis.
* Spontaneous invention.
Early skis
Different types of skis have emerged at various regions at about the same time. One suggested original inventors of skis seem to be the people of the Sajan-Altaic Mountains in Asia. This is not verified. Also skis may have been used in Europe during and after the ice age. All in all there are three different types of skis in the North of Europe and Asia:
* The Southern type has a horizontal toe-piece binding. One can distinguish the Fennoscandian type and the Russo-Baltic type. Modern ski bindings are based on the Fennoscandian model of the 19th century. The bindings of Telemark ski were developed from this type.
* Eastern Siberian type is a thin board with a vertical four-hole binding. Sometimes it is covered with fur.
* There is still another type. It has a horizontal stem-hole binding. One can distinguish between the types used by Lapps (and some other Fenno-ugrics) and a type used in Central and Northern Siberia. Cross-country skis were developed from the type used by the Lapps.
Ski poles
Ski poles go back to two roots:
* The walking stick was used to keep balance.
* The ski pole developed from a spear or a bow to which a basket was added at one end. Double poles were used to reach a higher speed on skis.
