Latest posts for the topic "skiing in the 50's"

skiing in the 50's

Tue, 7 Jan 2014 13:15:59 GMT

http://www.theatlantic.com/video/archive/2013/12/shredding-the-gnar-a-look-at-1950s-skiing/282680/

Re:skiing in the 50's

Tue, 7 Jan 2014 13:53:00 GMT

For the avoidance of doubt, I did not appear in that film.... although, I have skied in black & white, worn the same gear, same length, shape & cable binding type of skis, same type of lace up boots!

I have skied all those Davos runs, in those conditions. There was no choice, piste machines were not invented. And neither were carvers nor clip boots.

Nice to spot the odd stem christie turn in there.

Re:skiing in the 50's

Wed, 8 Jan 2014 13:19:18 GMT

Thanks for that, I always enjoy those historic ski vids. I am told by an Austrian from the Alps that because in the immediate post-war period the heels were not securely fixed, the technique was more like Telemark. Would you agree? It is not really possible to see this in the video.

Re:skiing in the 50's

Wed, 8 Jan 2014 19:43:52 GMT

did someone tie their shoelaces together! so far from todays stance although still an interesting clip

Re:skiing in the 50's

Wed, 8 Jan 2014 21:14:11 GMT

MogulMonkey wrote:did someone tie their shoelaces together! so far from todays stance although still an interesting clip

Just a different technique, MM....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVZzz_RMkao

Re:skiing in the 50's

Wed, 8 Jan 2014 21:42:51 GMT

I thought those guys were really good. Last year on the telly one retiring top racer, I cannot remember who, was put on those old-fashioned skis to give a kind of farewell display, and boy did he struggle.

BTW the feet-together, short-swing style is still seen in Austria among those who are good enough to pull it off, and it is not altogether easy to do. Recently I posted the 'Ski-Twist' video of Hinterseer, (whose record of Olympics successes shows he is capable of adopting a racing style where it is appropriate) doing just that in 2013, and singing a cheesy song about how sexy the wedeln style is. But these days it is taught with edging so is more like carving, and is not technically 'wedeln' in the old sense, except where the snow is too powdery, steep or soft for edging to work.

Re:skiing in the 50's

Thu, 9 Jan 2014 00:08:07 GMT

That was Didier Cuche

Re:skiing in the 50's

Thu, 9 Jan 2014 08:34:03 GMT

I got bored after three mins :-o

Re:skiing in the 50's

Thu, 9 Jan 2014 17:27:09 GMT

What a lovely old video! Thanks Dave, I really enjoyed watching that :)

I didn't see any pistes anywhere - didn't they have pistes in those days or was it just that they preferred ski-ing 'off-piste'?

And I loved the horse and sleigh at the end - instead of the free ski bus to get them back to their chalet!

They were amazingly good skiers, and so fit!

Re:skiing in the 50's

Thu, 9 Jan 2014 18:54:41 GMT

AllyG wrote:What a lovely old video! Thanks Dave, I really enjoyed watching that :)

I didn't see any pistes anywhere - didn't they have pistes in those days or was it just that they preferred ski-ing 'off-piste'?

And I loved the horse and sleigh at the end - instead of the free ski bus to get them back to their chalet!
Ally, even when I started skiing, there was no such thing as off piste. Every ski run rapidly developed into moguls. One consequence of that is that in Niederau, which now has a handful of pisted runs, then had 17 natural mountain runs. Many of these were through the trees, along river beds, (including a 10 ft drop over a waterfall, just after you had done a limbo under a fallen tree trunk), narrow paths through gorges.

They were amazingly good skiers, and so fit!

Re:skiing in the 50's

Fri, 10 Jan 2014 10:45:20 GMT

There are some amazing feature films from 1930-1950s shown at the St Anton ski museum, which are little more than an excuse for skilled skiers showing off. There must be some links to clips on the Net I would think.

Having an Austrian partner, I learned that people growing up as late as the 1960s were allowed out as very small children to play unsupervised, and skied in the woods on home-made skis, having walked up because they could not afford the few lifts there were. She still looks at home skiing in woodland.

Without wishing promote a competing site (it is not really in the same market), I have just finished the refurb of a website all about going back to 'real' skiing, http://www.doglotion.com, which covers extreme and freestyle, but is largely about ordinary skiiers who like to keep it real. The industrialisation of skiing has been good in many ways, but something has been lost too, unless you are into touring.

Re:skiing in the 50's

Mon, 13 Jan 2014 21:18:01 GMT

Innsbrucker, the bindings used by the skiers that video are Kandahar bindings. They were invented in 1929 by the Swiss ski racer Guido Reuge and were in almost universal use until the early 1960s when the first safety bindings were introduced.

The heel could be locked down by fixing the cable into clips mounted on the sides of the skis. They were also known as bear trap bindings as falling often had the same result as stepping on a bear trap, you broke your leg.

Most people didn't manage quite as well as those 'Ski-Cracks' from Klosters

Perhaps the most famous of the old skiing films is the Der weisse Rausch a 1931 German skiing film directed by Arnold Fanck and starring Hannes Schneider, Leni Riefenstahl, Guzzi Lantschner, and Walter Riml, it was filmed at St Anton.