However: you know it is a real winter when the skis get stuck on the dry snow and the skates freeze in place instead of gliding. This is due to the fact that real world ice gets liquified under pressure, if the temperature is close enough to just freezing. Around 250 Kelvin most of the fun about skiing, skating and sleighing has gone, because no water film will form.
And we were talking about Fimbulwinter Wintertime, not the sunny summer just below freezing, weren't we? When it is so cold that the snow cover actually shrinks together, producing a hard-packed material with hailstone-sized grains of crunchy ice. When the stuff drifting with the wind consists of needle-sharp little crystals which first will sting, then dry out your skin.
In other words, deep Hollri time.
>From KoDP one could get the impression that hollri fighting occurred every
few years. (Yeah, if you took the easy ancestral opponent...) I suppose
that there will be experienced ice fighters at least in some of the
Sartarite clans.
BTW, the dry air may reduce the amount of rolling thunder to be heard, but at the same time people are tossing sparks and little lightnings around whenever shifting in their wools or furs.
The only reference to skiing in Icelandic sagas which has stuck to my memory was the rare individual who impressed King Olav Tryggvason (IIRC) with his downhill skiing skills. The next famous winter activities from Norwegian history I recall are dated with King Sverre (13th or 14th century), who crossed the Dovrefjell with his household troops in the deep of winter (suffering worse losses than from the battle which made him take that route) and who had his sons brought across the mountains by some veterans of that trips, the so-called Birkebeinere (birch-barch-legs) for their improvised legwear.
BTW, the RQ Vikings box has well researched facts about almost all gaming-relevant aspects of winter sports. Anyway, a culture which can produce decent javelins has all the technology it needs for decent skis to be made. Probably using Telemark-style all purpose bindings.
Now, where are the fun stories about Heortling toboggans?
Powered by hypermail