Shediac Bay Ski Club

The Masters Maritimes Ski Camps are great opportunities to improve your skills and have a lot of fun. Add to your winter schedule. More details to come.

A little bit of ancient ski history

The word "ski" is not English.

It never was.

It comes from the Old Norse "skíð", a word that meant a split piece of wood, a snowshoe, a length of timber. The Vikings had a word for it because they needed one. They had been doing it for a very long time.

Rock carvings in Norway date skiing back to around 4000 BC. Six thousand years of people moving across snow on narrow planks, long before anyone called it a sport.

The Norse took it seriously enough to weave it into their mythology. Ullr, the god of the hunt, was depicted on skis. Skaði, goddess of winter and wilderness, was said to travel across mountain snowfields on them. When a culture builds deities around an activity, it tells you something about how central that activity was to survival.

English only borrowed the word in the 1800s, when Scandinavian skiing reached broader European awareness. Before that, English speakers had no word for it because they had no frame of reference for it.

Then came 2014. A Norwegian peak began releasing what the ice had been holding.

Meltwater uncovered the front half of an ancient ski. Researchers dated it to around 700 AD. They searched for years. In 2021, seven years later, the second ski emerged from the same ice patch, still paired, still intact, separated by time but preserved by the same glacier.

Around 1,300 years old. The bindings were still attached. Fragments of what may have been the original leather strapping survived.

They are the best-preserved ancient skis ever found. Not a fragment. Not a single plank. A pair, matched, from a Viking-era traveler who crossed that peak and never came back for them.

The mountain kept them until the ice decided to let go.

A word borrowed in the 1800s. A mythology built around it centuries before that. Rock carvings six millennia old. And somewhere on a Norwegian peak, a pair of skis waiting fourteen centuries to be found.

Hi. A reminder that we are having a bike ride Sunday August 16 in Shediac to see Boats, Beaches and Burbs . We will be leaving at 130 pm from the Shediac Multipurpose Centre on rue Festival. Our ride will take us to Shediac Marina, Pte de Chene Wharf, Parlee Beach and then the side streets along Beau Bridge Road and then to Downtown Shediac for an Ice Cream. This ride will be on side streets and trails, and is approximately 22 km. We will take water breaks at scenic spots along the way. Parking is available at the Multipurpose Centre. We should be finished by 430 pm. It will be a leisurely group ride. In case of rain, this activity will be cancelled.

The bike ride in Shediac has been rescheduled to Sunday August 16. We will leave from the Shediac Multipurpose Centre 58 Rue Festival at 130 pm, do some leisurely biking, have some refreshments, and be back by 430 pm. We will be biking on the side streets and trails of Shediac. Total distance around 30 km. This event is weather dependent.

A reminder that the Club will be organizing a leisurely bike ride on Sunday, July 12 at Kouchibouguac National Park starting at 130 pm. We will meet at the the Visitor Information Centre parking lot and then take the bike paths to the Patterson Hut and then along the Kouchibouguac River to the canteen at Kellys Beach for an Ice Cream. Then continue along the bike path to Petit Large Hut and then the Visitor Information Centre. The bike paths are crushed gravel and relatively flat easy pedalling. This loop is about 25km and will take about 1.5 hrs of pedalling to complete. We will have cold drinks, snacks and socializing at the visitor Information Centre at the end of the bike ride. Entry to National Parks is free this summer so come and enjoy the Park and a bike ride with the SBSC

We had to change our dates for Pin Rouge Trip due to the hill hosting a Race our planned weekend. The ski trip to Pin Rouge will now be Friday February 5 to Sunday February 7. The hill will probably also be open on the Thursday. Call Nathalie at 418-392-5134 Ext 121 and tell her you are with SBSC to reserve your Chalet. There will be a Meet and Greet on Friday night and Apres Ski on Saturday Night. More details to follow. Contact Trip Organizer Hazel Savoie if you have questions.

We have room availability for a single male on our planned trip to the Big Three and Panorama in February 2027. Details on the trip can be found in calendar of events and earlier posts. If interested, please contact Alan.R.Hanson at his outlook.com e-mail address.

Ski conditions on May 18 2026 at Sunshine Village. Reserve your spot on our trip there in February 2027 by contacting Alan.R.Hanson at outlook.com

This morning’s tracks up on Divide.