Until the early 1970’s

If you ever went anywhere near a ski area, they did not call them resorts back then, from
the beginning of the sport until the early 1970’s you knew the best skis available were made of wood.  Ski poles started out as bamboo or a good straight twig from your back yard with some sort of basket or stopper on one end.

By the 1960’s a number of companies in the United States and Europe we making names of
themselves as ski equipment manufacturers.  Disappearing were the twelve foot long wooden skis, bamboo poles and U.S. Army surplus winter wear originally issued to the men of the 10^th Mountain Division.  Dynastar, Fisher, Head, Solomon, Heart and Bogner skis were taking to the slopes to name just a few.  I for one had my Fisher “Reds” and boy were they fast!

A little slower to the show were the binding and boots.  Ski Boots back then had an inner boot which you had to lace up and tie as tightly as possibly only to be surrounded by an outer boot that also required a certain amount of dexterity to properly tie, that was what moms were good for.  Once the dexterity test was
passed the next challenge was to get your boots attached to your skis.

Bindings were comprised of long cables, metal guides along the skis and finger pinching latches in front of your boot.  You had to lean so far forward to latch the binding that you often fell out of the ski before the task was completed.  To ensure safety the skis also had long leather thongs that were wrapped about 4 times
around the boot and then cinched onto the bindings.  At 8,000 feet you were exhausted before you took your first ride up the ski lift.

Having snow on your skis was just not permitted and the easiest was to get it off was to bang your skis together while riding of the lift.  This often resulted in the bindings coming undone and your ski plummeted to the earth.  If you were lucky enough the leather thong keep the ski with you, albeit hanging about 4 feet below you.  As you approached to top of the lift humiliation set in as the lift was brought to a slow crawl while everyone watch the operator assist you and your malfunction gear to safety.  At that point you wished the thong had failed and the ski was somewhere back behind you.

The other advantage to cable bindings and thong safety straps was in the case of a crash.  In almost every occurrence the bindings would release and “safety Straps” would keep the skis attached only to have them fly about like a kite out of control at the end of its rope eventually hitting the skier somewhere on their torso of face.  In the event that the strap failed to keep the ski with the skier during the melee you always count on the ski to head down the hill, skier-less only to take out some other unsuspecting skier below you.  It is amazing how fast a ski could go with no one attached.

Now days the boots are plastic, skies are made of all kinds of synthetic materials and the safety straps have been replaced by breaks.  Skiing is just not the same any more.