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39-714: Berkovitsa is situated on the northern slope of Kom Peak of the Berkovska Stara Planina Mountain along the valley of the Berkovitsa River, which is a tributary to the Barziya River, at an altitude above sea level 405 m. The town was mentioned for the first time in Ottoman documents of 1488. According to the 1831 Ottoman population statistics, 67.5% of the Christians were non-taxpayers in the kaza of Berkofça. It

78-452: A plywood core. The design included steel edges (invented in 1928 in Austria , ) and the exterior surfaces were made of phenol formaldehyde resin which could hold wax. This hugely successful ski was unique at the time, having been designed for the recreational market rather than for racing. 1962: a fibreglass ski, Kneissl 's White Star, was used by Karl Schranz to win two gold medals at

117-399: A downhill skiing context. Backcountry skiing, also known as off-piste skiing, is any form of skiing done outside of ski area boundaries. Most of the time this type of skiing is done with alpine touring skis , or telemark gear, where skiers take advantage of climbing skins and a detachable heel, to ski uphill. When the skier reaches the top of the area they want to ski down, they take off

156-521: A free heel to facilitate walking. Styles of Nordic skiing equipment include: Ski poles are commonly used in tandem with skis in a variety of types of skiing. They are typically used as a mechanism to help skiers in most types of skiing, giving additional maneuverability with support turning, walking, and getting up after falling. Ski maintenance encompasses four facets: binding adjustments, waxing, edge shaping, and base repair. Binding adjustment : Safety-release ski bindings require adjustment to fit

195-663: A free, lockable, or partially secured heel. For climbing slopes, ski skins can be affixed to the base of each ski to prevent them from sliding backwards. Originally used as a means of travel over snow, skis have become specialized for recreational and competitive alpine and cross-country skiing . The word ski comes from the Old Norse word skíð which means "cleft wood", "stick of wood" or "ski". In Old Norse common phrases describing skiing were fara á skíðum (to travel, move fast on skis), renna (to move swiftly) and skríða á skíðum (to stride on skis). In Norwegian this word

234-483: A large bishopric complex was built during early Christianity. Until 1947, there was a significant Jewish community in Berkovitsa and there was a functioning synagogue. Berkovitsa has a terminus railway station. It is connected to Montana and has access to the railway connecting Vidin and Vratsa . There are four trains per day. Berkovitsa is twinned with: This Montana Province , Bulgaria location article

273-608: A much wider tip and tail than waist. When tipped onto their edges, they bend into a curved shape and carve a turn. Cross-country techniques use different styles of turns; edging is not as important, and skis have little sidecut. For many years, alpine skis were shaped similarly to cross-country, simply shorter and wider, but the Elan SCX introduced a radial sidecut design that dramatically improved performance. Other companies quickly followed suit, one Austrian ski designer admitting, "It turns out that everything we thought we knew for forty years

312-479: A new design technology was introduced with an outer hardwood shell completely encasing an inner layer of lighter wood, successfully eliminating spontaneously splitting glue lines. This early design eventually evolved into an advanced laminating technique which is referred to today as single-shell casing technology. In 1950, Howard Head introduced the Head Standard , constructed by sandwiching aluminium alloy around

351-478: A sidecut that narrowed the ski underfoot while the tip and tail remained wider. This enabled the ski to flex and turn more easily. Skis traditionally were hand-carved out of a single piece of hardwood such as hickory or birch or ash . These woods were used because of their density and ability to handle speed and shock-resistance factors associated with ski racing. Because Europe's forests were dwindling, finding quality plank hardwood became difficult, which led to

390-409: A single long piece of suitable wood that is hand-carved to the required shape. Early designs were generally rectangular in cross-section, with the tip bent up through application of steam. Over time the designs changed, and skis were thinned out to the sides, or had prominent ridges down the center. In the history of skiing many types of skis have been developed, designed for different needs, of which

429-399: A variety of materials including carbon- Kevlar to make skis stronger, stiffer in twisting, lighter, and more durable. Ski manufacturing techniques allow skis to be made in one or a combination of three designs: Laminated skis are built in layers. Materials such as fiberglass , steel , aluminum alloy , or plastic are layered and compressed above and below the core. Laminated construction

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468-552: A verb from the noun. Finnish has its own ancient words for skis and skiing: "ski" is suksi and "skiing" is hiihtää . The word suksi goes back to the Proto-Uralic period, with cognates such as Erzya soks , Mansi tåut and Nganasan tuta. The Sami also have their own words for "skis" and "skiing": for example, the Lule Sami word for "ski" is sabek and skis are called sabega . The Sami use cuoigat for

507-504: A walking stick to help the user maintain balance. Nordic ski technology was adapted during the early 20th century to enable skiers to turn at higher speeds. New ski and ski binding designs, coupled with the introduction of ski lifts to carry skiers up slopes, enabled the development of alpine skis. Meanwhile, advances in technology in the Nordic camp allowed for the development of special skis for skating and ski jumping . This type of ski

