Two Planks and a Passion: The Dramatic History of Skiing » (Reprint)

Predating the wheel, the ski has played an important role in our history. This is brilliantly brought to life in this engaging book.

BBC History Magazine

Roland Huntford's book is an amazingly detailed history of skiing's Scandinavian origins.

1 Skiing Necesse Est 1

2 Ski Tracks in the Milky Way 3

3 The Earliest Written Sources 15

4 Old Norse Sagas and the Finnish National Epic: Kalevala 23

5 The First Printed Sources 33

6 Norway - The Cradle of Skiing as a Sport 45

7 The Influence of Rousseau 53

8 The Ski in Foreign Literature 61

9 Evolution of Skiing as a Sport 65

10 The Men of Telemark 79

11 Development of Technique and Equipment 95

12 The First Nordic Marathon 105

13 The Conquest of the Mountain World 117

14 Fridtjof Nansen and the first crossing of Greenland 127

15 The Nordic Olympia 141

16 The Waisted Telemark Ski 149

17 The Rise of Ski Touring and the Misadventures of Roald Amundsen 155

18 As Important as the Plays of Ibsen 167

19 The Spread of Siding on the Continent 177

20 Norwegians bring Skiing to Austria-Hungary and Montenegro 187

21 Skiing Comes to Switzerland 201

22 Davos: The cradle of the Ski Resort 211

23 The English Skiing at Davos 221

24 Matthias Zdarsky 231

25 St. Moritz 241

26 Skiing in France 249

27 Polar Exploration 265

28 The Inventions that Founded Modern Skiing 283

29 The New World 297

30 The Study of Snow Structure 307

31 The First Winter Olympics at Chamonix 319

32 Mass Winter Tourism 331

33 The International Recognition of Downhill Siding 339

34 Skiing Mechanized and Politicized 347

35 Military Skiing 357

36 Skiing Since 1945 375

Notes 391

Bibliography 401

Index 429