When Francois and I created Altai Skis, our main goal was to make accessible and affordable skis that worked well in the winter backcountry areas that lie close to where many of us live. We call this backyard backcountry. Maybe its not as glamorous as the terrain and skiing found in the ski movies of the day, but its way easier for many of us to get to and with the right skis, lots of fun.

The Hoks were clearly our first and main project. We did look beyond that though, and had the Kōm ski in our initial vision as well. The ski is wide and short like a Hok, but in the continuum between a snow shoe and a ski, the  Kōm is much more on the ski side of the mix. Our initial concept was simple. A short wide ski  with a length between 155 cm and 165 cm, and between 95-100 mm under foot. We would also use some of the design ideas we incorporated into the Hok. The tip has some rocker, allowing us to reduce the sidecut a bit while keeping the ski easy turning. The binding and geometry  are a bit forward then a traditional skis design as well. This keeps the balance and swing weight even, and the ski sinking more evenly when breaking trail in deeper snow – a condition we all seek out whenever possible!

The Kōm is also faster gliding then the Hok, as it uses a no wax (fish scale) base. The base we are using along with the ski design is quite aggressive  for climbing, more so then the normal nowax base, but not as grippy as the Hoks with their integrated skin base. As a solution we are also developing a dedicated removable skin – more on that later. 

The name - Kōm – comes from one of the main towns in the Chinese region of the Altai Mountains, and is one of the hotbeds of traditional skiing. The graphic we are working on is also inspired by the Altai region, we will get that up as soon as it is finalized. 

Right now we are planning to build the Kōm without inserts so users can mount the binding of their choice on it easily. We have gone back and forth on this but that is our current plan. We are testing with the Voile 3 pin cable  - a light and sturdy free heel binding we have used a lot in the past. My testing rig so far has been the Voile with a Scarpa T4 and occasionally a leather lace up (works well unless the snow is hard or funky).

We will be producing the Kōm in a small factory in Quebec, and should have finished skis coming out by late summer – good timing for next season!

Below is a video I put together on some recent testing of the Kōm – to be continued…..

I have become so enamored of skishoeing with the Hoks and a single pole that we will sell them this year on the website. A few of us have been out scouting and cutting this summer already (see pics) and are getting quite the stockpile. Lodgepole  pine is the wood of choice, very strong and supple. There are lodgepole thickets high the mountains around here where altitude, rocky soil, and tight stands conspire to keep growth rates incredibly low. I just measure a lodgepole less then 1.5 inches in diameter and it is just about 50 years old (hard to count the rings they are so tight)!

   

Keith Wakefield's pole gathering rig.

I have experimented with size and length this year and have decided that 12-16 inches taller then your height is a good length. Once seasoned they will be peeled and prepped for use. The poles will be finished with a penetrating oil and have a cord through the handle end. The base end will have a wedge cut in, handy for scraping snow off the top of skis. We are also having a small ‘AS’ brand made that will go on the handle as well. Like the Hoks the Tiaks (tīăk – the Altai word for their single poles) will be simple, durable, and easy to use. They will look great too!

Nils with fresh cut poles.

Why a single pole?

Traditionally the ski poles we use for both nordic and downhill have several uses, on nordic skis the main one would be propulsion. With a smooth based ski you can get a lot of glide with a well executed pole push, and when climbing your poles can reduce your back sliding. On nordic skis the effective push is reduced when breaking trail in deep snow and in these conditions many skiers revert to using their poles for balance, problematic because with two poles you are constantly throwing your weight from side to side.  Using two poles effectively is not intuitive, and I have spent days trying to teach both nordic and downhill skiers effective poling.

Downhill skiing uses poles a bit differently. The poles are shorter and are used primarily as a timing device for turns and as a way to position and move our bodies (our center of balance) down the hill into the next turn. As a lesser use, since we are on skis with zero grip we also use them to gamely try and push ourselves around as best we can.

Maman climbing with a Tiak in the Altai Mountains.

At the point you put a climbing skin on the ski you reduce free gliding enough to make the pole push more of an energy  draw then gain, and with the climbing skin back slipping is much less of an issue. But the biggest advantage of the single pole is its ability to form a tripod with the pole and your two skis. Tripods are inherently stable in a simple intuitive way, and when one of the legs is moved (the pole), very adaptable to uneven ground. The use of a pole puts the skishoer’s center of balance a bit back on the downhill, creating a really stable position in a wide variety of snow conditions. The Hoks are short (particularly the 125), a great plus for maneuverability and turning but the disadvantage of a short ski is less stability fore and aft. The single pole quickly eliminates this problem.

Tursen Skiing through the Altai brush.

Of special note is the use of the single pole on downhills. Despite seeing modern telemark skiers switch the pole from side to side as they make turns down the hill, the single pole is not moved from side to side while turning and is kept on the favored side on a downhill run, with the end of the pole drifting from side to side behind you, providing the balance where its needed at any given moment. The only time I found it useful to switch sides is on a steep sidehill, where the pole support up hill is excellent for a stabilizing a steep traverse.

There are many other uses I have come up with for the single pole. It’s great for clearing branches of snow when moving through the forest. It’s great for breaking low branches too – perhaps on your favorite ski run. It’s a great probe….

I will write more on this later. Suffice to say, I am looking forward to a great winter of skishoeing (Hoking!) and the pleasures of a single pole.

I have been working on some basic videos of the Hoks in action. They are posted here but you can see all related on our youtube channel. You can click on the little youtube icon at the bottom of the page and you can subscribe or bookmark it if you like.

Also one of our favorites from last winter in Finland.

Just added this to youtube from my video archives. the video shows some strong skiing from young skiers near Hkom. Tursen in particular is one of the best skiers I have come across and can be seen making some nice turns in the video.

Altai Skis was conceived by Nils Larsen and Francois Sylvain in 2009.

We both have had extensive ski industry experience and had worked together designing nordic and backcountry skis for over ten years. We felt there was a great potential for skis designed for what we like to call ‘pocket backcountry’, the skiing many skiers have ready access to close to where they live. In both Quebec (Francois’ home) and NE Washington (Nils’ home), skiing out the back door or close to it offers us great and easy access to the winter world. We set to work on new designs, with the goal to create easy to use and accessible gear to match the often overlooked skiing terrain hiding in plain view.

Nils has been working on a documentary project on indigenous skiers in the remote Altai Mountains of Northern Asia since 2005. The ski traditions in the area date back thousands of years, possibly to the origins of skiing. The skiers in the Altai still use one ski design for all their skiing, whether it’s a short trip to feed their livestock, over the hill to visit a neighbor, or a two week hunting expedition deep into the rugged mountains. All skiing in the Altai is ‘backcountry’. This was the inspiration for Altai Skis, it defines the spirit of our company and it will drive our designs into the future.