A guy called Rolf Bergstrom started making skis in his home town of Tobo in Sweden back in 1937. We don’t know much more about the ski factory, but we do know that this lovely set of skis and poles came from our good pals down at the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh. They have a museum down there and came across these skis when having a clear out. We reckon the skis date from the late 1960’s at a time when wood was being replaced by glass fibre and various forms of plastic in ski manufacture – this is reflected in the make up of these skis which have a wooden sole with metal edges and a plastic top. They are fitted with an early Tyrolia quick release binding which implies the skis were aimed at the downhill market which was just beginning to blossom at that time. The cable part of the binding still allowed for cross country use if you had the right boots which led this kind of ski/binding combination to be called crossover or combined skis as they were trying to cover both disciplines. Within a few years skis would become very much downhill or cross country with very different construction and bindings. It would be a few more decades on that ski mountaineering, skis, boots and bindings were perfected for operating away from the piste. Great pair of skis and a lovely pair of ‘posh’ poles to go with them. The Tobo ski poster opposite dates from the 1940’s – artist unknown. What claims to be an original is for sale on the internet in 2014 for £500 – nobody seems to be buying!