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David Orazietti is an Ontario resident with a background as president of Sault College and a commitment to community and civic activities. Among David Orazietti’s favorite activities is exploring the natural environment, whether through hiking, camping, or downhill skiing.
While thought of as a recent sport, skiing has a history that extends back for millennia. The most ancient recorded skiers resided in the Altai Mountains, which occupy the center of the Eurasian Continent, where Siberian Russia meets Northwest China, not far from Lake Baikal. An intricate cave painting discovered in China’s Xinjiang region from the last Ice Age depicts various hoofed animals being hunted by figures on skis. They are depicted carrying a single thick pole, which they employed in turning, as the heavy wood skis were two meters long and couldn’t turn independently.
Remarkably, this skiing tradition still exists among the Tuva people of China’s northern Xinjiang province. One Hemu villager who makes a living as a reindeer herder describes crafting and using traditional skis that feature horse hair on the bottom. The direction of the hair provides grip, ensuring the skis move forward but don’t slip back, which enables steep uphill climbs.
The white pine construction of these skis reflects a pine species local to the region that, unlike normal pine, is not soft and liable to break under hard use. As the herder says, “You could walk a year with these skis and they would not crack or break.” Today, the region hosts ancient skiing competitions that, just like their modern counterparts, include cross country and downhill components.
Another early innovator of skiing were the Sami, an indigenous people of northern Scandinavia who are thought to have migrated from the Ural Mountains tens of thousands of years ago. At this time, other communities such as the Eskimo were following the retreat of Ice Age glaciers and populating new regions. Also known as Lapps, the Sami herded reindeer. Like the Tuva, they employed a single pole for changing direction. Sometimes the pole would have an antler attached to the tip, which functioned as a small snow shovel or a spear head that enabled hunting and fending off wolves. Unlike in Central Eurasia, this ski herding tradition died off in the early 20th century.
The Norse people, including the Vikings, took up skiing in the Stone Age. Armed with spears, hunters could travel rapidly in deep snow and run down large mammals such as European elk and deer. In addition, trappers used skis to access the backcountry wilderness and seek out animals prized for fur, such as martens, wolverines, arctic foxes, and lynx.
From these highly practical roots came alpine, or downhill, skiing, which became a military discipline in Scandinavia in the 18th century. The Norwegian Army set in place a system of competition that combined skiing with navigating snowfields and wooded areas while shooting guns. This tradition is reflected in the Winter Olympics’ biathlon event. In 1809, the first recorded ski jumper emerged, with the Norwegian Olaf Rye accomplishing a 9.5-meter jump in front of a crowd and emerging unscathed.
The emergence of downhill skiing as a leisure lifestyle came after Rudolph Lettner invented the steel edge ski in Austria in 1928. This provided skiers with superior grip and enabled carving turns. From there, Hannes Schneider established the pioneering Albergschule ski academy in St. Anton, where he developed downhill techniques still used today, including the stem and parallel turns.
