Nick Paumgarten has been writing for the New Yorker for almost two decades. His range and beat is extensive, but he does a particularly good job in his stories about skiing and climbing.
As he muses about the origins of the sport he quotes a famous line from Nansen, a historical Norwegian ski god: "It is better to go skiing and think of God than to go to church and think of sport." However, he fails to make the connection that not only did Nansen ski across Greenland, but on a visit to America he was the first Person to ski up Whiteface.
A wonderful and breezy history of the sport, it's competitions, trends, and outlying activities like ski mountaineering. Well worth your time.
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