Having missed last week’s post doing much the same thing in 2024 as the fine gentlemen in Alfons Walde’s 1927 “The Ascent of Skiers” (above), I realised that whereas the technology moved forward the reason why we do this as recreation has remained unchanged. I know there are ski historians out there, but here’s a quick amateur look at the evolution of skiing through art.

Skiing of course started as a means of getting around in deep snow. The earliest fragments of skis are traced back to 6000BC and the modern word ski comes from the Old Norse word skíð which referred to a split piece of firewood.

Cave carvings depicting hunters on skis date back as far as 4000BC, illustrations of the Sumi people (the earliest ski culture which can be traced back to the Ural Mountains, areas of Europe and deeper into Asia) hunting are found in 16th century manuscripts, and Knud Bergslien’s 19th century depiction of the story of the Birkebeiner skiers carrying Norway’s Prince Haakon to safety in the 13th century has become an icon of Norwegian national pride.

Knud Bergslien, *Skiing Birchlegs Crossing the Mountain with the Royal Child,* 1869, Holmenkollen Ski Museum, Oslo, Norway

However, the evolution of skiing from a necessity to a recreational sport is fairly resent and can be traced to Scandinavia in the mid-1800s when Telemark skies were invented in the eponymous region in Norway.

Alfons Walde, *The Turn “Kristiania”*, circa 1925, (c) Kunstveriac Alfons Walde

Skis have changed a great deal over the centuries as the sport and the technology evolved but what remains the same is the allure of snow-covered mountains, whether swishing down the slopes or skinning up them. Having just experienced a week of this high, I was struck at how similarly - both to me and to each other - diverse artists capture the essence of this feeling.

Ski Allure