shirtsjunkie.com

Skiing is a group of sports using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding.

Skiing can be grouped into two general categories. Nordic skiing, the older of the two disciplines, originated in Scandinavia and uses free-heel bindings that attach at the toes of the skier’s boots but not at the heels. Types of nordic skiing include cross-country, ski jumping and Telemark. Alpine (often called “downhill”) skiing, which began in the European Alps, uses fixed-heel bindings that attach at both the toe and the heel.

Pre-historic Nordic people and Samis invented skiing to assist hunting, military maneuvers, and as a practical transportation for themselves. The oldest and most accurately documented evidence of skiing origins is found in modern day Norway and Sweden. The earliest primitive carvings circa 5000 B.C. depict a skier with one pole, located in Rødøy in the Nordland region of Norway. The first primitive ski was found in a peat bog in Hoting, Sweden which dates back to 2500 or 4500 B.C. Joel Berglund reported in 2004 the discovery of a primitive ski, or “85 cm long piece of wood”, carbon tested by researchers in 1997 while excavating a Norse settlement near Nanortalik, Greenland. The primitive ski dated back to 1010, and is thought to be Greenland’s oldest ski brought by Norsemen circa 980 A.D.