Believe it or not, the ski was actually invented even before the wheel. Twenty-two thousand years ago when the Cro-Magnon man first attached two wooden sticks to his feet, it was not to race down a snowy mountain just for the thrill of it. According to archaeologist Roland Huntford, skiing began as a mode of survival. Cave drawings suggest that man utilized skis during the last ice age in the Paleolithic period. Though this may be true, the oldest ski artifacts come from the more recent Mesolithic period.
Skis and snowshoes were first invented to cross wetlands and marshes in the winter when they froze over. They enabled man to travel during the winter and hunt reindeer and elk across the frozen tundra. Skis were widely utilized in Central Asia and Europe, while snowshoes were common in the New World, most likely because the snow was more compact and less soft in the Old World, theorizes Huntford.
Skiing next era revolutionized out of military considerations. In the 1760s, the Norwegian army held skill competitions involving skiing on downhill slopes, around trees, across snowfields and while shooting. These races were precursors to Olympic sports. In the early 1800s, the Norwegians created the Cambered Ski. The Cambered ski bends towards the center making it a concave shape and therefore allowing the ski to distribute the weight of the skier more evenly across the length of the ski. Before this concept, skis were made thick and heavy to glide without the ski bending or sinking in the middle due to the weight. The first national race took place in Oslo in the 1860s. All the while, more and more civilians – both in Norway and other parts of Europe – were trying their hand at skiing. The 1880s saw a shift from Nordic skiing (cross-country skiing) to Alpine skiing (downhill skiing) because the adrenaline rush of gliding down a mountainside had more mass appeal than skiing across level terrain. This evolution eventually made the Alps the new centre of the skiing world. Furthermore, in the Telemark region of Norway during the 18th century, two new styles of skiing were created for recreational use, the Telemark turn and the Christie. The telemark turning technique allows the skier to bend their knees, and almost lunge to create deep turns in the snow utilizing the inside edge of the ski. This method of skiing though unpopular is still used today, even by some professionals.
Then, in 1924, skiing made its way to the first Winter Olympics which was held in Chamonix, France. At first, the Winter Games only featured the more established sport of Nordic skiing, but the growing love of downhill skiing resulted in the inclusion of Alpine skiing in the 1936 Winter Games in Germany. That same year writes John Fry in his book The Story of Modern Skiing, the chairlift was invented in the US, revolutionizing skiing as a recreational activity.
Howard Head created the most commercially successful early metal ski in 1949. It was a pressure-bonded aluminum ski with a plywood core, plastic sidewalls and continuous integral steel edges. It was the first successful ski made of very different components. The secret of the ski's construction was a flexible contact cement that allowed the different layers to shear against each other without weakening. The revolution of metal and plastic was underway. This design laid the foundation for current ski models all across the world.
Fry, the president of the International Skiing History Association, explained that the pastime of skiing grew rapidly between 1955 and 1965. "It became much more accessible to people," he said in an interview. "The metal ski, invented early in the 1950s, made it easier for recreational skiers... In the 1960s came the plastic boot, since there were a lot of disadvantages to the leather boot." All of these advances resulted in ease of use and control on the slopes. Overall, it was all of these generational advances that have allowed for our modern-day skiing; from the smallest things like the material of the ski boot to the invention of the chairlift.