Skiing through Time: Articulating a Landscape Heritage of Swedish Cross-Country Skiing

Book chapter, 2018

The history of tourism in Sweden is closely linked to skiing. Cross-country skiing has also been important for many iconic ski resorts, which have built a reputation as genuine landscapes for skiing. Through the analysis of three examples, Hindås, Vålådalen and Vasaloppet, this contribution investigates the history of ski-related tourism in Sweden and how history and landscape is used to articulate certain landscapes as ski heritage. The article concludes that technological change and scientific ideas about training have been important in the construction and articulation of ski tourism. These landscapes of skiing are deeply embedded in, and representations of, classic Nordic ideas about nature while also increasingly depending on modern technologies.