When the winter gods bestow white blankets of snow on the mountains, snow sport enthusiasts brave the elements, flock to the slopes and surrender their bodies to the forces of gravity. Snow sport inventors constantly seek new ways to enhance the winter sport experience. Some inventions extend the winter season, while others offer new ways to enjoy the mountains.
Dry Slopes
Surfers dream of endless summers. Skiers and snowboarders dream of endless winters. When the lifts close in the Western Hemisphere, those who can afford it travel to resorts in South America and New Zealand. Others visit indoor ski slopes. The dry slope concept is the brainchild of a Welshman named Len Godfrey, who worked for Welsh brush manufacturer Dendix. Godfrey discovered skiing in the 1960s, while working for a Dendix factory in Canada. He remembered a cartoon that featured two children using a scrubbing brush to skate around the kitchen. Godfrey decided to reverse the process. He used a giant Dendix scrubbing brush on a sloped area and created the first successful dry ski slope. The Dendix company installed a dry slope on the ramp of an out-of business movie theater. As the trend gained momentum, manufacturers from all parts of the globe opened indoor ski slopes.
The Ski Bike
The ski bike looks like a regular bicycle, with one difference: A pair of skis replace its wheels. In 1892, J. C. Stevens, an American, patented the Ice Velocopide, a bicycle whose front wheel was replaced by a ski. Then in 1911, in Grindelwald, Switzerland, carpenter Christian Bühlmann created a similar product as a means of traveling to his customers. He called it the Velogemel. The ski bike evolved through the decades but did not gain popularity in the United States until the 1990s. Major resorts such as Winter Park in Colorado now offer ski bike classes.
Shaped Skis
In 1983, Jurij Franko graduated from the University of Ljubljana and took a job as lab manager for a ski manufacturer called Elan. In 1988, Franko came up with the idea of an hourglass-shaped ski that would facilitate easy carving on snow. Unlike the heavy 200- to 210-cm skis of the past, shaped skis average 160 to 190 cm long. These deep side-cut skis shortened the learning curve for less-athletic novices, says ski historian Seth Masia.
The Chair Lift
Union Pacific Railroad Chairman W. A. Harriman founded Idaho's Sun Valley Resort in the 1930s. While the railroad transported skiers to the mountain, Harriman also was concerned with creative ways to get them to the top of the slopes. In Union Pacific Railroad headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, structural engineer Jim Curran studied ways to to adapt the system used for loading bananas onto boats into a system for carrying people up the mountain. Curran suspended chairs from a cable wire and tested the system at the locomotive repair center in downtown Omaha. The world's first chairlifts went into operation when Sun Valley opened in 1936.
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