Two Planks and a Passion The Dramatic History of Skiing

by Huntford, Roland

• ISBN13: 9781441134011
• ISBN10: 1441134018
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-11-10
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Roland Huntford's brilliant history begins 20,000 years ago in the last ice age on the icy tundra of an unformed earth. Man is a travelling animal, and on these icy slopes skiing began as a means of survival.

Author Biography

Roland Huntford is the world's foremost authority on the polar expeditions and their protagonists. The biographer of Shackleton and Nansen, his other books include Scott and Amundsen: The Last Place on Earth. He was the Scandinavian correspondent on The Observer for many years.

Table of Contents

Preface, Acknowledgements

Note, Maps

Skiing Necesse Est

Ski Tracks in the Milky Way

The Earliest Written Sources

The Finnish National Epic Kalevala

The First Printed

Norway - the Cradle of Skiing as a Sport

The Influence of Rousseau

The Ski in Foreign Literature

Evolution of Skiing as a Sport

The Men of Telemark

Development of Technique and Equipment

The First Nordic Marathon

The Conquest of the Mountain World

Fridtjof Nansen and the first crossing of Greenland

The Nordic Olympia

The Waisted Telemark Ski

The Rise of Ski Touring and the misadventures of Roald Amundsen

As Important as the Plays of Ibsen

The Spread of Skiing on the Continent

Norwegians Bring Skiing to Austria-Hungary and Montenegro

Skiing Comes to Switzerland

Davos: Cradle of the Ski Resort

The English Skiing at Davos

Mathias Zdarsky

St. Moritz

Skiing in France

Polar Exloration

The Inventions that Founded Modern Skiing

The New World

The Study of Snow Structure

The First Winter Olympics at Chamonix

Mass Winter Tourism

The International Recognition of Downhill Skiing

Skiing Mechanised and Politicised

Military Skiing

Skiing Since 1945

Bibliography

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