Top: The thin runners
on this toboggan from
the 1950s really needed
hard-packed snow or ice
to work best.

210    world’s fastest sled

Bottom: Messing around

on sleds in Canada in

the1870s looks like fun

but it would have been

slow going given the

drag that the curled

front would create.

runners on the sleds. Some bright spark then

decided that the answer was to spray water on

the snow in the evening, which would freeze

overnight, turning the snow course into a

rock-hard, super-slippery ice track. The Cresta

Run daredevils then became the fastest men

on earth! They could hit speeds of over 60

mph at a time when there were still no cars or

motorbikes, and trains were struggling to reach

just 50 mph.

When most of us think of winter sports, the

image that pops into our heads is of skiers, and

the British have played a big part in turning

skiing not only into a sport but into a major

tourist industry. In places like Russia and

Norway, cave paintings have been discovered

that show men on skis, which means that

humans have been strapping planks of wood

to their feet to help them get around on snow

for an incredible 7,000 years. The idea of skiing

as a sport didn’t come along until far more

recently, and it was in Scandinavia that the first

competitions evolved, although the world’s first

alpine ski club (alpine is downhill as opposed

to cross-country skiing) was actually formed in

Australia. Norwegian miners brought skiing to

Kianra in the Snowy Mountains in New South

Wales in 1861.

It was in European alpine resorts, however,

where skiing became a major tourist attraction,

and one of the key figures in its development

was Sir Henry Lunn. A Lincolnshire lad,

Henry became a doctor and was a missionary

in India before he began organising trips

to the Alps for religious conferences in the

1890s. The delegates were encouraged to take

part in healthy sporting activities such as

skiing, and Henry offered the services of ski

instructors as part of the holiday package. He

went on to form a travel agency (eventually

to become Lunn Poly) and put in a lot of hard