Winter Ski

ski snow winter activities mountain

A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partially secured heel. For climbing slopes, ski skins (originally made of seal fur, but now made of synthetic materials) can be attached at the base of the ski. ski snow winter activities mountain

Originally intended as an aid to travel over snow, they are now mainly used recreationally in the sport of skiing.

The word ski comes from the Old Norse word skíð which means “cleft wood”, “stick of wood” or “ski”. In Old Norse common phrases describing skiing were fara á skíðum (to travel, move fast on skis), renna (to move swiftly) and skríða á skíðum (to stride on skis). In modern Norwegian the word ski has largely retained the Old Norse meaning in words for split firewood, wood building materials (such as bargeboards) and roundpole fence. In Norwegian this word is usually pronounced . In Swedish, another language evolved from Old Norse, the word is skidor.

English and French use the original Norwegian spelling ski, and modify the pronunciation. Before 1920, English often called them skee and snow-shoe. In Italian, it is pronounced similarly to Norwegian, but the spelling is modified accordingly: sci . Portuguese and Spanish adapt the word to their linguistic rules: esqui and esquí. In German, spellings Ski and Schi are in use, both pronounced. In Dutch, the word is ski and the pronunciation was originally as in Norwegian, but since approximately the 1960s changed to. In Welsh the word is spelled sgi. Many languages make a verb form out of the noun, such as to ski in English, skier in French, esquiar in Spanish and Portuguese, sciare in Italian, skiën in Dutch, or Schi laufen or Schi fahren (as above also Ski laufen or Ski fahren) in German. Norwegian and Swedish do not form a verb from the noun.

ski snow winter activities mountain