Description
Coffee Table Book of: Bobsleigh, Luge and Skeleton is a large format book of bobsleigh, luge and skeleton, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: the three sleds that share one ice track, the track itself with its banked curves and start ramps, the steel and its care, the old wooden sleds, bobs and toboggans, and a few sliders seen far off in plain dark clothing.
The kit is laid out plain: a bob for two, a luge with its seat shell and curved runners, a skeleton sled with its padded saddle and round steel runners, luge gloves with spiked fingertips, pointed luge booties, a tight one piece suit, a long padded coat for the wait at the start, and helmets with visors and a chin guard.
The making and care follow a runner polished by hand with fine paper, runners carried in a padded case, a sharpening stone, woven carbon cloth for a shell, the chilling pipes laid under the ice, a wooden sled of ash built in an old workshop, and the track itself, its ice sprayed, scraped and swept by hand.
The past runs from old wooden toboggans curled at the front, a horn sled for hauling hay and small iron shod sleds raced on snowy mountain roads, to wooden bobs steered with a wheel, a leather helmet and goggles, an old mountain hotel, a natural run of packed snow and the mossy curve of an early run left to the woods.
Short notes run through the book, on the three sleds and how they are steered, the track and its ice, and the history of sliding on snow and ice: a bob for two carries a pilot who steers at the front and a brakeman who rides at the back, luge and bobsleigh helmets have visors that shield the eyes from the rushing air, skeleton helmets have a chin guard, since the slider rides head first just above the ice, and each luge is fitted to its slider, with the seat shell shaped to the back.
Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a hardcover with the art printed on the case.
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