Skiing, or traveling over snow on skis, has a history of at least eight millennia. The geographic origins of skiing are disputed. Anthropologists and ski historians most commonly identify two proposed regions of origin: Scandinavia and the Altaic region of northern Asia. The earliest archaeological examples of skis were found in Karelia (a region in western Russia on the border with Finland) and date to 6000 BCE. Stone Age cliff paintings from the Altai Mountains in northwest China, dated to at least 4000 years old, depict hunters using primitive skis and are often cited as evidence that skiing may have independently developed in Central Asia.
More recent research, summarized by Maurice Woehrle based on work by archaeologists Grigoriy Burlov and Hannu Takala, suggests that skiing began with the Kunda culture near the southeast shores of the Baltic, at the close of the last Glacial Maximum.
In Scandinavia, there exists a long tradition of skiing for at least 5,000 years, which later influenced the development of skiing as a sport in Europe. By the Viking Age, both the Sámi and the Norse, who had become distinct peoples by the Bronze Age, were practicing skiing. Descendants of the Norse later formalized skiing techniques, contributing to the development of modern competitive skiing in Norway. By the mid-19th century, skiing became a popular recreational activity and sport. In the 20th century, it was practiced in snow-covered regions worldwide, providing a market for the development of ski resorts and their related communities.
Etymology
The word ski comes from the Old Norse word which means "cleft wood", "stick of wood" or "ski". In Old Norse common phrases describing skiing were fara á skíðum (to travel, move fast on skis), renna (to move swiftly) and skríða á skíðum (to stride on skis). Modern Norwegian, however, does not form a verb from the noun. Other languages make a verb form out of the noun, such as skida in Swedish, to ski in English, in French, in Spanish and Portuguese, in Italian, in Dutch, or (as above also or ) in German. Finnish has its own ancient words for skis and skiing: "ski" is and "skiing" is . The Estonian suusk and suusatama are of the same Finno-Ugric origin. The Sami also have their own words for "skis" and "skiing": for example, the Lule Sami word for "ski" is and skis are called . The Sami use for the verb "to ski".
Early archaeological evidence
The earliest form of skiing was utilitarian invention. Ancestors of the Sámi people, inhabitants of Sápmi that spans northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, have practiced skiing for travel and hunting thousands of years ago. Archaeological finds, including ancient skis and rock carvings, show neolithic communities had used skis in these regions. Some of these finds were in northern Russia, with the oldest fragments of ski-like objects, dating from about 6300–5000 BCE and located about 1,200 km northeast of Moscow at Lake Sindor.
Ski historians and archeologists, also believe that the Tuvan people, indigenous to the Altai mountains, may have developed their own form of skiing during the Stone Age. A supporting evidence is found in the Altaic region of modern China, where a 5,000-year-old paintings suggest the use of skis by Indigenous peoples, though this is still highly debated.
Rock carvings
The earliest Scandinavian examples of skiing date to 3000 or 4000 BCE with primitive carvings. An image of a skier holding a single pole or an ax with both hands, is found in Norway. The Rødøy carving shows skis of equal length. A rock carving at Norway, from about 1000 or 500 BCE depicts a skier seemingly about to shoot with bow and arrow, with skis positioned in an angle (rather than parallel) to offer good support. Rock drawings in Norway dated at 4000 BCE depict a man on skis holding a stick. Near the White Sea in Russia, rock carvings were discovered in 1926 and dated to 2000 or 2500 BCE. One of the White Sea carvings depicts hunting of big game with hunters on equal length skis. The hunters apparently used their bow and spear as poles.
Stone age wall paintings suggest skiing had also evolved separately in the Xinjiang region by the Tuvan people; however, this continues to be debated. As the paintings are unable to be directly dated, indirect methods had estimated the age of the cave artwork to be likely between 4,000 to 5,250 years old.
Ski samples
The first primitive Scandinavian ski was found in a peat bog in Hoting in Jämtland County in Sweden; it dates back to 4500 or 2500 BCE. In 1938 a ski was found from Salla, Finland that has been dated back to 3245 BCE. Noted examples are the Kalvträskskidan ski, found in Sweden and dated to 3300 BCE, and the Vefsn Nordland ski, found in Norway and dated to 3200 BCE. There are some 20 findings of ancient well-preserved skis found in drained bogs in Norway, indicating that skis have been widely used in Norway, particularly Northern Norway, since prehistoric times. Skis have also been uncovered in ancient graves. In 2014, a ski complete with leather bindings emerged from a glacier in the Reinheimen mountains, Norway. The binding is at a small elevated area in the middle of the 172 cm long and 14,5 cm wide ski. According to the report the ski is some 1300 years old. Many organic artifacts have been well preserved for several thousand years by the stable glaciers of Oppland county and emerge when glaciers recede. A ski excavated in Greenland is dated to 1010. Based on findings in the Nordic countries and elsewhere, researchers have identified at least three main types of ski: arctic, southern and central Nordic. The arctic type was a short ski and covered with fur, and used from northern Japan in the east to Ob river in the west. The Sami people probably brought this type to the Nordic region. The southern type had one short and one long ski, and was used in forest areas of Southern Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. The central Nordic type also had one short with fur (the andor) and one long, and was used in large parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland.
