While skiing’s invention and inception is credited to the Scandinavians, unknown to many, is the fact that the modern racing format of the sport and its earliest formalized ski clubs were created by a group of iconoclastic Brits who loved the wind-rushing, hair-raising euphoria of pure skiing speed.

In the early 20th century as skiing transitioned into a form of winter recreation, any form of downhill competition was focused upon form and style. Going slow was en vogue and was coupled with an emphasis on the proper execution of a turn, regardless of how wide it may have been taken. Downhill skiing during the 1920s remained in the shadow of the Nordic disciplines, with their pure Scandinavian authenticity and an exotic aura that greatly influenced the attitudes of skiing’s first formal governing bodies that sanctioned only those events as the only proper competitive forums of skiing prowess.

This was the sleepy persona of skiing in continental Europe, until Sir Arnold Lunn came around, a skier, mountaineer, and writer who founded Britain’s first dedicated ski club, the Alpine Ski Club in 1908. Born in colonial India to Sir Henry Lunn, the Lunn Family’s business was a travel agency which developed the first commercial tourism within the Swiss Alps. And it was there, specifically, in the town of Mürren, that young Arnold both fell in love with skiing and where rebellion began to fester amidst the stylish but frustratingly slow norms of skiing - norms that placed aesthetics above man’s intrinsic desire to embrace the mountain’s nascent energy and the joy and exhilaration of speed.

Driven by both passion and innovation, Lunn became convinced that improvements could be made to the existing format of ski racing. During the late 19th century, pole markers were spaced uniformly apart in an easy-going fashion, but Lund had the spirit of a pure downhiller and a willingness to experiment. Lunn ultimately invented the proper slalom race in which speed, rather than style, became the sole criteria of performance and victory. Specifically, in Mürren on new year’s day 1922, the 3rd annual Alpine Ski Challenge Cup was finally transformed under Lunn’s direction and vision of a contest of speed. A simple field of paired flags marking turns for competitors was erected with a simple task: navigate the course in the shortest time. Likewise, abandoning the classic and uniform course traditions of the era, Lunn’s new flags were set in a manner so as to aggressively test the metal, fortitude, and legitimate racing ability of the entrants. Further flouting the style-over-substance establishment, Lunn wrote the empirical racer’s truth that the "The object of a turn is to get around a given obstacle losing as little speed as possible," he wrote. "Therefore, a fast ugly turn is better than a slow pretty turn.”

The 1922 Alpine Ski Challenge Cup was won by J.A. Joannides and ski racing was never the same. Lunn’s format attracted likeminded individuals, particularly Brits. It was with this wave of speed aficionados with whom Lunn founded the legendary Kandahar Ski Club in 1924, which further championed the cause of slalom and downhill racing at a time when such events continued to be shunned by various governing bodies. However, if Lunn’s prior endeavors had been a solo act on behalf of racers everywhere, now, with the Kandahar Ski Club colors flying like the Jolly Roger, a raucous attitude manifested itself in new firebrand of ski events. In many ways, Lunn’s slalom gates planted at the 1922 Alpine Ski Challenge Cup were simply the spark that fanned the flames of this new format that seemed to fly in the face of the old norms. The Inferno Race as it would be called, for the time period was diabolically designed to challenge and test the very best skill, will, and speed of racers from the around the world.

First held in January 1928, the inaugural Inferno Race took place when 19 members of Kandahar Ski Club climbed the Schilthorn (2,970m) above Mürren to race down the 2,100 meters to Lauterbrunnen, 14 kilometres away. A journey of almost 10 miles (nearly 5 times the length of contemporary downhill Olympic courses), the Inferno was an alpine event on steroids, whose novelty and legitimate physical and mental obstacles, along with the simplistic “first to the bottom wins” rule, created powerful appeal to the growing racing class cut from a similar cloth of the Kandahar membership.

Although at first considered a “murderous course” and frowned upon by the establishment who considered participants to possess an oddball mix of passion, bravery, and ignorance, the Inferno nonetheless achieved its desired effect. Growing press and popularity ultimately could not be ignored by the powers that be and, in 1930, the FIS finally admitted alpine events to its program. In a firm acknowledgement of Lunn’s foresight, the FIS held their 1931 Alpine Championship in Mürren - bringing downhill and slalom and the rules which Lunn & his Kandahar brethren had created, home to their birthplace for sanctioned competition.

Five years later, alpine skiing made its debut at the Olympic Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Yet another testament to Lunn and the compatriots of his Kandahar Ski Club, the racing traditions born and bred from their collective passion left indelible marks on those next few Olympic games. Now 92 years old, and considered the great granddaddy of downhill event skiing, the Inferno itself is the oldest amateur race in the world, attracting over 1,000 global competitors in what has become part-pilgrimage-part-touring adventure. Like Lunn and founding members of the Kandahar, the bold, the brave, and those seeking to take part in the great and ongoing act of racing history may ski the Inferno each January. While the course’s original off-piste ruggedness has been smoothed by time and a need to appeal to a cross-section of participants ranging from current & former race champions, royalty, and better-than-average skiers from alpine hotbeds around the world, almost a century later it is clear that the flames of racing influence created by the Inferno and the members of the Kandahar Ski Club continue to burn brightly in Mürren - and beyond.