546-450: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Kom Peak Kom Peak ( Bulgarian : Ком [kɔm] ) or Golyam Kom (Голям Ком, "Big Kom") is a peak in the western Balkan Mountains , located in western Bulgaria , not far from the Serbian border. The peak is 2,016 metres high and lies south of the town of Berkovitsa , of which it is a traditional symbol. Kom, along with

585-456: Is branded after Kom. The peak is part of the 100 Tourist Sites of Bulgaria , together with the museum of ethnography in Berkovitsa. There are several ski pistes descending from the peak. Kom Glacier on Fallières Coast , Antarctica is named after the peak. Ski Skis are runners, attached to the user's feet, designed to glide over snow. Typically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings , with either

624-460: Is less common for alpine and ski touring . During the 1980s, Bucky Kashiwa developed a new construction technique using a rolled stainless steel sheet forming three sides of a torsion box over a wooden core, with the base of the ski forming the bottom. Introduced in 1989, the Volant skis proved expensive to produce, and in spite of numerous positive reviews, the company never became profitable. In 1990,

663-456: Is near the site of an old fortified settlement on the road from Sofia to Lom. The remains of the fortress and a church were discovered on high ground at Kaleto, just to the west of the present-day town. The former settlement was known as early as the reign of King Kaloyan and was mentioned as a border settlement in the period of the Vidin Kingdom. Berkovitsa Glacier , on Livingston Island in

702-422: Is the most widely used manufacturing process in the ski industry today. The first successful laminate ski, and arguably the first modern ski was the Head Standard , introduced in 1950, which sandwiched aluminum alloy around a plywood core. The Dynamic VR7 introduced a new construction method in which a smaller wooden core was wrapped in wet fibreglass, as opposed to pre-dried sheets of fibreglass being glued to

741-505: Is the tip, the middle is the waist and the rear is the tail. Skis have four aspects that define their basic performance: length, width, sidecut and camber. Skis also differ in more minor ways to address certain niche roles. For instance, mogul skis are softer to absorb shocks, powder skis are wider to provide more float and rocker skis bent upwards ( reverse camber ) at the tip and tail to make it easier to turn in deep and heavy snow. Skis have evolved from being made of solid wood to using

780-528: Is usually pronounced [ˈʂiː] . In Swedish , another language evolved from Old Norse, the word is skidor (plural, pronounced [ˈɧîːdʊr] ; singular: skida ). The modern Norwegian word ski and the Swedish word skid have largely retained the Old Norse meaning in words for split firewood, wood building materials (such as bargeboards ) and roundpole fence . English and French use

819-488: The FIS Alpine World Ski Championships . By the late '60s fibreglass had mostly replaced aluminum. In 1974 , Magne Myrmo became the last world champion (Falun, 15 km cross-country) using wooden skis. In 1975, the torsion box ski construction design is patented. The patent is referenced by Kästle, Salomon, Rottefella , and Madshus . In 1993 Elan introduced the Elan SCX model, skis with

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858-658: The South Shetland Islands , Antarctica , is named for Berkovitsa. The region was involved in the Uprising of Konstantin and Fruzhin (1408 - 1413) and the Chiprovtsi Uprising (1688). At the end of August 1872, Vasil Levski arrived in Berkovitsa, together with the chairman of the Vratsa Revolutionary Committee, Mito Ankov. In the late antique fortress Kaleto, located on a hill north of Berkovitsa,

897-632: The Kom chalet (two-hour climb), from the Petrohan Pass (taking 3 hours 30 minutes to reach the peak), from the villages of Komshtitsa and Gintsi (3 hours away). The Nishava River , a major tributary of the South Morava , originates east of Kom Peak, as does the Visochitsa . Along with Midzhur , Kom is among the highest and best known peaks of the western Balkan Mountains. A Bulgarian brand of mineral water

936-459: The Salomon S9000 took the same basic concept but replaced the steel with plastics, producing a design they called "monocoque". Now referred to as the "cap ski" design, the concept eliminates the need to wrap the core and replaces this with a single-step process that is much less expensive to produce. Cap ski construction dominates alpine ski construction today. The classical wooden ski consists of

975-461: The cambered ski. This ski arches up in the middle, under the binding, which distributes the skier's weight more evenly across the length of the ski. Earlier plank-style skis had to be thick enough not to bow downward and sink in the snow under the skier's weight. This new design made it possible to build a thinner lighter ski, that flexed more easily to absorb the shock of bumps, and that maneuvered and ran faster and more easily. The design also included

1014-445: The climbing skins and make the necessary preparations to ski back down. Backcountry terrain can also be accessed with standard alpine equipment by riding a lift uphill at a ski resort and then leaving the resort boundary. However, this is more commonly known as sidecountry because of its immediate access from a ski lift. In Nordic skiing the skier is not reliant on ski lifts to get up hills, and so skis and boots tend to be lighter, with

1053-510: The core (essentially replacing metal sheets). The result was a torsion box , which made the ski much stronger. The VR7, and its more famous follow-on VR17, was the first fibreglass ski that could be used for men's racing, and quickly took over that market. Over time, materials for both the core and torsion box have changed, with wood, various plastic foams, fibreglass, kevlar and carbon fiber all being used in different designs. Torsion box designs continue to dominate cross-country ski designs, but

