25 Fun Facts About Skiing

Test your ski trivia. How many of these fun skiing facts did you already know?

1. Skiing has Viking roots. The etymology of the word ski comes from the Old Norse word skíð, meaning split piece of wood.
2. The first fact makes sense given that the origins of skiing are generally credited to the Sami people of Scandinavia, who used skis for transportation.
3. The oldest skis on record were discovered near Lake Sindor in Russia around 6,300 BC, others have been found in Norway.
4. The world’s first ski club was founded in Norway in 1861.
5. Skiing made its Olympic debut in the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France.
6. St. Moritz, Switzerland is home to the world’s oldest ski resort. It opened in 1864.
7. The world’s longest ski run is the Vallée Blanche in Chamonix, France, which offers a run of about 14 miles.
8. The highest ski lift in the world is in Bolivia at the Chacaltaya Ski Resort, reaching 17,785 feet.
9. Early skis were made from wood and often wrapped in animal skins.
10. The first metal skis were introduced in 1928, and fiberglass skis appeared in the 1960s.
11. Ski boots were originally leather, but plastic boots became popular in the 1960s.
12. Telemark skiing is named after the Telemark region in Norway.
13. The world’s largest ski resort is Les 3 Vallées in France with 373 miles of ski runs.
14. You can ski in Dubai. Ski Dubai has an indoor ski resort featuring a 1,300-foot long run with real snow.
15. Whistler Blackcomb is the largest ski resort in North America by area with 8,171 acres.
16. The FIS Alpine Ski World Cup is often called the White Circus due to its global tour and spectacle.
17. The world record holder for fastest skier is Ivan Origone of Italy, who reached a speed of 158.424 miles per hour skiing in 2016.
18. The first ski lift in the world was built at Schollach, Germany in 1908 using a rope tow system.
19. Heli-skiing was introduced in the 1960s.
20. The longest rail slide on skis was achieved by Jani Kumpulainen in Finland, measuring 427 feet.
21. The first ski club in the US, the Nansen Ski Club, was founded in Berlin, New Hampshire in 1872.
22. The first ski resort in the US opened in 1936 in Sun Valley, Idaho, and featured the world’s first chairlift, which was designed by Union Pacific engineer James Curran.
23. Whiteface Mountain in New York has the greatest vertical drop east of the Rockies and was a venue for the 1980 Winter Olympics.
24. Corbet's Couloir in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is one of the most challenging in-bounds runs in North America.
25. And finally, Powder Magazine was founded in 1972 in Sun Valley, Idaho by the Powder Padre, Jake Moe, and his brother Dave Moe.

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