"Nobody really lives until they have been on skis", as Andrew Irvine, a young ski racer and founding member of the Kandahar Ski Club, already knew. The ski enthusiasts lived this skiing spirit around 1924: "And it must never happen that we do not set off because the piste is covered in deep snow. On a morning like this, in fresh snow, the best skiing is just beginning." Any passionate deep-snow skier will be of the same opinion?
Max D. Amstutz tells in detail in his book about the development of alpine skiing, starting with the first attempts at skiing on simple, "at the tip strongly bent wooden boards with a pole", through the innovations in construction and materials, to the emergence and establishment of today's biggest ski spectacles such as the Parsenn Derby, the Mürren Inferno, the Lauberhorn Race and the Hahnenkamm Downhill (better known as "the Streif").
The fact that the boys and girls were obviously already skiing big mountains technically back then is also exciting to read about: "A few days ago I saw the Inferno race. (...) The race unfolds from start to finish on natural, unprepared snow as it has been shaped by sun, wind and frost. (...) this requires solid knowledge, acquired through experience, hard work and long study of the snow conditions." (Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1952) You can imagine the technical skiing challenges, avalanche knowledge and courage that this competition demanded of the skiers! But the one or other digression, for example on the subject of ski mountaineering or a short essay on different skiing styles and the resulting conflicts, give the reader an impression of the many facets of skiing then and now.