Not sure who ‘Nan’ was – her name is handwritten on the skis which came from the Scottish Ski Club. We do know that Leopold Vielhaber came from Austria, married a Scottish lass and started making skis at Birnham, Perthshire in the 1960s. They were very popular and at least one model – the Ambassador – was accepted by the British Ski Team. It seems that Vielhaber were the main producer of skis in the UK during this period, though we have heard of one Gustav Fischnaller who produced skis in Glenshee about the same time.

Bruce Simpson was a part of the Scottish Ski scene during the Vielhaber years and has sent us this wee memory which adds a little more to the scenario:

“The first skis were made in Scotland early in the 1900s. In the modern era Gustav Fischnaller, an Austrian, made small quantities of race skis in Scotland in the 60s and 70s. Leopold Vielhaber, another Austrian who moved to Scotland, took this idea further. He had a background in ski making. He married a Scot and started making fiberglass skis in the late 60s, specifically designed for Scottish conditions: “robust, durable and impact resistant”. The first skis were Vielhaber “Comets” and cost around 30 pounds. The brand grew quite successfully through the 70s and early 80s fuelled by Scottish nationalism and clever marketing campaigns: “we make the tracks, others follow”, and “ski harder with Vielhaber” (landowner Jamie Williamson was the creative mind behind some of the marketing). The British Ski Team also endorsed and used Vielhaber’s “Ambassador” brand. While Vielhaber was able to launch a ski-factory in Aviemore to get scale, and pioneered use of hi-tech materials like kevlar in ski-making, users often complained “no two skis were the same”. It was tough to find a true pair. Reliability and financial challenges gradually came to dominate, and Vielhaber went bankrupt. Some say Leo himself “vamoosed” with the last of his government funding and disappeared.”