ON THE TRACK OF TIME, WITH SKIIS AT YOUR FEET

While half-nude Egyptians sweated blood to raise the pyramids, men swaddled in reindeer skins moved lightly and silently upon the northern snows, pushing themselves along on long wooden blades - that's a fact.

It would perhaps have been the height of ridicule, to suggest to a populace battling against hard winters, that snow could become a friend if one could only succeed in walking upon its surface without sinking.

They had long had this in mind anyway, using snow-shoes, which were originally of ply-wood attached onto footwear. These only later developed into skiis when someone succeeded in making them slide, by lengthening them, narrowing them on the sides and arching the tips.

Or, perhaps the idea first came from the flat-bottomed canoe, pulled along the snow on the shore during the hardest months. Rid of its keel, and reduced in dimension, the concept could have been adapted for the feet with the pointed oar becoming a ski-stick for thrusting and braking.

Incisions in rock confirm the existence of skiis in prehistorical times, and findings in fenland of strange boards of wood go back over 4,500 years. There's nothing particularly surprising about it. The idea of sliding is more intuitive than that of rolling, and appliances for skiing certainly preceded the appearance of the wheel.

Where? Northern Europe springs immediately to mind, but it seems instead that they find their origin on the vast mountain plateaux of Central Asia, between China, Russia and Mongolia. From these regions, huge population migrations of these races took place, during the ice-ages, driving them across the Bering Straits to North America, or westward to Scandinavia and Asia Minor.

However, the credit for the further development of skiing, and its widespread use, goes to the land of Norway, and in particular to her indigenous Lapp population, who initially used unequal lengths of wood, one for sliding, and another shorter one for steering round bends and braking.

One first learns of their existence in Italy, much later, at the time of Michaelangelo. No one really takes seriously descriptions in a book by a Swedish bishop of the XVI century, Olaf Mansonn (Olao Magno), which relates among other things, that in northern lands, skiing contests took place with rich prizes, sealskin (or better still reindeer skin) was in use, and that "sandals of the snow", that is to say skiis, were used in combat.
The very first Italian to wear the astonishing contrivances was Francesco Negri, from Ravenna, during one of his journeys in Lappland in the XVIth century, consequently described in his "Viaggio settentrionale."

In the XVII century we find reports of troops mounted on skiis in Norway, having already appeared sporadically during 1200, in Sweden and in Russia. The first technical manual, again Norwegian, came out in 1773 at the same time as the first regulations for contest. It was military use which spread the practice of skiing. Their drill was similar to modern sports training, and began right at the beginning of the 1800s.

The first skiis imported to Italy, were of Norwegian craftsmanship and originated in Switzerland, surfacing in Turin at the home of Adolfo Kind, an engineer, who together with his friends, first put them to the test on the snows of the Valle di Susa.
The Ski Club of Turin came into existence in this manner, during the early years of the century. Some time later Ottorino Mezzalama joined its ranks.

Home Trofeo Mezzalama	Presentaion
Introduction	The Mezzalana trophy. Men and Mountains
On the track of time,skiis at your feet	1933-1978.Ten games just one prize
Ottorino Mezzalama	The Second trophy waiting to be won
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