Measurements of mechanical properties of alpine skis in the laboratory

A few years ago Ian McMillan, the editor of the magazine SKIING, UK requested NEL to carry out tests on a batch of skis. For some time his magazine had been publishing information from a German testing laboratory on the mechanical properties of skis but he had decided to try to organise his own tests in the hope of giving his readers better information on different types of skis in a manner easier for them to understand. The author was asked to try to set up the tests because of personal interest in skiing so a meeting was arranged with Ian McMillan and his technical advisor, Gustaf Fischnaller. an Austrian who now runs a ski school at Glenshee, in Scotland. He has seen ski tests being carried out in Austria and could describe the test methods. After extensive discussion, a decision was taken on a range of tests designed to provide information on how the skis would behave on snow.