Guided by a strange epiphany, Richard Phipps traveled to Japan with $600 and a pair of skis. The result, "Skiing Zen," is much more than a ski adventure. It is a tapestry of thought about sports and awareness, about differences between Eastern and Western thinking, and about individualism amidst group pressure.

Woven into the travel anecdotes, cultural insights, and skiing action are intriguing concepts such as the spectrum of attention and distraction, the evolving spiral of learning, the power of guided imagery, and the correlation between Zen and love. Stunning in scope and yet penetrating in its earnest insight, Phipps is indeed "Searching for the Spirituality of Sport,"

Originally published in 1922, this is an excellent ski-manual, focussing on skiing turns, and containing much information still of practical use today. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. Contents Include: The Use Of The Turns - How To Practise The Turns - Cross Country Hints - Steering, Etc, In Skid Turning - Straight Running - Normal Position - Telemark Position - Step Turn - Stem Turn - Telemark Turn - Stem Telemark Turn - Open Christiania Turn - Jump Turn - Stem Christiania Turn - Step Christiania Turn - Pure Christiania Turn - Appendix - Rudder Action In Skid Turning

For recreational skiers"You have skillfully and accurately described and analyzed a brand new technique that anyone can learn in a quarter of the time it took to learn the old technique. It is a technique that empowers the student to rapidly achieve heights never before possible."--Recreational skier, Tom Humphrey
For those of higher levels of skills"I have harassed you for a long time to be more interested in "cross-under" and that good skiing consists in a long S turn, not a series of individual turns. By whatever route, you have come to understand these things; and that is great. I admire the work you have done."--Master Coach, Warren Witherell
"I know it has made me a better skier and has made the last few seasons interesting and fun for me and the folks that I do a lot of my skiing with."--Veteran junior race coach, Fred Pease
"The Reids relay through their love of skiing and teaching a technique based on what works not what ought to work. Thus, this book is worthwhile reading for the Week-end Skier as well as the World Cup Ski Coach."--Ron Kipp, former Director of Athlete Preparation for the USST

Visitors to Colorado's famous ski resorts embrace alpine adventures, luxurious amenities, and a glamorous nightlife, all against a backdrop of towering mountains and high-drifted snow. Wherever they go in search of fresh powder, one thing is certain: skiing has become a major part of recreational sport and culture and, in the process, dramatically altered America's social, physical, economic, and imaginative landscapes.

Annie Coleman has written the first cultural history of skiing in the United States, telling how this European sport evolved into an American industry combining recreation, tourism, consumption, and wilderness--along with a solid dose of exhilaration and a dash of celebrity. She reveals how the meaning of skiing changed over the twentieth century, how sport and leisure in America came to be about status and style as much as about physical activity, and how modern consumer culture merged the mythic West with real western places.

Coleman traces skiing from its Norse roots and Alpine influences through the utility of ski travel in the winter Rockies to the rise of Colorado resorts. Much more than a history of the sport, her work explains how the recreation industry sold the experience of skiing and created mythic mountain landscapes with real problems--and a ski culture that exalts celebrity and status over the physical act of skiing.

Along the way, Coleman looks at bums, bunnies, betties, and everyone else who uses the sport to define who they are and how they fit in. Today's skiers are more diverse than they were half a century ago (though chances are they're wealthier), and even snowboarders have joined the very culture they once opposed--reviving places like Aspen through a subversive youth culture gone mainstream.

The allure of white powder at high altitudes, manicured ski runs designed to frame picture-perfect views, the illusion of danger--the American skiing experience is all of this and more. Extensively researched and engagingly written, "Ski Style" puts readers on the slopes--and in the lodges--to show what it's really all about.

Colorado definitely is known as a ski state, but did you know the sport dates back over 100 years to the days when it was called "snowshoeing." Twelve-foot boards and a long stick was used in those days. Abbott Fay traces the development of Colorado skiing, including the impact the 10th Mountain Division had on it after World War II. Old photos and recent developments make this book a "must have."

