History of Skiing Timeline

The Byzantine scholar Procopius wrote in the sixth century CE about a skiing people he called the “scrithiphinnoi,” interpreted as “sliding Sami.”

The saga of King Sverre of Norway reports that around 1200 he sent troops on skis to patrol the Aker area near Oslo.

The Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus provided the first recorded reference to ski warfare, describing the use of ski-equipped troops in the 13th century.

Image source: Ski warfare

According to a saga, soldiers transported the infant Haakon IV of Norway on skis through the hills between the Gudbrandsdalen and Østerdalen valleys. The episode later inspired the Birkebeinerrennet ski marathon.

Olaus Magnus’s 1555 work A Description of the Northern Peoples described skiers and their climbing skins in Scricfinnia, in what is now Norway.

Image source: Olaus Magnus

A 1593 inventory of curiosities at Leiden University described a pair of stilts or skates used by Norwegians, Laplanders, and Finnlanders to travel rapidly down snowy mountains.

The garrison at Trondheim was using skis by at least 1675, demonstrating the institutional role of skiing in Scandinavian military life.

The first known depiction of a skier using two ski poles dates to 1741.

The Danish-Norwegian army included specialized skiing battalions from 1747 and used skis in military exercises.

Details retained from 1767 describe downhill travel over rough terrain, target practice while skiing downhill, and a three-kilometer cross-country race carrying a full military backpack.

Norwegian immigrants began using skis, called “Norwegian snowshoes,” in the American Midwest from around 1836.

Norwegian immigrant Snowshoe Thompson transported mail by skiing across the Sierra Nevada between California and Nevada beginning in 1856.

Norwegian immigrants in Berlin, New Hampshire, founded the club now known as the Nansen Ski Club in 1872, making it the oldest surviving ski club in North America.

The Norwegian pavilion at the Exposition Universelle in Paris presented a display of skis in 1878.

Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen and his team crossed the Greenland ice cap on skis in 1888.

Image source: Fridtjof Nansen

Norwegian workers on the Buenos Aires–Valparaiso railway line introduced skiing to South America around 1890.

Henrik Angell introduced skiing in Montenegro in 1893.

Image source: Skiing

William Adolf Baillie Grohman began skiing in the Tyrol with his family in 1893 using four pairs of skis sent from Norway.

The Norwegian consul in Kobe imported ski equipment in 1902 and introduced skiing to Japanese people, motivated partly by the deaths of Japanese soldiers in snowstorms.

The Kiandra Snow Shoe Club held an international contest of “ski running” in Australia in 1908.

Roald Amundsen used skis during his South Pole Expedition in 1910.

Image source: Amundsen's South Pole expedition

Norwegian instructors arrived in Sapporo in 1929 and trained Japanese athletes in ski jumping.

In 1942, German armed forces published a manual for ski troops, while the Russian war documentary Moscow Strikes Back showed a winter attack by ski infantry supported by tanks.

Nineteenth-century races in Telemark followed difficult routes from steep mountains along timber slides and ended with sharp turns, helping establish the Telemark turn.

Olaf Rye made the first recorded ski jump in 1809.

The first public skiing competition, described as a betting race, was held in Tromsø, Norway, on March 19, 1843.

The first public ski tour was organized in Trondheim, Norway, in 1849.

The Trysil Skytte- og Skiløberforning was founded on May 20, 1861, while Inderøens Skiløberforening in Trøndelag was founded in 1861 or possibly 1862. The Onion Valley Snow Shoe Club formed in California in January 1861.

The first public ski jumping competition was held in Trysil Municipality, Norway, on January 22, 1862.

A woman became the first recorded female ski jumper at the Trysil competition in 1863.

From January 1864, Trondheim Weapons Training Club organized regular training and competitions in cross-country skiing and ski jumping.

The word “slalom” was first recorded in 1879, reflecting the development of organized ski racing terminology.

Trondheim held its first pure cross-country competition in 1884 after ski jumping was removed from the annual event.

Italy held its first ski race at Bardonecchia in 1904.

The United States national ski association was founded in 1905.

The Norwegian term slalåm was used at a race in Sonnenberg in 1905 or 1906, and a slalom race was held in Oslo in 1906.

The first International Ski Competition was held between Montgenevre in France and Claviere in Italy in 1907.

Arnold Lunn created modern competitive slalom skiing in 1922.

The Vasaloppet cross-country ski race began in 1922.

The first team ski race took place during a Varsity Trip between Oxford and Cambridge Universities in 1922.

The International Ski Federation was formed in 1924, the same year as the first Winter Olympics.

The FIS held an international slalom contest in 1931.

The downhill race was included in the Winter Olympics in 1936, strengthening the separation between alpine and Nordic disciplines.

Cross-country skiing was included in the Winter Paralympics in 1976.

Mogul skiing and freestyle skiing were added to the 1992 Winter Olympics.

The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City introduced sprint and mass-start cross-country events.

A campaign for the inclusion of women’s ski jumping began in 2009 and led to the event’s inclusion in the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Image source: Ski jumping at the 2014 Winter Olympics

Around 1850, artisans in Telemark, Norway, invented the cambered ski, improving its performance and shaping later ski design.

Mountain resorts became commercially viable in 1868 as city dwellers gained winter access by train.

Image source: Ski resort

The introduction of ski lifts in 1908 helped transform alpine skiing into a distinct sport by enabling repeated ascents and descents.

The first rope tow was introduced in 1910, providing a simple mechanical means of transporting skiers uphill.

Peter Østbye invented and patented klister in 1913. The sticky grip material is effective on coarse, transformed snow produced by freeze-thaw cycles or wind packing.

Steel edges were invented in Austria in 1928, improving ski control and durability on hard snow.

Limited production of solid aluminum skis began in France in 1934.

The introduction of the chairlift in 1936 made ski resorts more accessible and helped divide the sport into cross-country and downhill traditions.

After breaking his leg skiing in 1937, Hjalmar Hvam invented the Saf-Ski toe binding while recovering from surgery.

The Sno-Surf was patented in the United States in 1939, representing an early precursor to the snowboard.

Howard Head introduced the Head Standard in 1950. Its sandwich construction placed aluminum alloy around a plywood core, with steel edges and phenol formaldehyde resin surfaces.

The first major commercial snow-making machinery was installed at Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel in New York State in 1952.

Ed Scott introduced a large-diameter, tapered-shaft, lightweight aluminum ski pole in 1959.

Image source: Ski pole

The modern ski goggle emerged in the 1960s with the creation of double-lens goggles, which improved vision and reduced fogging.

Kneissl’s White Star fiberglass ski was used by Karl Schranz to win two gold medals at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in 1962.

Torsion box construction became common with the introduction of Dynamic VR7 and VR17 racing skis in 1962, despite a related patent being granted in 1975.

The snurfer, the first commercially successful precursor to the snowboard, was introduced in 1965.

Waxless Nordic skis with fish-scale bases were produced in 1970, giving cross-country skiers grip without conventional kick wax.

Surfactants were introduced by Hertel Wax in 1974, and fluorocarbons followed in 1986 to improve ski-wax water and dirt repellency and increase glide.

Elan introduced the Elan SCX in 1993. Other companies quickly followed, and the shaped design overturned assumptions about ski construction and performance.

Line introduced the modern twin-tip ski in 1995, allowing skiers to travel and land more effectively in both directions.