WINTER SPORTS 121 



As early as 1886 the Appalachian Mountain Club of Boston organized 

 snowshoe excursions into the White Mountains. This club encouraged snow- 

 shoeing "not only as an exercise, but more especially as a help in mountain- 

 eering." Later the Sierra Club in California, the Mazamas in Oregon, the 

 Mountaineers in Washington, and the Wasatch Mountain Club in Utah, 

 did the same. 



The early Scandinavian-Americans skied as they had at home, standing 

 straight. They darted down the virgin slopes of this continent erectly with 

 wings that they carved from the woods on their feet. They started our present 

 boom of pleasure skiing. 



It was an Austrian-American, a later pioneer, still hale and active, who 

 made the discovery which more than any other so multiplies ski trains, ski 

 schools, ski trails, and ski sales in this land today. His name is Hannes 

 Schneider. He got the idea that man can fly better, faster, farther over the 

 snow if he crouches. He made of skiing a beautiful and exciting art — the 

 ultimate, probably in point of swift, personally controlled, flying manoeuvers 

 with no other engine than the human body, and no other control board than 

 the individual mind and nervous system. 



Uphill ... By a natural coincidence, most of the developing centers of 

 skiing and of other winter sports in this country are on or near the national 

 forests. The first charge of the Forest Service was to protect watersheds, and 

 this is uphill work. The work of ruling water run-off must start at the moun- 

 tain crests. If you will turn to the map of the United States (opposite page 288) 

 which shows the location of the national forests, you will be able roughly to 

 locate the loftiest parts of the Allegheny barrier, the Continental Divide and 

 the Coast Range by the general grouping of the national forests there. 



The same power that moves the raindrop downward is the propelling 

 force of thousands of pleasure seekers, winging down mountainsides today. 

 National forests and winter sports have been a natural combination from 

 the first. The places most favored are generally the highest, where snow 

 seasons are long and where there are likely to be more open slopes. Skis and 

 webs, sleds, and toboggans are no new things to forest officers. They have 

 used them for timber cruising, and in making wildlife estimates and snow 



