Skiing is a very efficient way of travelling over long distances of snow and individuals have been using it as such for thousands of years. In fact, the first recorded example of skiing was found in Norland, Norway, and it has been dated back to 5000 BC. Skiing has been used for rapid travel, hunting and warfare ever since then and probably before.
However, there are basically three types of skiing, namely, Nordic, Telemark and Alpine skiing. Skiing was made popular for the international market by Sondre Norheim in the late Nineteenth Century, which coincided with Europeans becoming more adventurous in their choice of foreign holidays - well, for the rich at any rate.
Telemark skiing was developed in the Nineteen-Seventies from his ideas on skiing. However, the development of skiing techniques did not stop there. The Austrians, Mathias Zdarsky and Hannes Schneider were instrumental in expanding techniques further, although one cannot help thinking that the skiers of seven thousand years ago knew most of those techniques way back then as well.
As skiing has become more and more popular over the last sixty or seventy years, so more and more skiing resorts have sprung up. There are skiing resorts all over the world, but the most famous and well-liked are in Europe, especially in Scandinavia and mainland Europe.
There are skiing locations in the Pyrenees on the border of Spain and France, in Croatia and in Italy, but the most famous resorts are in the Swiss and French Alps, which are actually adjoining. There are even skiing resorts in Scotland.
However, there are also equally good skiing resorts in the United States, Canada and Asia. Wherever, you go skiing, there are things that a skier needs to get in order to be able to ski. a skier needs warm clothing and skiing apparatus. If you are a frequent skier, then you can buy your own clothing and your own equipment, but for most skiers, renting is good enough. At least, if you rent apparatus you do not have to carry lumpy gear around with you.
Resorts have ski runs of different skill levels, but you can also 'go off piste,' which means ski the wild, untended slopes. This is a lot more dangerous as these slopes are not tended, cleared or manned, so there is more risk of an accident and less chance that you will be found if you be into trouble. Avalanches are also less well investigated for off piste ski slopes.
Skiing is something that anyone can learn, but it is not easy to master. The earlier that someone starts the better. Skiers take falls and older bones break more easily than younger ones. Beginners fall more frequently than experts, so it makes sense to learn how to ski when you are young.
However, do not let that put you off, it is only a warning to be sensible. If you have always wanted to learn to ski, then go for it, but please do yourself a favour and learn the safety rules of skiing too.
More Information:
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a number of subjects, but is now involved with
short ski breaks. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at
Ski Package Holidays.
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