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1889 Mathias Zdarsky is called the Father of Alpine Skiing but Telemarked down Mt.Blanc while racing the English ski champion Rickmers who paralleled.
This was to determined which technique was superior. Rickmers won by a small margin. Each reportedly admired the others form.
1897 Dr. Payot reached the Col du Geant near Mont Blanc, French Alps.
1898 The first use of metal edges on skis was recorded by the Norweigan Nansen during a traverse of the southern part of Greenland.
He and his team pulled sledges over 300 miles and reached an altitude of 2,700 meters.
1892 Wilhelm Paulke founded the Black Forest Ski School. He advocated that long skis and Telemarking and Stem Christi be used for turning on steep mountains.
1900 Sir Arnold Lunn,the famous ski historian, reports that a Golden Age of Ski Mountaineering is underway in Europe.The British are the leading force in ski mountaineering with the Austrians and the Germans close behind. The
French aren't as active at this time.
1903 First attempt of The Haute Route from Zeermat to Chamonix, about 60 miles by Payot, Couttel, Simond and local guides.
1906 First aerial tram in the world at Montevers,Chamonix, France. Fastest vertical transportation in the world at the time.
1910 Vivian Caulfield in her book, “How to Ski” stresses the importance of the rudder action of the rear ski in Telemark skiing.
1911 South Pole is reached by Ronald Amundsen and team. Over 1,875 miles is covered in 99 days with a high point of 10,000 feet. It end on Dec. 16, 1911.
1911 Haute Route from Zermatt to Chamonix experiences first traverse by Roget and Kurz.
1912 Scott reaches the South Pole on skis.
1912 First ski lift in the world built at Truckee, California. A tobaggan was pulled up the hill by steam engine.
1913 Most of the main summits of the Alps were reached by this date on foot. Monte Rosa 1898, Gran Paradiso 1913.
1917 Lunn and Kurbel complete early traverse of Oberland glaciers.
1917 First ski descent of the Vallee Blanche starting from Aiguille du Midi.
1928 First ski lift built in Europe at the Brevent, Chamonix. The world's first rope tow.
1928 First ski traverse of the John Muir Trail from Mt. Whitney to Yosemite Valley, California by Orland Bartholomew. 280 miles in 100
days. He reportedly hunted for food and used a massive fur sleeping bag.
1930 Traverse of the Bernise Oberland. 400 miles by Walter Paulcke and team. This puts Paulcke into prominance as the ski touring expert of his time. He co-authored the authoritative text “Hazards in Mountaineering” orginally published in German in 1885 by Helmut Dumler.
1933 The “Chemin a des Neiges” (The Road of the Snow) Traverse of the Alps from Nice to Innsbruck by Leon Zwingelstein of Grenoble. He covered 1200 miles in 3 months between February to May, 1933.Over 50 passes
were crossed.
1934 Ski Traverse of Russia. 4500 miles were skied in four monthsbetween November
1934 and February 1935 from Nerchinsk, Skiberia to Moscow by Russian Army skiers Ityaksov, Baronin, Kurznetsov, Druzhinin and Leonenko. From Nerchinsk, the route went via the Siberian Taiga, the Bararba Steppes and the Ural Mountains. Twelver soldiers were selected but only five survived the expedition and they were decorated for the feat.
1936 First ski lift in US is built at Sun Valley, Idaho. Designed after banana hoist lifts used in South America. Built by the Southern Pacific Railroad.
1937 First ski traverse of the Central Causasus by Austrians Hromatke and Rossner.
1937 First ski lift built at Aspen, Colorado. Steam powered tobaggan type.
1940 The war years were not a great period of backcountry ski activity except for the military type. The formation of the German army mountain troops predates that of the 10th Mountain Division.
1942 Sierra Club publishes The Manual of Ski Mountaineering which introduced many American skiers to the backcountry. It was used as a training manual for US ski troops.
1943 Ski Traverse of the Coast Range of British Columbia, Canada by Watson, Beauman, White and Couttet.
1944 Tenth Mountain Division is formed by the U.S. Army with training near Leadville, Colorado. Marines form similar training camp near Bridgeport, California.
1945 Historian Sir Arnold Lunn reports that most summit of the Alps have been skied by the end of WW II. He states that the early forties mark an end of the era of ski mountaineering and marked a divorce between skiing and alpinism which lasted until the appearance of “extreme skiing” around
1967 which according to Lunn is not a “mere variation of alpinism, but the result of the marriage of two sports: alpinism and skiing.”
1950 The Sierra Club Bulletin briefly mentions a Haute Route that lies between Mt. Shasta and Lake Tahoe, California. There is some activity in the High Sierra and the Wasatch Mtns of Utah. David Brower and Allen Steck are personalities in mountaineering and ski touring.
1953 Bugaboo Mountain Traverse. Backcountry ski historian Lou Dawson reports in his book “Wild Ski” that Bill Briggs and Sterling Neil make the”first modern style alpine ski traverse in North America” on Head skis, cable bindings and flexible boots.
