Ski mountaineering

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Ski mountaineering is a sport that combines the techniques of skiing (often ski touring) with those of mountaineering. The goal of the ski mountaineer to climb a beautiful mountain by a worthy route and then ski the mountain down an elegant line, preferably from the summit.

Crampons on a ski boot

While using skiing techniques for much of the time, ski mountaineers climb otherwise inaccessible or dangerous slopes on foot using a range of mountaineering equipment - typically crampons, ice axes and ropes - while skis are carried strapped to their backpack. This either permits access to extreme slopes, or more often allows transit through otherwise impassable terrain in order to continue beyond on skis, where normal ski touring equipment such as skins and harscheisen (ski crampons - also called couteau or cortelli) are used.

1 History
2 Ski Mountaineering (Randonnée) Racing
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

The use of skis for over-snow travel & winter mountain access only recently divided into sub-categories like "ski-mountaineering". See the history of skiing for a time-line of early development.

Perhaps the earliest & certainly one of the most prolific ski mountaineers was John "Snowshoe" Thompson, who used skis to deliver the mail at least twice a month up & over the steep eastern scarp of the Sierra Nevada mountains to remote mining camps & settlements. His deliveries began in 1855 and continued for at least 20 years. Thompson's route of 90 miles took 3 days in & 48 hours back out with a pack that eventually exceeded 100 pounds of mail.

One of the earliest European inspirations for the sport was the Englishman Cecil Slingsby, who crossed the 1,550m high (5,800 feet) Keiser Pass, Norway, on skis in 1880.

However, the "father" of the sport is generally regarded as the German Wilhelm von Arlt, who made the first ski ascent of over 3,000m, when he climbed the Rauris Sonnblick (3,103m / 10,180 feet high) in 1894.

The first ski tour in the Alps took place near Davos when the Branger brothers teamed up with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for a tour from Frauenkirch to Arosa in 1894.

[edit] Ski Mountaineering (Randonnée) Racing

"A Ski Mountaineering race is a timed event that follows an established trail through challenging winter alpine terrain while passing through a series of checkpoints. Racers climb and descend under their own power using backcountry skiing equipment and techniques." --USSMA