Back to Basics: The Origins of Skiing

[Bart.Man]

This is an article in the latest issue of National Geographic, and I thought it was fascinating.

The Tuvan people in the Altay mountains of China are thought to essentially be the inventors of skiing, with scholars finding skis having been made as far back as 8000 BC. Imagine ripping turns on a pair of primitive spruce skis that were hand made over the course of 2 weeks.

Drilling holes for rawhide bindings on a pair of spruce skis:

Shaping the skis:

Taking down an elk... on skis:

Rockin the horse hair skins on his skis. This guy rules:

Face shots all day:

Here's a link to the full article. I would have linked directly to the National Geographic website, but you have to be a member to view it, so pastebin.

http://pastebin.com/2uJZp835

What do you think people in the future will think of our ski technology, or do you think modern ski tech will stand the test of time? Personally, I (sadly) don't think it will. Throughout history, skiing has served some purpose, be it hunting or transportation or otherwise. Modern skiing is now almost exclusively for recreation.

Maybe this isn't as cool as I though it was, but I think it's worth considering and sharing.

TL;DR Get back to your roots as a skier by learning who made the sport.

 

[ihitchadsgap]

These guys rip!

 

[baaangthat]

not a single backflip in the whole video. those guys are pussies.

 

[tspence.]

The horse hare base is really cool I wonder if it would be possible to make a modern base like that. I directional touring base that climbs well and skis fast without needing to take skins on and off. Great article thanks for posting.

 

[assface]

and to say mcConkey invented rocker......

no way, he invented BN skiing and the true definition of not giving a hoot

 

[Willskiforfree]

Woah so awesome

 

[Bart.Man]

Yeah a pair of horse hair skins would be bitchin. I wonder why companies haven't developed a skin that's effective on the downhill as well...

 

[a_burger]

my parents have some old xc skis that have a sort of pattern like they mention on the base, I don't know if they still make them like that. They work ok but slide back still on anything more then a beginner slope.

someone should take some old skis and try carving little trenches into the p-tex and see how that works. the only problem is the trenches would probably fill with snow after a few minutes and stop you from sliding back.

 

[WU-sconsin]

I think that there will most definately be technological developments in skiing that will probably make a lot of parts of skiing different. For example, those edgless abs plastic snowboards that are super flexy.