1954 Aiguille du Midi Tram is built in Chamonix transporting climbers and skiers to the base of Mont Blanc and skiers to the Vallee Blanche 15 mile run. The orginal cables were attached to climbers who climbed the vertical face of the Midi. The longest tram in the world (3 miles).
1956 Traverse of the Alps by the famous alpinist Walter Bonatti and fellow guides. Skied from the Italian Julian Alps to Colle de Nava in the Maritime Alps. 1,100 miles and 500,000 vertical feet were skied in 66 days of unsettled weather. In one instance 200 miles was covered in 82 hours while in another the entire Haute Route from Zermatt to Chamonix (70 miles) was covered in 24 hours (that's what he said! “Upon the Heights”, 1964). Bonatti lamented the fact that Randonnee skiing was “unjustly neglected by the younger generation of mountaineers.”
1965 Traverse of the Alps by Bertholet and guides. 621 miles in 22 days.
1965 June 10, First ski descent of the Whymper Couloir, Aiguille Verte by Sylvain Saudan.
1967 Great Divide Traverse , Canada. From Jasper to Lake Louise 190 miles by Canadian climbers Don Gardner,Neil Liske, Charlie Locke, and Chic Scott.
1968 October 16, First ski descent of the Gervascutti Couloir, Mt. Blance du Tacul by Sylvain Saudan.
1970 Traverse of the Alps by Kittl and other members of Austrian Army. Low altitude crossing of 1,242 miles in forty days.
1970 Descent of the South Col, Mt. Everest by Japanese skier Yichiro Miura. The resulting film exposes the world to ski mountaineering although the parachute descent and crash is criticized as a stunt.
1970 Denali First Descent by Japanese skier Tsuyoshi Ueki.
1970 Hut building begins in the United States. Fred Braun of Aspen begins building the U.S. Ski Association Hut System between Aspen and Crested Butte.
1970 A New Age of Ski Mountaineering? The seventies are a decade of tremendous wilderness activity. The use of light weight metal edged telemark skis use Alpine race ski technology. Crested Butte becomes a hub of Telemark activity and telemarking comes to the forefront in backcountry skiing.
1970 Ski Traverse of the John Muir Trail by Doug Robinson and Carl McCoy. 287 miles in 36 days.The route was repeated by David and Susan Beck.
1971 Maroon Bells, North Face descent by Fritz Stammberger of Aspen, Colorado.
1972 Denver to Aspen Traverse, Colorado by Jim Ward, Trish Nice and team.
1972 Rocky Mountain Continental Divide Ski Traverse from Marshall Pass, Colorado to Wyoming border 450 miles between April 2, 1972 to May 17,
1972 using Telemark skis by Don Jensen, Bill Wells, Billy Pugh and Bob Kemp.
1972 Ski Traverse of the Alps from Kaprun to Gap. British team led by Alan Blackshaw and Peter Cliff. Cliff went on to write his treatise on backcountry skiing “Ski Mountaineering”.
1973 Mt. Moran Central Couloir Descent by Bill Briggs, Jackson, Wyoming.
1973 Middle Teton Descent by Bill Briggs and Tom McClure.
1973 Traverse of the Brooks Range, Alaska by a team led by Ned Gillette and Wayne Merry. 180 miles in Arctic conditions. The development of a leather double Nordic boot by Galibier, France was an important technical development which helps to further develop high performance Telemarking in the US.
1974 Eiger West Face Descent by Sylvain Saudan, Austria. Saudan will continue to influence the sport of extreme skiing with his contribution of the Wind Shield Wiper Turn for ski extremists.
1974 Denali Descent by Sylvain Saudan
1975 First Traverse of the Wind River Range, Wyoming, US by Dick Dorworth and team. 200 miles were covered n 17 days.
1977 Several ski descents were undertaken by extremists Anselme Baud and Patrick Vallencant including the North Face of the Aiguilli du Midi, May 17 with Daniel Chauchefoin and Ysves Dietry.
1977 May 17, First ski descent of North Face, Aiguille du Midi by Anselme Baud, Daniel Chauchefoin and Yves Dietry. May 31 First ski descent of Arete de Peuterey by Baud and Patrick Vallencant.
1978 First North to South solo traverse of Greenland by Naomi Uemura of Japan. 93 days over 1400 miles between May 21 to Aug. 21.
1979 Pyramid Peak, East Face Descent,Colorado Rockies, US by Chris Landry who coined the definition of extreme skiing as “skiing where if you fell, you would die”.
1979 Grizzly Peak, North Face Descent, Colorado Rockies , US by Art Burrows. First Telemark descent.
1978 Circumnavigation of Denali by Galen Rowell, Ned Gillette, Allen Bard and Doug Steins in days. 90 miles were covered using Nordic ski (Epoxe 88’s). Lightweight equipment was chosen since the skiing was usually on flat glacial plains interspersed with difficult mountaineering.
1980 Mt. Logan, Alaska. First Nordic Descent by Art Burrows.
1980 Mt. Rainier, Liberty Ridge, First Descent by Chris Landry
1980 Mt. Mendel, High Sierras, California. First Descent by Chris Landry
1980 Matterhorn East Face by French skier Marc Boivin.
1980 Hut Building evolves in US with start of 10th Mountain Hut Association under Aspen architect Fritz Benedict. Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense under President Johnson helps to convince US Forest Service of hut system potential.
