To Heaven’s Heights is an eclectic collection of ski stories from world famous authors from Leni Riefenstahl to Garrison Keillor, by way of Ian Fleming and Bill Bryson. Spanning one thousand years and with contributions from over 60 authors, the anthology celebrates skiing as a means of transport, communication, hunting, exploring, and latterly as an Olympic sport and a leisure activity enjoyed by millions around the globe. With writings of accidents and avalanches, magic and mystery, these stories are for children and grown-ups, ski racers and armchair athletes. Proceeds from the book will go to Snow Camp, the UK’s National Snowsports charity, giving young inner-city children the opportunity to experience the mountains and in many cases turn their lives around.
CONTENTS
* Title Page
* Foreword by Lord Moynihan
* Foreword by Sir John Henry Ritblat (FRICS)
* Introduction by Ingrid Christophersen
* Acknowledgements
CHAPTER 1 – STORIES FOR CHILDREN
* A Childhood on Skis by Ingrid Christophersen
* Three Vignettes by Alf Prøysen:
- The School Ski Race
- Victory
- Cross Country in my Home Village
* Two vignettes by Kjell Aukrust:
- The 17 Kilometre Race
- Half a Metre Short
* Criss-Crossed Skis by Harold M. Sherman
* Heroes by Odd Børretzen
* I Invent Skiing by Swaine Wolfe
CHAPTER 2 – COMPETITIVE SKIING
* Introduction by Ingrid Christophersen
* The Fifty Kilometre by Karsten Alnæs
* The Downhill Racers by Oakley Hall
* The God of Skiing by Peter Kray
* The First Ski Race 1843
CHAPTER 3 – HUMOUR
* Veni Vidi Viking
- Winter Sports by Eric the Ruddy, the last but not the least of the Vikings
* Lake Woebegone Days by Garrison Keillor
- Winter
* Notes From a Big Country by Bill Bryson
- Fun in the Snow
CHAPTER 4 – ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION
* Fridtjof Nansen by Ingrid Christophersen
* Tales of Endurance by Fergus Fleming
* Nansen Over Greenland – ‘SKI’ and ‘SKILØBNING’
* Quotes Attributed to Nansen
* Scott & Amundsen by Roland Huntford
- Amundsen decides to make a stab at the North Pole
- Scott’s Preparations
- Scott was now on his way to the Antarctic, Amundsen supposedly to the Arctic
- The base at Framheim
- The race won – on the way back
- Scott, Wilson and Bowers, having reached the South Pole one month after Amundsen, died in their tent, 11 miles from their last depot – ‘One-Ton Depot’
* Quotes by Scott:
- Robert Falcon Scott on Skis and Skiing
CHAPTER 5 – FROM A LONG TIME AGO
* Kongespeilet The King’s Mirror
* Birkebeinerferden From Kongedrapene by Jan Ove Ekeberg
* Lorna Doone by R D Blackmore
* Seraphita by Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)
CHAPTER 6 – SKI JUMPING
* Introduction by Ingrid Christophersen
* The Skier by Mikkjel Fønhus
* The Flight by Dag Helleve
* The Youth of Today by Johan Collet Müller Borgen
CHAPTER 7 – MÜRREN
* Introduction by Ingrid Christophersen
* On Her Majesty’s Secret Service by Ian Fleming
* The Amber Room by Christopher Matthew
CHAPTER 8 – SKIS IN WARFARE
* Introduction by Ingrid Christophersen
* The Race for the Atom Bomb by Jens Anton Poulsson
- Christmas Eve 1942
* The Finnish Winter War Introduction by Ingrid Christophersen
* White Death by Allen Chew
* Extract from an article written for the WW2 Museum in New Orleans by Mitch Swenson
CHAPTER 9 – TWO NORWEGIAN NOBEL PRIZE LAUREATES
* Sigrid Undset – An Introduction by Ingrid Christophersen
* Happy Times in Norway by Sigrid Undset
* Sigrid Undseth – from her autobiographical writings
* Knut Hamsun
* Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun
CHAPTER 10 – ROMANCE AND SKIS
* Introduction by Ingrid Christophersen
* Two in December by Jirij Kazakov
* The Seducer by Jan Kjærstad
- Broadcast
* The Ideal Time by Lars Saabye Christensen
CHAPTER 11 – ACCIDENTS AND AVALANCHES
* Introduction by Ingrid Christophersen
* The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
* Dr Fischer of Geneva by Graham Greene
* Come Winter by Evan Hunter
* The Hartleys by John Cheever
* The Rescue by John Updike
* Over The Edge by Marc Paul Kaplan
CHAPTER 12 – MURDER AND SKULDUGGERY
* The Race by Unni Lindell
* Wolf Winter by Clare Francis
- Prologue – North Norway, January 1945
* The Lions of Lucerne by Brad Thor
* The Lonely Skier by Hammond Innes
CHAPTER 13 – THREE ENGLISH AUTHORS
* The Opening Run by A A Milne
* The Glamour of the Snow by Algernon Blackwood
CHAPTER 14 – PERSONAL REMINISCINGS
* An Alpine Pass on ‘Ski’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- From the London Gazette:
* In Praise of Skiing by Sir Arnold Lunn
- From The Mountains of Youth
* Tales from Montenegro by Henrik Angell
* Escape to the Mountains A Memoir by A M Leni Riefenstahl
* Boyhood Island by Karl Ove Knausgård
* Birkebeineren by Laila Stien
- Sound in Mind and Body
CHAPTER 15 – THE SAMI
* Introduction by Ingrid Christophersen
* Jaampa on Snowshoes After The Wolf by Jens Andreas Friis
- Quote from an Old Norse Saga regarding Laps and skis
CHAPTER 16 – MAGIC AND MYSTERY
* The Perfect Turn by Dick Dorworth
* The time Ole Hagen showed us what Downhill is all about by Ragnar Hovland
* The World was Reborn by Odd Selmer
CHAPTER 17 – FROM FINLAND TO MONGOLIA
* Lemminikainen’s Second Wooing by Elias Lönnrot
* Skiers and Hunters Ditty from Altai
CHAPTER 18 – THREE SHORT STORIES FROM HEMINGWAY
* Christmas on the Roof of the World by Ernest Hemingway
- From The Toronto Star Weekly: 22 December 1923
* In Our Time – Cross-Country Snow by Ernest Hemingway
* From the Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
CHAPTER 19 – MYTHS: REAL AND IMAGINED
* The Story of Snowshoe Thompson – Viking of the Sierra by Ron Watters
- And Here the Imagined Myth
CHAPTER 20 – POEMS
* For an Earth Landing by Erica Jong
* Two Pair of Skis by Yevgeny Yevtushenko
CHAPTER 21 – MISCELLANEOUS
* Getting Ready for the New Season
- Pre Ski Season Training
* Strauss Intermezzo Synopsis
* Some Statistics
* To Swank or Not to Swank by A H D’Egville
CHAPTER 22 – QUOTES
* Jacques de la Tocnaye
* Various Quotes
CHAPTER 23 – JUST SKIING
* Tender and Violent Elizabeth by Henri Troyat
* Top of the Hill by Irwin Shaw
* Checkers by John Marsden
* The Adventures of a Skier by Italo Calvino
* Man and Daughter in the Cold by John Updike
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