Tag Archives: ski de randonnée

20231212-P1100716

Altai Skis Adjustable Ski Poles

We just go our new ski poles in. We have been working on these for the last year as many of our users still prefer to use two poles rather then our single poles (Tiaks) for skiing the Hoks. Our view is that two poles work great for cruising around on low angle terrain and for those coming from the snowshoe world. If you are a dedicated skier and look at (or for!) hills as something to go down – we recommend the single pole for the Hoks. For more on this check out this article – Tiaks We have worked with a Finnish supplier who has several poles he has developed. This one is a 2 piece (our preference) with an adjustment length to 150cm. The poles are manufactured in China. Specs on the poles are as follows: 7000 series aluminum. Adjustable to 150cm. Two sets of baskets(one powder basket and one a standard snowflake). Rubber boots for summer walking use. Cam locks for the length adjustment. Cork grips with foam extension for sidehill hand adjustment. Cost is $79.95 New Poles ! These are adjustable to 150 cm

Making a fresh trail on Boulder

Altai Skis Backcountry Ski and Hok Festival 2023

Saturday February 18th from 10AM to 3PM on Boulder Pass Altai Skis Backcountry Ski and Hok Festival 2023 Events and Activities Saturday, February 18th from 10am to 3pm – Demos of Altai Skis Hoks with universal pivot bindings (will fit any flexible soled shoe) as well as Hoks with 3 pin bindings, some 3 pin boots available. Demos also on the Altai Kom ski with 3 pin and 3 pin cable binding – Bring your own skis or snowshoes as demos are generally not available to use for the whole day. There will be clinics, tips, and tours throughout the day. – Learn how to better use the Hoks, both uphill and downhill. – Learn the many uses of the Tiak (single pole) – There will be some short Tours of the area for all levels of skiers. – Bring your own food for the day, there will be some fire pits going in the main area to the north of the pass. – There will be a raffle drawing for al those attending so make sure you sign up when you get there  All ages and abilities are welcome Boulder Pass is a Washington State Sno-Park so a Sno-Park pass is required to park at the pass. We will have discounted day passes as well as season passes available there for all who sign up. LLooknig north from Hok Mt Deep in the burned forest Looking west Tracks through Boulder Pass area xzcx Sentinel Summit Kick turn up the hill Fun! Climbing to Sentinel Heading down MORE INFORMATION Boulder Pass had a very intense fire come through in 2015, burning especially hot around the pass area. Most all of the trees were killed in the areas we ski. As sad as this was it has made for incredible skiing, with most of the small wood and slash consumed in the fire. This has created a landscape where one can ski pretty much anywhere, particularly after a snow base has formed.  The terrain at the pass offers everything from flat roads and groomed trails to fairly steep and adventurous backcountry lines. The verticals around the pass are not too big – 300-500 vertical feet mostly – ideal for the no transition up and down ability of the Hoks. There is no avalanche hazard to speak of in the Boulder Pass area as well.  It would be hard to design a more ideal area for all levels of Hok skiing. The terrain is made for exploring with lots of ups and downs but nothing to big or difficult. The views are excellent and skiing is mostly through open skiable forest (mostly burned). Lots of animal tracks in the winter too, moose, deer, rabbits, ermine, marten, coyotes, and the occasional lynx or bobcat. Best of all, if you like solitude its easy to pick a direction and not see another track all day. Activities Boulder Pass is a rustic site with no indoor amenities. There are two outhouses and we will have some pop up tents for boots and equipment. There will be a large campfire as well.  Camping on site is permitted, expect winter camping conditions. Places to stay in the region. Lodging in Curlew/Republic AirBNB Ferry County Colville and Kettle Falls  Grand Forks, BC (closest good sized town!) There are place available on AirBNB and VRBO as well. Curlew is pretty much a one horse town. There is a drive in restaurant – Tugboats. There is a recently upgraded bar downtown – The Curlew Saloon – that serves burgers (bison burgers!)and a good simple menu. Other amenities include a library, card lock (takes credit cards) gas station, post office, and some nice old buildings ( the Ansorge Hotel is especially nice). The store (downtown) is now open again until 6 PM on Saturdays, closed on Sundays. Republic is the county seat (Ferry County) and has several restaurants (good pizza)and an excellent Brew Pub . There is also a good food store (Andersons), and a Coop.  Grand Forks, BC is the closest town with full amenities to Curlew and Boulder Pass. It’s a larger town (4000+) and has quite a few good restaurants as well as a number of motels. Remember if you are crossing the border that you need a passport or and enhanced drivers license. The border crossing between Curlew and Grand Forks is open from 8am to 8pm. It is about a 15 minute drive between Curlew and GF. Kettle Falls and Colville are both reasonably close to the pass (less then an hour)and have a variety of restaurants and hotels. Great coffee in Kettle Falls at Crandalls  Travel Routes to get here. Main routes from the west (Seattle, etc) are up Hwy 97 to Tonasket then Hwy 20 east.  From the east (Spokane, etc) travel northwest on Hwy 395 all the way to Boulder Creek Rd. From Canada travel to crossings: from the west- Osoyoos (24 hours), Midway (9am-5pm), Grand Forks (8am-8pm). From the east Laurie (8am-12am).  Curlew to Boulder Pass – 15 minutes  Colville to Boulder Pass – 50-55 Minutes Kettle Falls to Boulder Pass – 40-45 Minutes  Republic to Boulder Pass -35-40 minutes  Wenatchee to Boulder Pass – 3.5 hours  Orville to Boulder Pass – 1 hour 35 minutes Spokane to Boulder Pass – 2 hours and 20-30 minutes  Grand Forks BC to Boulder Pass – 35 minutes – Border is open 8 AM to 8PM, you need a passport or an enhanced drivers license.  Other places to check out for skiing (Sherman Pass ).  The 18th is the Saturday of Presidents Day weekend so anyone coming from out of the area should check out the area for other skiing opportunities. Sherman Pass is the highest all season pass in the state at 5575 ft. The pass is on Hwy 20 and sits between Republic and Kettle Falls. There is excellent backcountry skiing for intermediate to advanced. Much of the area is forested, but there are some areas that have potential avalanche hazard. For those unfamiliar with the area there is an excellent Sherman Peak loop trail (6 miles) to the south and to the north a trail

The new climbing wire for our custom heel pieces.

Climbing wire for the AS Hok heel pieces

  Many of you 3pin users may have wondered what those 3 sets of holes were in the base of the heel pieces. Well, our new climbing wire is done and just happens to fit in those holes…..We finished the wire design late last season and did our initial testing in the spring and early summer. We will test it a bit more to confirm the design again and then be offering them on our website.   Following our overall design concept, we tried to keep these simple, sturdy, and easy to use. As with the heel pieces, the climbing wire is designed to fit a range of boot sizes. We have tested the wires with a size 5.5 women’s boot (see picture) up through a men’s 13. There are 6 possible location settings with 3 sets of holes on the heel pieces and the 2 locations for the heel pieces on the Hok (3 inserts for  the 2 holes). Unlike a lot of climbing wires, the design is easy to use and relies on gravity, sitting  on top of the heel piece when engaged rather then depending on a spring or indents to hold it up and place. We find these systems to be finicky and hard to put up and down.               The wire is spring steel and stainless. Cost for a set of wires will be $9.75.

Testing and development of the Kōm.

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…..    

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.