1092-720: The following is a selection. Alpine skis, also called downhill skis, are skis designed specifically for lift-assisted resort runs. Ski design has evolved enormously since the beginnings of the modern sport in mid-19th-century Norway. Modern skis typically have steel edges, camber, side cut, and possibly reverse camber. During the 1990s side cut became more pronounced to make it easier to carve turns. Alpine skis typically have fixed-heel bindings. Specialised types of alpine skis exist for certain uses, including twin-tip skis for freestyle skiing , slalom skis , GS Skis , powder skis, telemark skis and monoskis . The following table shows different kinds of alpine ski types and their uses within

1131-470: The heavy hardwood skis made before. Although lighter and stronger, laminated skis did not wear well. The water-soluble glues used at the time failed; they warped and split along the glue edges (delaminating) frequently and rapidly. In 1922, a Norwegian skier, Thorbjorn Nordby, developed strong waterproof glue which stopped the problem of splitting, therefore developing a much tougher laminated ski. Research and design of laminated skis rapidly progressed. In 1933,

1170-524: The invention of the laminated ski. Beginning in 1891, skimakers in Norway began laminating two or more layers of wood together to make lighter cross country running skis. These evolved into the multi-laminated high-performance skis of the mid-1930s. A laminated ski is made of two types of wood glued together. A top layer of soft wood is glued to a thin layer under a surface of hardwood. This combination created skis which were much lighter and more maneuverable than

1209-457: The lower peaks Sreden Kom ("Middle Kom") and Malak Kom ("Little Kom") to the east, form a west-east elevation with a round grassy ridge, a steep rocky northern slope and a slant grassy southern slope. Looking north, one can see Berkovitsa and the surrounding fields, as well as Montana and the Ogosta Reservoir some 30 kilometres away. The peak inspired national writer Ivan Vazov to create

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1248-454: The original Norwegian spelling ski , and modify the pronunciation. Before 1920, English often called them skee and snow-shoe . In Italian , it is pronounced similarly to Norwegian, but the spelling is modified accordingly: sci [ˈʃi] . Portuguese and Spanish adapt the word to their linguistic rules: esqui and esquí . In German, spellings Ski and Schi are in use, both pronounced [ˈʃiː] . In Dutch ,

1287-586: The plain and skinned short ski. Finnish names for these are lyly and kalhu for the long and short ski. The seal hunters at the Gulf of Bothnia had developed a special long ski to sneak into shooting distance to the seals' breathing holes, though the ski was useful in moving in the packed ice in general and was made specially long, 3–4 meters, to protect against cracks in the ice. This is called skredstång in Swedish. Around 1850, artisans in Telemark, Norway, invented

1326-619: The poem On Kom . In his honour, a bas-relief plaque bearing his image and excerpts from the poem has been installed on the peak. Kom also marks the start of the Bulgarian section of the European walking route E3 , also known as the Kom–Emine path along the main ridge of the Balkan Mountains, as well as the eponymous off-road race. There are several climbing routes to the summit, such as from

1365-449: The verb "to ski". Skis appeared before the wheel , with the oldest wooden skis found in Russia (c. 6300–5000 BCE), Sweden (c. 5200 BCE) and Norway (c. 3200 BCE) respectively. These early skis were not designed for recreation, transportation, or speed; their sole purpose was to keep the user on top of the snow while hunting or when at war . Early skis were generally accompanied by

1404-405: The weight and height of the skier. Annual maintenance assures that settings continue to be correct. For rental skis, such an adjustment is required for each change of customers. Waxing : Most ski wax minimizes gliding friction on snow. " Grip wax " promotes grip on snow for cross-country skis. Wax may be applied in three ways, melting on, rubbing on and as a paste. Edge shaping : Edges engage

1443-869: The word is ski and the pronunciation was originally [ˈɕiː] as in Norwegian, but since approximately the 1960s changed to [ˈskiː] . In Welsh the word is spelled sgi . Many languages make a verb form out of the noun, such as to ski in English, skier in French, esquiar in Spanish and Portuguese, sciare in Italian, skiën in Dutch, or Schi laufen or Schi fahren (as above also Ski laufen or Ski fahren ) in German. Norwegian and Swedish do not form

1482-556: Was used at least in northern Finland and Sweden until the 1930s. On one leg, the skier wore a long straight non-arching ski for sliding, and on the other a shorter ski for kicking. The bottom of the short ski was either plain or covered with animal skin to aid this use, while the long ski supporting the weight of the skier was treated with animal fat in similar manner to modern ski waxing . Early record of this type of skis survives in works of Olaus Magnus . He associates them to Sami people and gives Sami names of savek and golos for

1521-462: Was wrong." Line Skis , the first free-ski focused ski company inspired the newschool freeskiing movement with its twin-tip ski boards in 1995. The first company to successfully market and mass-produce a twin-tip ski to ski switch (skiing backwards) was the Salomon Group , with its 1080 ski in 1998. Described in the direction of travel, the front of the ski, typically pointed or rounded,

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