The winter of 1972 saw a contingent of Royal Marines deploy in Northern Norway to learn the skills of Mountain and Arctic warfare, the plan being that the Marines, along with other NATO forces, could bolster the Norwegians should a conflict arise with the Russians, something that was seen as a distinct possibility in the dark days of the cold war. To train, they needed the correct equipment and these skis were standard Norwegian Army issue at the time – ideal for the Marines, and whilst they did stumble around for a while with a plastic binding and great big moon boots called Mucklucks, the type of ski and binding you see here soon became the norm. The binding is one of the many variations on the original Kandahar; this version having a very effective and simple toe adjusting system. The skis are laminated and quite chunky and affectionately known by the Marines as ‘NATO planks’. The loops at the front were/are pretty standard on all military skis, the idea being that you can drag them behind you on a piece of string when crawling into a firing position to engage the enemy. This particular pair of skis were bought by Mick Tighe in a military surplus shop in the 1980’s.