Sami Skiing
An acquaintance with and some skill in the art of skiing is almost a necessity for travelling in Lapland. It is not absolutely an impossibility to journey through Lapland without…
From: 1917 C.E. To: 1917 C.E.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Through Lapland With Skis and Reindeer by Frank Hedges Butler, 1917.
Skiing
An acquaintance with and some skill in the art of skiing is almost a necessity for travelling in Lapland.
It is not absolutely an impossibility to journey through Lapland without ski, but it is very useful to be able to ski a little, and a few hours and a little practice will enable the traveller to use them.
It is unwise to move far away from the pulka without putting on skis, as the snow round may be of any depth. To take a photograph it is often necessary to get out on to the snow, and to stand on the level of the snow, instead of sinking two or three feet deep where it is soft. Skis are used by the Lapps just as we put on boots. They are taught to use them from early childhood.
The ski provides good recreation, and when remaining in one place for a few days, skiing through the woods and down the slope is beneficial exercise. The ski is used all over Lapland and Finmarken, and in very early times the natives were considered so expert in the use of it that they obtained the name of "Skidl-finni" or "Skridfinni," and the country itself, according to some authors, of Skidfinnia, Scrifinnia, or Skridfinnia, which appellation may still be seen in maps.
Ignorance and superstition in the early ages entirely swayed the inhabitants of the North and Finmarken, and Lapland was then known to Sweden only by the extraordinary tales related concerning the country and its inhabitants. It is easy to suppose that a people like the Laplanders, whose appearance at all times is so singular and original, would have marvellous stories told concerning them. Seen in the winter on their snow skates gliding along the frozen lakes or darting down the precipitous mountains in the manner which habit enables them to practise with such ease, they offer a strange sight.
As soon as the snow falls the Laplander puts on his skis, though it is not till the snow has acquired a certain degree of hardness that he can go with any speed.
After the snow has fallen a few days the frost gives it such firmness that it can support the weight of a man; the surface becomes hard and glazed, and the Lapp can then go in any direction across country which before was impassable. Nothing can stop him, and he traverses with equal ease and swiftness the white expanse of land, lakes, and rivers. The most remarkable motion is the descent of the mountains and precipices, when he rides on his stick or on the spade used for finding the moss for the reindeer between his legs in a sitting position. No European can go faster down steep hills, although the Norwegians are splendid ski runners.
The skis I bought from a Lapp are 8 ft. 6 in. in length, and the weight of the pair is eighteen pounds. They came from Lake Enare, where the country is flat and wooded like a park. In the mountains the skis are shorter, and sometimes one is longer than the other.
The greatest use of them is in the pursuit of reindeer, which the Lapp can lasso with great skill. When the Laplander sets out in pursuit of a wolf or reindeer and comes to a mountain the summit of which he wishes to ascend, no matter how steep it is, practice enables him to prevent the smooth surface of the ski from slipping backwards. The Laplander sometimes covers the skis with reindeer or seal skin, the hair of which being turned backward prevents it from taking a retrograde direction. I always used sealskins attached with a preparation of sticking material and found them most satisfactory. They never came off; to slip back on them is like rubbing the coat of a cat the wrong way. But for use down hill and on a flat surface the skin is not necessary.
In ascending the sides of the mountains the Lapp is obliged to go in a zigzag direction, and he soon accomplishes it. When descending he places himself in a crouching posture, knees bent, chin forward, and he goes with a velocity comparable almost to the flight of an arrow. A cloud of snow is stirred by the impetus of his descent. When the snow is soft the wolf, fox, and other wild animals have little chance with the Lapp on ski: the man can go faster than the wolf in heavy snow and soon tires his prey out. Whenever the tracks of wild animals are seen the Lapp follows the spoor, and he well knows the different marks. When travelling, it is usual to stop when a wolf's tracks are seen across the path.
An old story is told of a Lapp who, meeting with a wolf, attacked and felled him with a violent blow on the loins. The animal being as he supposed dead from the blows he had given it, he took it by the tail and, throwing it across his shoulders, was returning towards his tent with his prize. Before he had proceeded many steps, however, the beast, which proved to have been only stunned, revived, and to the great surprise of the hunter, turning suddenly round, seized him by the neck, and if he had not instantly let his booty drop he would in all probability have lost his life.
Wolves are great cowards, and never attack man if there are reindeer and dogs about. But reindeer must not be allowed to stray away from the camp. It is necessary to go out and procure moss and bring it to the reindeer. Skis and pulkas stuck in the snow act to some extent as "scare wolves." A Lapp on skis will often undertake a journey of 150 miles from the interior to the coast or to a town to bring intelligence to a merchant of the coming of the reindeers or to transact any other business with him.
Butler, Frank Hedges. Through Lapland with Skis and Reindeer. T. Fisher Unwin LTD., 1917.
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