Table of Contents

Preface,Acknowledgements                                                   Note, Maps  
1. Skiing Necesse Est                                       
2. Ski Tracks in the Milky Way                                   
3. The Earliest Written Sources                    
4. The Finnish National Epic: Kalevala 
5. The First Printed
6. Norway - the Cradle of Skiing as a Sport
7. The Influence of Rousseau                  
8. The Ski in Foreign Literature
9. Evolution of Skiing as a Sport
10. The Men of Telemark
11. Development of Technique and Equipment
12. The First Nordic Marathon                                            
13. The Conquest of the Mountain World     
14. Fridtjof Nansen and the First Crossing of Greenland
15. The Nordic Olympia
16. The Waisted Telemark Ski
17. The Rise of Ski Touring and the Misadventures of Roald Amundsen
18. As Important as the Plays of Ibsen
19. The Spread of Skiing on the Continent
20. Norwegians Bring Skiing to Austria-Hungary and Montenegro
21. Skiing Comes to Switzerland
22. Davos
23. The English Skiing at Davos 
24. Mathias Zdarsky
25. St.Moritz  
26. Skiing in France
27. Polar Exloration 
28. The Inventions that Founded Modern Skiing 
29. The New World
30. The Study of Snow Structure
31. The First Winter Olympics at Chamonix
32. Mass Winter Tourism
33. The International Recognition of Downhill Skiing
34. Skiing Mechanized and Politicized
35. Military Skiing
36. Skiing Since 1945
Bibliography

Promotional Information

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

About the Author

Roland Huntford is the world's foremost authority on the polar expeditions and their protagonists. He is the author of the award-winning Two Planks and a Passion: the Dramatic History of Skiing and Scott and Amundsen: Last Place on Earth and he is the biographer of Shackleton and Nansen. He was the Scandinavian correspondent on The Observer for many years.

Reviews

'This is a deeply scholarly work ... Fortunately scholarly in this instance is not synonymous with dull ... Huntford manages to to bind a wealth of material together with a strong narrative thread.' Simon Redfern, The Independent on Sunday

"The breadth of his scholarship, which includes an easy familiarity with Scandinavian texts, is extraordinary." Literary Review

"What elevates Huntford is his comprehensive approach ... accessible and enjoyable, even to the most armchair bound of 'schussers'." Paul Watkins, The Times

"Could the outcome of the Second World War have been decided by the humble ski? That's the bold but surprisingly convincing claim made by Roland Huntford in Two Planks and a Passion." Roger Cox, The Scotsman

Review in The Daily Telegraph.

"Huntford's book will be a perfect stocking present for piste fantasists like me", Max Hastings, Sunday Times

‘Huntford has also undertaken the monumental task of tracing and explaining the development of the sport of skiing outside Scandinavia, particularly in Alpine Europe. As such, he has provided us with a much richer and more complex picture than was previously available from Arnold Lunn's highly partial The Story of Skiing.'
*oxfordjournals.org*

Featured at number 6 in the top 10 bestselling winter sports books in 2011 feature in The Times.

'This will be skiing's definitive history for years to come...' Alex Wade, Times Literary Supplement

'[A] fine, erudite history of the sport', Hugh Thompson, The Independent

"Roland Huntford's book is an amazingly detailed history of skiing's Scandinavian origins." BBC History Magazine

Title mention in The Guardian.

Title mention in Skier & Snowboarder Magazine.

'Our choice - pick of the paperbacks ... Huntford tells the ski story straightforwardly and simply' - Sunday Times

"This is a compelling acount, and definitive history, of an activity that has evolved over time into one of our most thriving leisure industries." Sunday Telegraph

"An engaging and insightful work" Sport Magazine

"The most in-depth study of skiing currently in the English language and it will no doubt remain the defining record for some time." The Guardian

Mention in The Daily Mail, 28 November 2008.

Mentioned in Skier and Snowboarder Magazine, 01 November 2008.

"In his early books, Huntford chronicled the race to the South Pole ("The Last Place on Earth") and wrote biographies of Ernest Shackleton and Fridtjof Nansen. "Two Planks" seems a natural progression for him ... Huntford deserves praise for bringing together a lot of rich material." New York Times Book Review.