PG author Bernhard Scholz is working on a book about steep face skiing (among other things). He has conducted so many interviews, rummaged through so many archives and collected so much material that there is enough left over to put some of it online. On his blog Skialpinist you can find historical information as well as thoughts on terms and definitions. More will be added gradually, so it's worth checking back from time to time. He has put together an overview of the beginnings of steep face skiing for us:
First descents
The first descents in the Mont Blanc region were seen in the mid-20s. In 1930, A. Colossa and H. Muller managed the ascent of the north-west flank of Mont Blanc de Tacul. In 1933, Colossa descended the Col de Grande Jorasse with the photographer Guido Tonella. And in the Eastern Alps, alpinists ventured down the first extremely steep descents from 1931. Unfortunately, it is no longer known who exactly climbed the aforementioned north face of the Zuckerhütl. These ascents were due to the further development of the skiing technique, from the stem turn (which Zdarsky's technique had developed into in the meantime) to the parallel turn by Anton Seelos from Seefeld in Tyrol. This technique allowed for increasingly daring slopes with better ski equipment. Seelos' new technique earned him four ski world champion titles and he also celebrated numerous successes as a coach with the Austrian and French ski teams. An undertaking by Matthias Krinner and Hermann Lanzl directly from the Westliche Karwendelspitze down through the Wanne also demonstrates the technical alpine skills of the skiers of the time.
The point in time when steep face skiing can be proven to have started was probably 1935.
Peter Schintelmeister and Fritz Kügler first managed the northern flanks of the Hochtennspitze. A few days later, on June 10, 1935, the two of them skied down the Fuscherkarkopf in the Glockner group together with Erwin Schlager. Both slopes are tours that should not be underestimated when climbing. The Fuscherkarkopf in particular is still one of the classic ice tours in the Eastern Alps. In other words, it is a tour that requires crampons and ice axes or ice tools and is often climbed with rope protection. In 1935, this must have been considered a completely impossible undertaking on skis. In an article in "Der Bergsteiger" from April 1937, published by Peter Schintelmeister, he and his fellow alpinists speculated about the possibilities of skiing other walls and gullies with similar steepness. They even mentioned the Pallavicini Rinne on the Grossglockner - 30 years before the first ascent. Schintelmeister also allegedly skied the north face of the Eiskögele in the Glockner region several times. In the 1930s, skis were still considered purely sporting equipment - tourists used them to ski down flat slopes. Only very few people could imagine skis as an alpine tool. Schintelmeister's report in "Der Bergsteiger":
The downhill runs of Emil Allais in the winter of 1940/41 are therefore just as ahead of their time. He was the winner of the World Ski Championships in Chamonix in 1937 and in Engelberg in 1938. As a student of Seelos, he established "French skiing" alongside his work as a ski instructor with the book "Ski Francais". As a successful ski racer and father of skiing in France, he climbed the Dom de Gouter in the Mont Blanc massif in 1940 together with his ski instructor colleague and mountain guide Etienne Livacic. Their goal was the northern flank, which is a good 40° steep over long stretches. Together with the mountaineer André Tournier, they managed to draw a downhill track in the snow on the glacier down the Aiguille d'Argentière. In addition, the Aiguille des Dru west side was also skied as early as the 1940s. The Second World War interrupted the alpinist exploits - or at least pushed them out of the media for good. It took a few more years until something remarkable happened again: Mont Blanc was first skied in spring 1953 by the famous alpinist Lionel Terray and the American Bill Dunaway. The descent was made during the filming of "Étoiles du Mont Blanc". On their first attempt, the two had to wait out a snowstorm in the Vallot refuge and then Terray also broke a vertebra when he fell down a 20-metre-high icefall. But the first ascent of Annapurna (8091 meters) was made of tough stuff, only a few days later the two climbed the white monarch again and the descent was successful.
In addition to all these descents, which have attracted a certain amount of attention, it is known that a number of daring ski mountaineers carved other slopes on skis. However, many of them did not become known beyond the boundaries of their local radius of action. In the Eastern Alps in particular, a veritable steep-slope skiing tradition developed and skiing took place wherever there was snow. Although local people often still know where bold traces of snow were left behind, in most cases nothing has been written down and it only lives on in hearsay. Emil Allais and Peter Schintelmeister are an exception. They got their steep descents into the media and secured their place in skiing history. See skialpinist.com for some overview photos and further links.
