The history of skiing is an interesting one. As the story goes, skiing was preceded by snowshoeing, or so we think. When Sondre Norheim, a Norwegian now heralded as the "father of modern day skiing", invented the ski binding, skiers were able to turn while moving downhill - "Slalom" (also known as Telmark skiing) was born! Skiers used the new movements and skills more as a practical means of moving from one location to another through the snow but, soon, as better and more effective binding was created, allowing more freedom of movement on the skis, the practice began to morph into one of fun, challenge and finally sport.
In fact, just 75 years ago, very few people had ever heard of Alpine skiing (also known as downhill skiing). Alpine skiing was something only a handful of people knew about and it was predominately practiced in the European Alps. During the evolution of downhill skiing, there were a couple of hotels and overnight lodging accommodations in the Alps that remained open during the winter, but they were few in number and far between. During the winter season they housed a small sprinkling of cold-weather adventurers who came to the Alps to test their newly acquired skills on the snow.
Within a matter of a few decades, however, the Alpine skiing population went from a few hundred to the now ever growing number of forty million! Skiers from all corners of the globe now head to the mountains at the first hint of a good snowfall. With skis in hand they will travel to any of the major mountain chains rising up in forty countries. Every continent, including Antarctica, is home to at least one good skiing mountain.
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