Books, Arts & Manners: Seventy Years A Skier

Skiing was introduced into the Alps in the 1890s. My father, the late Sir Henry Lunn, who was the first travel agent to predict the immense popularity of skiing, made a contract with a Chamonix hotel and ordered some skis from Norway on the assumption that none would be purchasable at Chamonix in 1898.

He gave me the smallest pair, and with about a dozen of his clients I followed an alleged ski teacher to the practice slopes. Our teacher was a mountain guide, and we were, I suspect, the first novices he taught to ski. He climbed to a point where the gradient steepened, put a large pole between his legs, and very slowly slid to the bottom. We applauded.

SL

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Sir Arnold Lunn

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Skiing was introduced into the Alps in the 1890s. My father, the late Sir Henry Lunn, who was the first travel agent to predict the immense popularity of skiing, made a contract with a Chamonix hotel and ordered some skis from Norway on the assumption that none would be purchasable at Chamonix in 1898.

He gave me the smallest pair, and with about a dozen of his clients I followed an alleged ski teacher to the practice slopes. Our teacher was a mountain guide, and we were, I suspect, the first novices he taught to ski. He climbed to a point where the gradient steepened, put a large pole between his legs, and very slowly slid to the bottom. We applauded.