Eight thousand years ago, humans invented skiing to survive the Arctic winter.

Today, it’s a global sport of elegance, speed, and serenity.

Between those two moments lies an extraordinary journey — from Norse hunters carving wooden skis, to postwar Olympians turning descent into art, to a planet now fighting to keep its winters alive.

This is The Descent — how humanity’s oldest way of crossing snow became its most beautiful way of moving through the world.

Narrated by sports historian Michael Wiltshire.