Five o'clock in the evening, one year ago, at about the same time, a walker with ski going up towards the chalets of the TRUC, locality in 1800 meters in height, over Contamines-Montjoie.
The walker overtakes me and goes away on the path. The snow falls, and the spending time, falls thicker.
Arrived in chalets of the Truc, the purpose of my small ballad on foot, while the evening comes and while dense one fog mixed with some snow goes down heights, I perceive far off my walker continuing imperturbably to go up in the snow-covered slopes, virgins of any track, disappearing finally in the distant.
With the impression that the evening, the snow, and the summits was going to absorb him, to erase him.
I suppose that he has of to get down again in young hamlet of the Chalets of Miage in 1600 m, 300 m more low than
the pass of the Truc. He thus has of to arrive at destination at about 7 am in the evening, at night, the snow, the mist.
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Not many article, or then very brief, on the term Ski in dictionaries before 1900, under the former names, SKIE or skate of snows
Some texts of the 1800s
THE SKIE, OR SKATE OF SNOW.
The ski or skate of snow of the Norwegians and the Laplanders is a light board which sometimes reaches more than two meters in length, but the width of which does not exceed that of the foot; it is raised in its extremities, which end sharp; in the middle, the board has a double thickness; it is in this place, forming a sort of raising, that settles the foot, which, wrapped with its thick shoe, is maintained by a leather rein. We see that this skate does not differ from the one that uses the body of fighters (skielœbere ) (See the article in the French page); but it does not look like the one that imagined the natives of the boreal regions of North America, which has hardly that 12 in 13 decimeters in length on 60 centimeters in width in its average part, and consists of two light wooden rods, gathered by a network of leather belts.
The ski is more used in Finmark than in any other part of the North, because of the hilly nature of this country, and in ancient times it was the so characteristic sign of his inhabitants, that we called them Skidfinny or Skridfinny (Finn in Ski); the country took itself, according to some writers, the names of Skidfinnia, Scrisfinnia or Skridfinniat whom we can again read on some maps of little former date. Nothing stops the Laplander who put on him(it) ski: he(it) slides with so much ease on the ground covered with snow, as on the solid tablecloths of lakes and rivers. This long board, which we could consider uncomfortable, embarrasses him so little as he touches hardly the ground. He uses the ski for the hunting of the reindeer and the other animals in the wild state. When it is thrown in pursuit of its prey, and when he arrives at the foot of a mountain which stops its running, he sometimes covers the top of his skates of a piece of skin of reindeer or seal, whose hair, turned to the back, opposes to any reactionary walking, and he so clears itself a path towards the summit by softening the slope by skillfully arranged zigzags.
When the skater comes down, he changes his speeds. Often the steep side of mountains in Lapland and in Finmark has several thousand meters of area, and on these long slopes are enormous masses of detached rocks or tortuous and slippery banisters almost sheer. When thus the Laplander has below him a coast, he curls up on himself, the folded knees, the body a little tilted behind, and holding the hand a stick which he presses on the snow and which is of use to him to moderate its walking when it becomes too fast. He meets a district of rock or any other unforeseen obstacle, his address is such as he crosses him in a jump of several meters, and his speed is so big as he comes down literally with the speed of the arrow in the middle of a swirl of snow.
Travelers aspire that a Laplander can travel with the ski until 50 myriametres or 100 leagues in one day.
Games of the North
The Magasin pittoresque of 1842, illustration of the text above
The Norwegian explorer Nansen - The Petit Journal of April 11th, 1897
Notice its skis just squeezed and his stick - ice axe
More than any other human being the Norwegian Nansen approached the North Pole, objective of so many scientists curiosities.
The energy which he spent is extraordinary.
His primitive plan is as well fearless as simple.
He knows that we found fragments of ships which by-passed the pole, thus there is a free passage; he does not worry if the possible route for a board or a beam will be it for a ship; he(it) fetches the current and gives way to it.
At the price of incredible efforts, he drives his boat Fram until unknown heights, then considering that it is still not enough he leaves on the ice with Johansen, friendly fearless sound, and arrives with him until 86 ° 15 '.
Arrived there, it was necessary to come down again, impossible to rise higher.
When on June 18th, 1896 on the cape Flora they are finally collected by the expedition Jackson, three years ago they left.
During this time young Mrs Nansen remained alone with a born girl not long after the departure of his father, who does not know her and still thinks of her in the middle of her cruelest events.
Nansen was received by his fellow countrymen with an enthusiasm, exceeded maybe by that of the French people.
Paris gave him party onto party, honor on honor; the president of the Republic received him and named him a commander of the Legion of Honor; the Society of Geography organized for him a solemn session and handed him its big golden medal; in particular receptions, we showed finally to the hero of the science all the admiration that indomitable sound energy deserves
It is justice, because if it is allowed to claim that the art has no border, it is even more just to consider the result(profit) of the works of a scholar such as Nansen as belonging to the whole universe.
The Petit Journal of April 11th, 1897
Additional articles on the ski in the war on the page in French
Photography of the week 08 of 2013
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