The first ski tour took place in 1894 in the alps. The branger brothers teamed up with sir aurthur conan-doyle, creator of sherlock holmes, to traverse the area from davos to arosa in switzerland.

The german wilhelm ritter von arlt made the first ski ascent of over 3000m, he was also the starter of summer skiing, taking the first significant summer ski tour in 1897.

The first packaged ski holidays to abelboden, switzerland, took place in 1903. These were organised on a commercial basis by sir henry lunn under the guise of the public schools alpine sports club, which booked entire hotels. Winter holidays in switzerland had become popular with the british aristocracy with the first winter tourists to st moritz in 1864. In 1908 the alpine ski club was founded by arnold lunn.

In 1928, downhill and modern slalom events were combined and for the first time the arlberg-kandahar international alpine skiing competition, organised by arnold lunn and hannes schneider took place in st anton, austria. This event was to become the real starting point of international alpine ski racing.

Telemark and alpine skiing are the oldest skiing disciplines, evolving over time with advanced techniques and equipment being developed. The telemark style of skiing and slalom style were introduced in central europe in the 1900s. Alpine skiing using the telemark style of turning gained popularity gradually in europe, usa and other parts of the world.

Sondre norheim devised the first substanital skiing equipment that was technically sound. This added a new dimension to the sport. He is oftern referred to as the father of modern skiing and he was an expert skier himself. Sondre was fearless and daring, he come up with innovative ideas of using skis more efficiently.

Sondre norheims name remains etched in the golden pages of skiing history forever as the man who made skiing the most popular winter sport. His birthplace of overbo at morgedal is visited by skiing devotees from across the worlod and is a holy shrine where the olympic torch was lit three times.

And the fun continues today…