I remember "stems." I remember "christies." I remember "stem christies." But christianias? I don't remember those. In his 1947 book Invitation to Skiing Fred Iselin writes "...once you learn [the advanced stem turn], you'll be right next door to the most exciting family of turns in all skiing, the christianias. There's magic in the name, and magical is the sensation of doing them. Magical, too, will be the way you look on skis when you've mastered the christies, as they're called." He continues that these turns can only be attempted if all that has gone before has been mastered--the snow plow, the snow-plow turns, the stem turns, the controlled slide slipping. It all sounds so complicated! But once the mechanics became second nature, the lovely christiania turns allowed a skier to dance effortlessly down the slope.
In addition to being a magical skiing technique, Christiania is to some a magical place. A social experiment in the middle of Copenhagen, Denmark, Christiania is both a neighborhood and a tourist attraction that grew out of an abandoned military site. The stated mission of the community is "to create a self-governing society whereby each and every individual holds themselves responsible over the wellbeing of the entire community. Our society is to be economically self-sustaining and, as such, our aspiration is to be steadfast in our conviction that psychological and physical destitution can be averted." The legal status of Christiania is not exactly clear, but the community continues to evolve into a haven for non-conformists--part commune, part sanctuary; progressive and independent, one thousand people living outside the normal bounds of law and order.
Christiania, you have my heart