Basic Illustrated Alpine Ski Touring has everything one needs to participate in this growing and exciting activity. Written by expert Molly Abolson, this book provides information on gear, skills, and preparation so that beginners and intermediate participants alike can enjoy this emerging sport with confidence.

Whether you are new to teaching cross-country skiing or an experienced instructor, "Teaching Cross-Country Skiing" has everything you need for delivering a fun and successful learning experience for children and young adults. This complete teaching tool offers foundational information, teaching aids, and 30 detailed lesson plans aligned to current National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) standards. Cross-country skiing offers an excellent opportunity to get out of the gym and beat those winter blues Easy on the joints and offering benefits for the cardiovascular system, muscular development, and coordination, cross-country skiing is an activity that both young and old can enjoy.

"Teaching Cross-Country Skiing" presents lesson plans to progress children and young adults from beginning to advanced levels. Each lesson follows a consistent format, which includes lesson goals, introductory activities, lesson focus, review, games, and assessments. For those new to cross-country skiing, this text presents the basics of ski mechanics and guidance on clothing and equipment selection. To help you understand and convey classic cross-country skiing skills, you'll find straightforward explanations with illustrations and photos that highlight the critical features of each skill.

Each of the 30 lessons incorporates games and skill-testing activities to keep students active and engaged. Distances gradually increase to match your skiers' increased skill and challenge their muscular and cardiorespiratory capacities. In the first 10 lessons, students practice basic skills indoors and then on snow, learning the diagonal stride technique (with and without poles) and how to double-pole, climb, and descend gentle hills.

Then, 10 lessons for intermediate skiers continue work on the diagonal stride as well as improving hill climbing and descending techniques, stops, speed control, and maneuverability. These lessons also challenge students with increasing length of glide, shifting weight to commit to the gliding ski, and using poling action for propulsion.

Finally, 10 advanced lessons help your skiers achieve a diagonal stride that is rhythmic and continuous even over hillier and longer trails. In addition to refining their diagonal stride technique, your skiers will have fun learning the stem christie, traversing steeper hills, and edging.

"Teaching Cross-Country Skiing" also includes the history and benefits of cross-country skiing, which you can use in developing a cross-country skiing unit or interdisciplinary unit. Plus you'll find reproducible handouts, worksheets, poster signs, ideas for interdisciplinary lessons, additional games and activities, rubrics, checklists, and activity aids such as a chart for measuring boot size and ski length.

Learning to cross-country ski gives children and young adults opportunities to build the skills and motivation to achieve lifelong health and fitness. You can improve your own skiing skills and knowledge as you teach your students a fun physical activity to practice for a lifetime. "Teaching Cross-Country Skiing" provides everything you need--except the snow

"If you're a connoisseur of the high and wild, just hearing the name Bugaboos is enough to make you feverish with wanderlust. Topher Donahue captures not just the landscape but the people and dreams that shape these otherworldly peaks. " -John Flinn, Executive Travel Editor, "San Francisco Chronicle" "Bugaboo Dreams" is a marvellously detailed account of the evolution of heli-skiing and -hiking in the Canadian Rockies. More importantly, however, it is the story of the remarkable man behind the business, Hans Gmoser, whose passion and commitment to mountain environments led to a lifetime of bringing others to recreate in these places he loved the most. -Rebecca Martin, Executive Director, Expedition Council, National Geographic Society "The stars were aligned to create this remarkable story: a vast mountain wilderness of rock spires and undulating glaciers and a visionary individual who inspired others to help transform his Bugaboo dreams into reality. Topher Donahue has captured the tale in an engaging manner that makes for a great read. -Bernadette McDonald, author and former Director of The Banff Mountain Film and Book Festivals. "It was an honour and one of the highlights of my youth to be part of the beginnings of the Bugaboos. Skiing with Hans Gmoser and the wonderful guides who joined him became an indelible experience, not only for the ultimate thrill of skiing in deep powder through the trees and vast open areas of untracked territory, but it also gave me an insight into the true qualities of leadership. Topher Donahue beautifully captures the essence of the experience and the hearts and souls of the pioneers who have made helicopter skiing a passion for so many. "-Isadore Issy Sharp, founder, chairman and CEO of Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts and Companion to the Order of the Canadian Business Hall of Fame. Take the snowiest mountains in Canada, add two Austrian immigrants, an army of adrenaline-addicted skiers (kings, queens, billionaires, average people and everyday ski bums) and throw a helicopter into the mix for an unforgettable story of mountain adventure. The tale begins when two childhood friends-Hans Gmoser and Leo Grillmair-leave postwar Austria and travel to Canada in search of adventure. They stumble upon employment taking skiers across the vast glaciers and through the thick forests of Western Canada. When skiers start asking the immigrant mountaineers if it would be possible to use a helicopter to reach the best high-altitude powder, the two find themselves catapulted into a project brimming with more adventure, success, tragedy and fame than they could have dreamed. Complete with archival and contemporary photos, this is the inside story of the people, thrills, accidents and innovations behind the evolution of a sport from a dangerous, ramshackle and lawless enterprise into a multi-million dollar industry offering reliable access to one of the world's most exciting forms of recreation.

