Traditional handicraft in the Altaï Chinese mountains
With an history of almost 6000 years there’s great chance that the first skis appeared in the Chinese part of the Altaï mountains.
Nowadays peoples of this area still build with almost the same technique than their ancestors.
I had the opportunity , while exploring the area for ski touring, to travel in the remote village of Jia Deng Yu where I met one of this craftsman. This images show briefly the different states from the spruce trunk to the final ski.
After choosing the right spruce trunk and sawing it carefully, surface planing with a simple axe and plane.
A delicate part of the process, building the tip of the ski.
Cover the ski with horse's skin. This will allow to climb up slopes as slide down
Very proud craftman, wonderful jop my firend yes you can be proud !
And finally, test its !
