Two Planks and a Passion

Roland Huntford is the world's foremost authority on the polar expeditions and their protagonists. He is the author of the award-winning Two Planks and a Passion: the Dramatic History of Skiing and Scott and Amundsen: Last Place on Earth and he is the biographer of Shackleton and Nansen. He was the Scandinavian correspondent on The Observer for many years.

'Our choice - pick of the paperbacks ... Huntford tells the ski story straightforwardly and simply' - Sunday Times 'Huntford has also undertaken the monumental task of tracing and explaining the development of the sport of skiing outside Scandinavia, particularly in Alpine Europe. As such, he has provided us with a much richer and more complex picture than was previously available from Arnold Lunn's highly partial The Story of Skiing.' -- oxfordjournals.org Featured at number 6 in the top 10 bestselling winter sports books in 2011 feature in The Times. "In his early books, Huntford chronicled the race to the South Pole ("The Last Place on Earth") and wrote biographies of Ernest Shackleton and Fridtjof Nansen. "Two Planks" seems a natural progression for him ... Huntford deserves praise for bringing together a lot of rich material." New York Times Book Review. 'This will be skiing's definitive history for years to come...' Alex Wade, Times Literary Supplement '[A] fine, erudite history of the sport', Hugh Thompson, The Independent "Roland Huntford's book is an amazingly detailed history of skiing's Scandinavian origins." BBC History Magazine Title mention in The Guardian. Title mention in Skier & Snowboarder Magazine. "Huntford's book will be a perfect stocking present for piste fantasists like me", Max Hastings, Sunday Times "This is a compelling acount, and definitive history, of an activity that has evolved over time into one of our most thriving leisure industries." Sunday Telegraph "An engaging and insightful work" Sport Magazine "The most in-depth study of skiing currently in the English language and it will no doubt remain the defining record for some time." The Guardian Mention in The Daily Mail, 28 November 2008. Mentioned in Skier and Snowboarder Magazine, 01 November 2008. 'This is a deeply scholarly work ... Fortunately scholarly in this instance is not synonymous with dull ... Huntford manages to to bind a wealth of material together with a strong narrative thread.' Simon Redfern, The Independent on Sunday "The breadth of his scholarship, which includes an easy familiarity with Scandinavian texts, is extraordinary." Literary Review "What elevates Huntford is his comprehensive approach ... accessible and enjoyable, even to the most armchair bound of 'schussers'." Paul Watkins, The Times "Could the outcome of the Second World War have been decided by the humble ski? That's the bold but surprisingly convincing claim made by Roland Huntford in Two Planks and a Passion." Roger Cox, The Scotsman Review in The Daily Telegraph.

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsNoteMaps1. Skiing Necesse Est2. Ski Tracks in the Milky Way 3. The Earliest Written Sources 4. The Finnish National Epic: Kalevala 5. The First Printed 6. Norway - the Cradle of Skiing as a Sport7. The Influence of Rousseau 8. The Ski in Foreign Literature 9. Evolution of Skiing as a Sport 10. The Men of Telemark 11. Development of Technique and Equipment 12. The First Nordic Marathon 13. The Conquest of the Mountain World 14. Fridtjof Nansen and the First Crossing of Greenland 15. The Nordic Olympia 16. The Waisted Telemark Ski17. The Rise of Ski Touring and the Misadventures of Roald Amundsen18. As Important as the Plays of Ibsen 19. The Spread of Skiing on the Continent20. Norwegians Bring Skiing to Austria-Hungary and Montenegro 21. Skiing Comes to Switzerland 22. Davos23. The English Skiing at Davos 24. Mathias Zdarsky25. St. Moritz 26. Skiing in France27. Polar Exploration 28. The Inventions that Founded Modern Skiing 29. The New World30. The Study of Snow Structure31. The First Winter Olympics at Chamonix 32. Mass Winter Tourism33. The International Recognition of Downhill Skiing34. Skiing Mechanized and Politicized 35. Military Skiing 36. Skiing Since 1945 Bibliography