American aircraft engineers, Wayne Pierce, Dave Rickey and Arthur Hunt are credited with producing the first laminated aluminium ski. Various experiments had gone before, but it seems that these three managed to amalgamate the various components to make a workable ski, wooden core with plastic base, aluminium top and metal edges, riveted and glued together in what must have been a pretty laborious manufacturing process. It appears that another American, Howard Head, refined the process a little and started producing commercial versions (circa 1950).

The single ski we have here in the collection would seem to be a very early version, possibly a prototype, as it almost looks to have been made in a workshop, albeit professionally. The Marker and Attenhofer bindings are a later addition we think, possibly 1960s.

We’d love to know more about this ski along with other aluminium versions. This one came with the Scottish Ski Club donations and we don’t know the original owner unfortunately.