A comprehensive history of skiing from its earliest origins to the outbreak of World War II, this book traces the transformation of what for centuries remained an exclusively utilitarian practice into the exhilarating modern sport we know today. E. John B. Allen places particular emphasis on the impact of culture on the development of skiing, from the influence of Norwegian nationalism to the role of the military in countries as far removed as Austria, India, and Japan. Although the focus is on Europe, Allen's analysis ranges all over the snow-covered world, from Algeria to China to Zakopane. He also discusses the participation of women and children in what for much of its history remained a male-dominated sport. Of all the individuals who contributed to the modernization of skiing before World War II, Allen identifies three who were especially influential: Fridtjof Nansen of Norway, whose explorations on skis paradoxically inspired the idea of skiing as sport; Arnold Lunn of England, whose invention of downhill skiing and the slalom were foundations of the sport's globalization; and Hannes Schneider, whose teachings introduced both speed and safety into the sport. Underscoring the extent to which ancient ways persisted despite modernization, the book ends with the Russo-Finnish War, a conflict in which the Finns, using equipment that would have been familiar a thousand years before, were able to maneuver in snow that had brought the mechanized Soviet army to a halt. More than fifty images not only illustrate this rich history but also provide further opportunity for analysis of its cultural significance.

Covers more information than a weeks worth of private lessons.­­Ski magazine

The All-Mountain Skier helps skiers advance their skills with a foolproof, self-instructional program for mastering advanced techniques in even the most challenging conditions. Drawing from his extensive experience as a ski professional, instructor Mark Elling delivers essential advice and information­­including tips from other expert skiers­­to help readers perform like pros.

Along the chain of the Rocky Mountains, which runs from Canada to New Mexico, the mountains in Colorado are the highest 53 peaks over 14,000 feet high and more than a thousand over 10,000 feet. Its been said that if you took a flat-iron to Colorado, it would press out to a state the size of Texas. (But since that would irritate the Texans, no one has yet tried it!)

Nowhere in the world was the sport of biathlon, a combination of cross-country skiing and rifle marksmanship, taken more seriously than in the Soviet Union, and no other nation garnered greater success at international venues. From the introduction of modern biathlon in 1958 to the USSR's demise in 1991, athletes representing the Soviet Union won almost half of all possible medals awarded in world championship and Olympic competition. Yet more than sheer technical skill created Soviet superiority in biathlon. The sport embodied the Soviet Union's culture, educational system and historical experience and provided the perfect ideological platform to promote the state's socialist viewpoint and military might, imbuing the sport with a Cold War sensibility that transcended the government's primary quest for post-war success at the Olympics. William D. Frank's book is the first comprehensive analysis of how the Soviet government interpreted the sport of skiing as a cultural, ideological, political and social tool throughout the course of seven decades. In the beginning, the Soviet Union owned biathlon, and so the stories of both the state and the event are inseparable. Through the author's unique perspective on biathlon as a former nationally-ranked competitor and current professor of Soviet history, Everyone to Skis! will appeal to students and scholars of Russian and Soviet history as well as to general readers with an interest in skiing and the development of twentieth-century sport.