Tag Archives: karver

Keith Wakefield

Single Poles for 2012-13 season

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)!   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!     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.     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.       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.    

Hok-Vert-web

Altai Skis Press Release

    Our press release announcing Altai Skis to the World!       Altai Skis Press Release   CONTACT: Nils Larsen Francois Sylvain nils@altaiskis.com francois@altaiskis.com www.altaiskis.com   New hybrid ski and snowshoe introduced   North America (April, 2011): The Altai Ski Company is born. Altai Skis represent a convergence of utility and adventure in backcountry ski design. Altai Skis’ first ski, the Hok, is a hybrid of ski and snowshoe. The design is short and wide with a climbing skin integrated into its base. The ski allows for easy climbing and predictable downhill control by the user.   The Hok is incredibly maneuverable and easy to use, a great cross between snowshoes and cross-country skis. The skis is designed for use whenever and wherever there is snow and is the ideal tool for the pocket backcountry found out the back door and in nearby parks and woodlands. The ski is equally well suited for exploring the local hills or mountains.   Founded by Nils Larsen and Francois Sylvain, Altai Skis is focused on design inspired by the true spirit and utility of backcountry skiing.   Larsen and Sylvain are ski industry veterans who have worked extensively together in the past. They believe that the easily accessible, everyday backcountry is generally overlooked by much of the current equipment offered. “We believe that the term ‘backcountry’ can and should include the patch of woods behind your house or the hills just out of town. For many of us, this is the most accessible and affordable terrain we can get to on a regular basis.” says Larsen.   The name Altai Skis was inspired by the ski culture found in the Altai Mountains of northern Asia. Since 2005, Larsen has been documenting the indigenous ski culture in the region that dates back thousands of years. The local culture’s go-everywhere, do-everything skis are the inspiration for Altai Skis.   Sylvain brings 12 years of ski design and construction experience with Karhu and Line skis to Altai Skis. His designs are highly regarded in alpine and nordic ski categories.   Larsen has been at the forefront of the backcountry ski scene for the last 25 years and started working at Karhu Skis in the early 1990’s. Together, they developed the majority of telemark, backcountry, and XCD skis that Karhu released in the last 10 years.   More information can be found at the website www.altaiskis.com   .  

Welcome to Altai Skis

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.