Hitting the Slopes: From Survival to Recreation

The enjoyable, lively winter sport of skiing that we know today didn’t start as a sport. In fact, skiing at first, was a mode of survival, and skis and snowshoes were first invented for people to be able to cross frozen wetlands and marshes in the winter. It also allowed men to travel and hunt reindeer and elk across the tundra. The first person to attach two sticks (or what we know as skis) to his feet was Cro-Magnon. There are cave drawings that suggest that men used skis during the last Ice Age in the Paleolithic Era. The oldest ski artifacts came from the Mesolithic period and fragments of ski-like objects that were found in the 1960s by archaeologists and they date back to 6000 BC in northern Russia. The first ski competitions were in the Norwegian army during the 1760s. They skied down slopes, around trees, across level snowfields, and while shooting. The first national race took place in Oslo in the 1860s. Today skiing is used as basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport.

Unfortunately, a factor we have to worry about, especially in this day and age, is expenses. You need to buy or rent equipment such as skis, boots, goggles, helmets, and you need to have the right clothes for the cold conditions. Today, the average price range for a new pair of skis alone will start around $400 and rise to well over $1,000.When talking to Bailey Bishop, a member of Pennridge’s ski club, he stated how the most bothersome part of skiing is how expensive it is. “From finding a good pair of skis to getting nice goggles and even the gas money adds up,” says Bailey. “But when I’m on the mountain and all the pieces come together it’s worth it.”

Over the years, skiing has completely evolved. Boots became stiffer, bindings safer, and skis shorter and wider. Sliding across the snow as a mode of transportation has now turned into one of the most popular sports in the world. About one hundred million people ski regularly or occasionally including members here at the Pennridge Ski Club. Pennridge’s Ski club has multiple trips you can be a part of. Here at Pennridge, we have five trips to Blue Mountain each year. If you want to go above and beyond there are also two New England trips and one trip out west. Popular mountains here in PA are Blue Mountain, Bear Creek, Camelback, Spring Mountain, and Jack Frost. The pass we have this year lets us gain access to Blue Mountain which has been around since 1941 and Camelback which has been around since 1963. Mr. Plawa is the head of Pennridge’s Ski Club and has been for the past eight years. He plans the logistics for the club for over 300 students. “It’s a time commitment and people don’t realize, there are a lot of hours this time of year; it’s every day,” says Plawa. One of the biggest takeaways I learned from Mr. Plawa is that so much goes into skiing and you need to make sure everything is planned out perfectly. Skiing in general has a lot of moving parts and “you need to think quickly and make decisions that are in the best interest of the kids,” says Plawa. There are so many factors that affect skiing such as the snow condition, hill, and trails, crowding, age of ski area, air temperature, snow depth, cloudiness, and wind chill. These factors are things they had to be aware of not just today but throughout the years of skiing’s progression.