In 2021, a well-preserved ski at length and up to wide was found near a shrinking glacier at an elevation of in Reinheimen (at a mountain plateau between Lesjaskogsvatnet (in Lesja Municipality) and Bismo (in Skjåk Municipality), Norway. It is estimated to be 1300 years old (that is, from around the year 700). A ski found in 2014 at the same location (some five meters from last find) is believed to belong to the same pair so that the two skis constitute the world's oldest complete set. The skis are made of birch and have leather bindings.
Writings
The earliest known texts that mention skiing were written by a Western Han Dynasty era Chinese scholar estimated between 206 BCE and 225 BCE, and referred to people who had skied in the Altai Mountains. Another ancient text referring to skiing was made by the Byzantine scholar Procopius in the sixth century CE, who wrote of a people who skied that he called the “scrithiphinnoi,” or “sliding Sami".
Travel and transportation
Norse mythology describes the god Ullr and the goddess Skaði hunting on skis. Ullr and Skaði have later been regarded as the god and goddess of skiing and hunting. Early historical evidence includes Procopius' (around CE 550) description of Sami people as skrithiphinoi (or skridfinns) translated as "ski running samis" (Sami people were commonly referred to as Finn). Birkely argues that the Sami people have practiced skiing for more than 6000 years, evidenced by the very old Sami word čuoigat for skiing. Paulus Diaconus mentioned what may have been Sami and described how they chased animals by a twisted piece of wood that they painstakingly shaped to resemble a bow. Early groups such as Sámi, Evenks,Nuttall, Mark (2005) Encyclopedia of the Arctic Routledge p591 Nenets, Tuvans, Nanais, and Ainu are recorded as using skis in winter hunting and reindeer herding.Mote, Victor L (2018) Siberia: Worlds Apart Routledge p77 Egil Skallagrimsson's 950 CE saga describes King Haakon the Good's practice of sending his tax collectors out on skis. The Gulating law (1274) stated that "No moose shall be disturbed by skiers on private land."
The saga of King Sverre of Norway reports how Sverre, around the year 1200, sent troops on ski to patrol the Aker area near Oslo. During Sverre's siege of Tønsberg Fortress, soldiers boldly skied down the steep cliff. According to the saga, Haakon IV of Norway as a baby in 1206 was transported by soldiers on skis through the hills between Gudbrandsdalen and Østerdalen valleys, this event inspired modern-day Birkebeinerrennet ski marathon. Ski warfare, the use of ski-equipped troops in war, is first recorded by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus in the 13th century. The speed and distance that ski troops are able to cover are comparable to that of light cavalry. Swedish writer Olaus Magnus's 1555 A Description of the Northern Peoples describes skiers and their climbing skins in Scricfinnia in what is now Norway. The garrison in Trondheim used skis at least from 1675, and the Danish-Norwegian army included specialized skiing battalions from 1747 – details of military ski exercises from 1767 are retained. Skis were used in military exercises in 1747.
A 1593 inventory of the "choicest rarities" on display at the Leiden University included:
In 1799, French traveler Jacques de la Tocnaye visited Norway and wrote in his travel diary: Norwegian immigrants used skis ("Norwegian snowshoes") in the US Midwest from around 1836. Norwegian immigrant "Snowshoe Thompson" transported mail by skiing across the Sierra Nevada between California and Nevada from 1856. In 1888, Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen and his team crossed the Greenland icecap on skis. Norwegian workers on the Buenos Aires - Valparaiso railway line introduced skiing in South America around 1890. In 1910, Roald Amundsen used skis on his South Pole Expedition. In 1902, the Norwegian consul in Kobe imported ski equipment and introduced skiing to the Japanese, motivated by the death of Japanese soldiers during snowstorms.
Military skiing
In the First World War, Austro-Hungarian troops on the Italian front used skis and wore snow camouflage smocks and overtrousers over their uniforms.
In the Second World War, the German armed forces published a manual for its ski troops in 1942.German Ski Training and Tactics (Special Series, No.20), Military Intelligence Division, War Department — 31 January 1944; Vorläufige Richtlinien für Ausbildung und Kampf von Skitruppen. — Berlin: A. Seydel, 1942 The 1942 Russian war documentary film Moscow Strikes Back shows a scene of a winter attack by Russian ski infantry supported by tanks.
Sport
The first recorded organized skiing exercises and races are from military uses of skis in Norwegian and Swedish infantries. For instance, details of military ski exercises in the Danish-Norwegian army from 1767 included downhill in rough terrain, target practice while skiing downhill, and 3 km cross-country skiing with full military backpack. Slalom (Norwegian: slalåm) is a word of Norwegian origin that has entered the international skiing vocabulary. In the 1800s, skiers in Telemark challenged each other on "wild slopes" (ville låmir), more gentle slopes had the adjective "sla". Some races were on "bumpy courses" (kneikelåm) and sometimes included "steep jumps" (sprøytehopp) for difficulty. These 19th-century races in Telemark ran along particularly difficult trails usually from a steep mountain, along timber slides, and ended with a sharp turn ("Telemark turn") on a field or icy lake. 1809: Olaf Rye was first known ski jumper. 1843: First public skiing competition ("betting race") held in Tromsø, Norway on March 19, 1843. Also the first skiing competition reported in a newspaper.