The Story of Modern Skiing

by John Fry

This is the definitive history of the sport that has exhilarated and infatuated about 30 million Americans and Canadians over the course of the last fifty years. Consummate insider John Fry chronicles the rise of a ski culture and every aspect of the sport's development, including the emergence of the mega-resort and advances in equipment, technique, instruction, and competition.

The Story of Modern Skiing is laced with revelations from the author's personal relationships with skiing greats such as triple Olympic gold medalists Toni Sailer and Jean-Claude Killy, double gold medalist and environmental champion Andrea Mead Lawrence, first women's World Cup winner Nancy Greene, World Alpine champion Billy Kidd, Sarajevo gold and silver medalists Phil and Steve Mahre, and industry pioneers such as Vail founder Pete Seibert, metal ski designer Howard Head, and plastic boot inventor Bob Lange. Fry writes authoritatively of alpine skiing in North America and Europe, of Nordic skiing, and of newer variations in the freestyle skiing, snowboarding, and extreme skiing. He looks closely at skiing's relationship to the environment, its portrayal in the media, and its response to social and economic change.

Maps locating major resorts, records of ski champions, and a timeline, bibliography, glossary, and index of names and places make this the definitive work on modern skiing. Skiers of all ages and abilities will revel in this lively tale of their sport's heritage.

Genres: Sports, History

380 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 2006

About the author

John Fry (1930-2020) worked for more than 40 years as a magazine editor at the Times Mirror Company and at the New York Times Company. He was the editor of SKI Magazine and Snow Country. He was elected to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1995 and launched Nastar (National Standard Ski Race), The Nations Cup of alpine ski racing, and the Graduated Length Method of teaching. He published many articles on travel, skiing, health, and religion. He was a citizen of Canada, as well as the United States.

Reviews

[Rudi Riet · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent take on the development of skiing in the 20th and early 21st centuries. The book is not without its faults: some pictures are mis-dated, and some of the writing about the development of destination ski resorts and ski towns seems somewhat politicized. On the whole, though, the book is an excellent read and provides quite a bit of insight into skiing's current form. I'd love to see Fry update the book to include topics such as climate change and the evolution of skiing competition.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable, and interesting if you’re a skier, but not if you’re not. For me the most interesting aspect was the evolution of technique alongside equipment. The fact that it doesn’t cover the last 20 years is a bit of a bummer….

[George Goodall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently had the pleasure of riding the chair lift with my nephew. He is a first year civil engineering student and I'm a recovering engineer. Our conversation naturally turned to the structural engineering inherent in a lift. This conversation turned my thoughts to the entire material culture of skiing. A nagging foot injury combined with Kindle convenience afforded me the opportunity to explore the topic.

Fry's book is a fascinating account of the development of modern skiing. It includes chapters on topics like the evolution of lifts (my initial interest); snow-making; skis, poles, and boots; grooming; etc. It also explores topics like the baby-boomer-driven socio-economics underlying the sport, the importance of condo development for financing expansion, and the role of racing and fashion in popularizing the sport.

Fry's book is a very interesting introduction to the topic. I'd also recommend checking out the archives of Skiing History Magazine (aka Skiing Heritage Journal) and the old articles in Invention and Technology on snow-making and Howard Head. There's something about the history of skiing that is very available to those of us who ski. Amazing stories underlie everyday mundane things like ski boots -- thanks Dick Lang -- or grooming equipment. Reading about these complex socio-technical assemblages while actually on a ski holiday made the reading experience that much more interesting.

BTW -- the morass of technical standards supporting the design and construction of ski lifts also makes for great reading... but perhaps only for civil engineers!