July 29, 2026 - Due to a recent medical diagnosis, I am turning over this website to a fellow, wooden ski and ski history afficianado. Bryant Tolles, who runs skifabrikk.com will be taking over, sometime in the near future. Preserve our history and enjoy skiing on wood! .....Greg Fangel
Note from Hank Statscewich: "It was the 57th annual Turkey Day Relay race held at the Birch Hill Cross Country ski area in Fairbanks, Alaska. Temperatures were -14°F at the start of the race and our skis performed wonderfully! Three coats of Swix polar tip to tail with a cork in between each one and then some Swix green on the kick zone turned out just perfect. "
L to R: Brian Charlton, Carl Tape and Hank Statscewich. Photo by Eric Engman
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Winter's Children An in-depth look at Minnesota's Nordic ski history
February 15, 2020: Craig Hunter from Grand Marais, MN with his hand-made wooden skis,
made at North House Folk School in Grand Marais.
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2019 Vintage Ski Fest Methow Valley, Washington
2019 Vintage Ski Fest held in Mazama, Washington. Chad Gregg pictured with 3-month old Cora and Chad's wife Alieta. More photos here: https://www.facebook.com/nordicteam
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Ski in Tweed
Skiers from Norway and Sweden participated in the "2019 Ski in Tweed" event, in Oslo, Norway on February 9. Participants dressed in period clothing and also brought period equipment, such as rucksacks and Optimus stoves for lunch.
We recently visited the Rindal Ski Museum in Rindal, Norway. This museum has hundreds of skis, including winning skis from Landsem. Rindal was home to four ski factories: Landsem, Troll, Rindalsski, and Trollheimen. We highly recommend visiting this museum. More information about our visit is here: https://www.trollheimsporten.no/cppage.6144251-137312.html
Thanks to Erik Haug, son of Jan Haug for these videos. Jan Haug was the founder and owner of Janoy wooden skis, made in Norway and imported to Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
These skis were used by Larry Gould in the 1928 Byrd Expedition to the South Pole. Mr. Gould was a geologist and second in command on the expedition. Gould later became president of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.
Early 1950s-Vintage Madshus Skis
We purchased these skis from this sweet Norwegian woman named Dagrun. She immigrated to the United States from Norway in 1950 and had these skis shipped to her from Trondheim. Her father is from the wooden ski-making town of Rindal.
Nestled in a small workshop in Rjukan, Norway, Trevor Dowe hand-makes traditional wooden skis the same way that pioneers did in the late 1800s to early 1900s. Click here for more info.
Jim S. making skis at a class at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN, where expert ski-maker and boat-builder Mark Hansen shares his expertise.
"By the end of the 1970s, the all-wood ski will probably have dparted the way of the dodo.....only that elusive thing called taste might partially check this trend. A finely crafted all-wood ski, like the Madshus Birkebeiner, is a thing of beauty; its hand-rubbed hickory finish seems the very embodiment of tradition in a sport whose roots sink 4,500 years in the past; it is also a quality light touring ski in its own right. Tour skiers have already proven an unusually indepndent lot, so the exact direction here is hard to predict."
Excerpted from The Regnery Guide to Ski Touring by Sven Wiik and David Sumner. 1974. Henry Regnery Company. Chicago.
not just Nordic!
