We take for granted the high tech equipment now involved in skiing and there are an abundance of ski hire shops and resorts in which to take a skiing holidays. There are avid skiers, beginners and those that just enjoy the odd skiing holiday now and again but there is no getting away from the fact that skiing is a popular sport all over the world.
The history of skiing goes back a long, long while and is associated with the word skio which means, piece of wood. Skies probably originated from several devices designed to help the early settlers move around on the snow easier and faster. They were not a ski exactly but more of a convenient way to travel across the snow to hunt fish and provide for their families.
There are lots of variations of the ski and there are far too many to mention here, most of them were manmade variations of strap on shoes and wood. The ski pole emerged a little later and was again a man made article that was usually a thin strip of wood that was used alongside the ski to help with balance, much the same as today but of course ours are far more sophisticated.
Sondre Norheim was said to be responsible for the invention which led to the modern ski as we know it today. Sondre Norheim from Norway developed a device which allowed skiers to keep control of their skies without them coming off. He later developed a slimmer, more flexible ski which was much more effective in softer snow and also allowed skiers to travel faster. However skiing was still not a sport enjoyed by many. Reaching the skiing tracks was often a problem and it really didn't become a proper sport until much later on.
Lapland in Finland offers some of the best skiing and people were travelling there even before there was a proper road and of course today it is a huge tourist attraction which sees thousands of holiday makers every month. Skiing has now grown into not only a very popular sport but also a competitive one. Many resorts hold their annual competitions at the start of the seasons in preparation for the opening of the ski tracks. It is amazing to think that skiing as we know it now, started off as simply a means of travel for locals to get from one place to another.