#20 Expedition to the Altai Mountains
Participants: Nils Larsen, Dave Waag and Naheed Henderson
"The winter there was exceptionally dry and one of the coldest in 50 years (temps dropping below -40) making for a deeply faceted snowpack."
The trip was a great success. We spent a month in the Altai Mountains and traveled to a number of different settlements and houses interviewing and documenting the use of skis as well as their construction and history in the area. The ski use is widespread in the remote settled pockets of the mountains and goes back beyond memory.
We were fortunate enough to have a pair of skis made for us while we were there, and we brought these and some older pairs back with us to the states. The winter there was exceptionally dry and one of the coldest in 50 years (temps dropping below -40) making for a deeply faceted snowpack. The snow conditions were quite simply the worst (and most unstable) any of us had ever seen. This shortened and altered some of our more ambitious ski plans, leaving us more time to pursue the historical/cultural aspects of the area.
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