Groomed trail with tracks and a skating lane at Cross Country Ski Headquarters in Michigan
Since the time that wooden skis were found in a peat bog in Sweden dating to 2,000 BC, there have been many milestones that brought xc skiing to where it is today. Focusing on the USA, the forefathers of our recreation include people such as Farther John Dyer, who had skis that were called Norwegian Snowshoes in the 1860s in Colorado, Snowshoe Thompson, who delivered the mail in the Sierra Mountains of California in the 1850s, and JackRabbit Johannsen, who xc skied in northern New York.
The editors of XCSkiResorts.com using various sources considered the milestones and developed this selective and broad brush list of the Milestones of Modern XC Skiing in the USA in order of significance:
1. Development of synthetic xc skis in 1974 and John Lovett may have been first to produce these xc skis laminated with fiberglass in the late 1960s.
2. Development of the waxless based ski in the early 1970's, most notably the Trak ski with synthetic fishscales on the ski base to eliminate the need for ski waxes. The waxless base gave the recreational skier grip on uphill travel while also allowing gliding downhill.
3. Integrated xc ski binding systems, which provided substantial improvements in simplicity of boot/binding interface and control in the mid 70's.
4. Bill Koch won the Olympic silver medal in 1976 and World Cup in 1982, the first American to ever win at that level. The Nordic Trak exerciser used the Koch image as a fitness icon in advertisements for years. In 2010, there were US Olympic medalists in Nordic Combined and in 2012 there was a World Cup winner in women's sprint. Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins won the first Olympic gold medal in a team sprint competition, and during her ski racing career Jessie got on the World Cup XC ski podium 90 times including 4 Olympic medals.
5. The onset of the commercial xc ski area concept began in 1968-69 at Trapp Family Lodge. This brought designed, groomed, and maintained trails making xc skiing easier and safer for the average person. There are other early developments for xc skiing such as the hiring of a xc ski instructor in Jackson, NH in 1971 at the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation.
6. The skating technique proliferated for a faster paced and higher performance form of recreation. The skis were shorter with bases that could be waxed to add more speed, the boots had higher support and a stiffer sole, and the ski poles were longer, all conducive to help the skating motion.
Skate skiing at Bretton Woods Nordic Center
7. Revolution Skis developed by Fischer led the way to shorter skis, which were easier to use and consolidated ski sizing to simplify ski selection. Ski sizing and selection would soon be categorized by the skier’s weight.
8. New lighter clothing with synthetic and breathable materials was more conducive to xc skiing comfortably; company brands such as Mother Karen led the way in the late 1970's.
9. Other technological advances such as the 2 Wax System that offered one wax for cold temperatures and one for warm temperatures simplified ski waxing while the BackCountry binding systems provided a beefed up boot/binding system that provided substantially more support and control for backcountry recreation.
Rottefella Move Binding
10. The Nordic Integrated System (NIS) developed in 2005 changed the ski/binding interface. This system combined the ski and binding at manufacture rather than at the retail store. The binding became adjustable to slide backwards or forwards to help tailor grip and glide to the skier’s preference.
11. Ski base skins returned to provide a renewed waxless base available in most ski models.
12. Snowmaking (machine-made snow) became utilized at more than 50 XC ski areas to improve ski conditions and guarantee skiing.