1980 French government states that there are 150,000 full time backcountry skiers in France.
1980 Broad Peak, Pakistan. First ski descent by Patick Vallencant
1982 John Muir Trail Traverse, Sierra Nevada's, California. 230 miles in 7 days by Brad and Randall Udall using Nordic racing skis. They camped using snow caves.
1982 Grand Teton First Nordic Descent by Rick Wyatt. June 10, 1982. On Telemark equipment useing Ramer self arrest grips.
1982 Mountain Skiing is written by Vic Bein and published by the Mountaineers. Wild skiing photos covers Telemarking and some Randonnee skiing.
1983 Mt. Rainier, Liberty Ridge, First Nordic Descent by Tom Carr and Eric Hendren.
1984 10th Mountain Hut System in Colorado reports 2,252 skier nights at their huts during the 1983-84 skiing season.
1985 First Apine ski touring competition in the Alps with the introduction of Le Grand Defi: 320 miles in 6 days.
1985 First Traverse of the Grand Tour, Colorado Rockies. From Saint Marys Glacier to Vail, Colorado by alpine ski touring equipment maker Paul Ramer, Steve Barnett, Charlotte McDuff, Peter Shelton, David Moe, Chris Noble and Bill Wildberger. 93 miles over a month due to bad weather. One of the first attempts to connect up Colorado ski resorts into a
Haute Route system.
1986 Colorado Super Tour by Jean Vives and Patrick Griffin, ski guides from Aspen, Colorado. Longest randonnee tour in US from Winter Park to Crested Butte, Colorado (via Vail). 180 miles in 28 days in bad weather (authors note: the worst avalanche conditions in a decade were carefully avoided). The route connected up three importent tours: The Grand Tour, The 10th Mountain Hut System and the Fred Braun Hut System.
1987 Ski Mountaineering is written by Peter Cliff published by Pacific Search Press. Randonnée skiing with an excellent crevasse rescue section.
1990 1,000.000 skiers ski the backcounty on Randonnee equipment in Europe according to ski journalist and researcher Volodia Shahshashan of Le Skieur Magazine (personal communication,1992).
1991 International Committee of Ski Alpinism Competitions is formed in Barcelona by Volodia Shahshahani for development of Randonnee racing in the Alps.
1991 10th Mountain Hut and Trail System, Colorado reports 12,195 skier nights for their hut system during the 1990-91 ski season.
1992 Mt.Everest, South Col First Descent by French skier Pierre Tardivel. This the first real top down ski descent down the standard climbing route.
1993 American Louis Dawson II of Carbondale, Colorado completes his last 14,000 foot peak in his quest to ski all 54 peaks over 14,000 peaks in Colorado. The East Face of Pyramid Peak was his last.
1993 10th Mountain Hut and Trail System, Colorado reports 23,377 skier nights in its hut system for the 1993-1994 ski season.
1993 American ski mountaineer and writer Louis Dawson II of Carbondale, Colorado becomes the first person to ski all 54 14,000 foot peaks in Colorado. Pyramid Peak was the last.
1994 Denali, Wickersham Wall. First Nordic Descent of one of the biggest walls in the world. 14,000 ft. of vertical were skied on classic Telemark equipment by Tyson Bradly and John Montecucco on May 24, 1994.
1995 Mt. Robson North Face First Descent by Ptor Spricenieks and Troy Jungen. The 60 degree face was according to Lou Dawson North America's “ultimate prize”.
1995 First Physiological Study of Telemarking and Randonnee skiing by Dr. Jean Vives Ed.D., University of Northern Colorado. Rare on snow study conducted at Arapahoe Basin, Colorado using middle aged skiers showed that Randonnee skiing was more efficient during climbing than Telemarking. This study helped to ligitimize backcountry skiing as an area of physiological study in the world scientific literature. It also emphasized the importance of the binding mechanism in the energy expenditure equation. (see Appendix G).
1997 WildSnow written by Louis Dawson published by AAC Press. First book to cover the history of North American ski mountaineering.
1999 Backcountry Skier written by Jean Vives and published by Human Kinetics describes backcountry skiing on Telemark and Randonnée equipment.
2005 Colorado Haute Route First Traverse East to West from Vail SkiResort to Winter Park Colorado by Jean Vives and Charlie Gray both from Winter Park, Colorado. 62.4 miles. 19,583 feet of ascent and 24,405 feet of descent in 7 days between April 17-23. This route compares favorably to The Haute Route and actually has 3,000 ft. more climbing than the original. The final day had to be done two weeks later due to persistant spring storms.The skiers stayed in towns along the way after a European model. It is by an altitude standard one of the highest ski routes in the world. Is this the “American Haute Route”?
2006 Doug Coombs, famous ski guide and steep skiing specialist dies at La Grave, France attempting to save another skiers life. Doug had exemplified a thoughtful approach to backcountry skiing and pioneered many innovative skiing and guiding techniques.
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