A summary from the traditional ski festival and the ski history
conference in Chinese Altai, January 2015
On December 29th, I picked up my first tourist group from Urumqi airport in the late afternoon. This
group has come from Norway and Sweden. We made some small preparations for the trip for the following
day to Altai region. On the 31st of December we headed to Altai Burqin County in the early morning. There
were six people in our group, Kurt Skoog is Swedish film maker, Micke Sundberg a Swedish ski explorer,
Anna Erlandsson an outdoor skier and film maker, Thomas Aslaksby a Norwegian traditional ski maker,
Sondre Aslaksby (Thomas’s son) and me, Ayiken Jiashan.
The ski race was scheduled to be held the next morning, so we had to leave from Urumqi early in the morning
of the 31st. It was a long day driving, 700KM. everyone was sleeping in the car, it is not common to drive such
long distances in Nordic countries.
We arrived in Burqin County late in the afternoon in the same day and participated in a group dinner
ceremony with media representatives.
On the next day was the traditional ski festival day in Khom, we
came by there during lunch break, even though we started from Burqin in the early morning darkness. we
were coming with Khom- Kanas officials, so local organizers and skiers had to wait for us, therefore we
luckily were not missing the festival even considering our late arrival. Would we miss the festival if we
were not accompanied by the officials? Kurt asked me. “Of course” added Micke.
The festival opened following an official lunch. The first events were the some folk art demonstrations such
as girl chasing, horse racing and wrestling...
The traditional ski race came at the end of the festival. The race was divided into two types: an adult race and
teenage race. The adult race was in a big circle and included archery, the teenage race was in a smaller circle
and no archery. The race track was in flat powder snow and forest, up and down hill, with a field for archery.
The whole process of the race describes the real life style, especially the hunting life of local communities.
I asked some local skiers about the event following the ski race, they told me of their satisfaction. But a few
friends told me that the race was too short (three circle each 1.5km , 4.5km total), and said that it should go on
for several days. Some local organizers also complained that they did extensive preparation work for around
10days and the festival ended in half day. But the race was really authentic to every participant. I found that
the organizers, volunteers and referees of different activities during the day were true local community
people. “We set each part of the race following the tradition of ski hunting life” said Mr Kopes, one local
community leader, who was the one of the referees of the ski race. He and his companions checked all skis
before the race begin. I bet those referees were afraid the skis were not qualified in size or weight.
Tursin, one the local skiers, told me that the new snow had just fallen the day before, in very light and deep
powder so that the short skis sink easily into it and that it was difficult to walk through. This race in Khom
was the seventh anniversary of this event. Many more people came to visit this year than during my first
experience in 2009. There were many domestic tourists from Urumqi and Altay city, and more media people,
some tourists even came from far east. The small village guest houses cannot provide beds for so many
visitors so many had to stay in the private houses of the local residents. This was a good boost for the winter
income of the local people, but it was a bid crowd for the village.
We visited in the Kanas area with officials next two days. Then we headed to Khom again. Kurt needed to do
some more filming and I wanted to do some local interviews. My first interview was in Kanas with an Altay
TV journalist. His name is Sui kai and he participated in the event for the first time and was reporting on it.
His description suggests that Altai traditional skiing is a prehistoric form of modern skiing. He suggests that
the Altai skiers do not have good technique. From the interview, I realized that he is not a skier and that he
had never tried traditional skis and techniques. He was at each event of the race because of his work
requirements. After two days journey along 70km of road, we finally returned to khom. The road was
blocked by windblown snow.
Fortunately, we had four wheel drive and strong companions always helping
to push the car. .
Next day, we went to Akhorm, a small settlement 7km to the west of Khom, with horse sledges. The trip was
very tough for horses pulling heavy sledges with full stuff and people on deep snow.
We came to Akhorm late in the afternoon and stopped at Tursin’s house, he is my ski friend there. After the
tea break, Tursin says he will not participate the ski race in Altay because he has a lot of house animals to take
care of. Then I told him about organizing a ski team in Akhorm, which has been the dream of me and my
friend Nils Larsen, a ski friend from the US, for many years. After some discussions, Turisn agreed with that
proposal and we promised to pay for someone to take care of his animals. There are 5 skiers in Akhorm area,
Tursin, Maman, Hazy, Batulza and Arshati. I suggested that my Norwegian friend Thomas might help them
for training; I had talked to Thomas previously about it. After small meeting we all agreed to do it. In
addition, we decided Micke is going to help the Altai Kazakh team in training and Anna is going to help the
Handigate Mongol team training. Therefore, training will be offered to the three main ski groups in the area.
While Thomas was making some preparations for next day’s training, we decided to propose some extra film
projects and interviews.
Next morning after morning tea, Thomas led his team toward the small hill behind the house. We went to the
forest with Jamsa, a 13 year old boy who is Tursin’s nephew, and filmed his ski tracks. He showed us how to
trap a rabbit in the forest. This is amazing technique is great for teaching for young generations how to be
good hunters.
Later we met Serik, Jamsa’s father, who was coming from the front valley with skis, he was looking for his
horses. “Such a deep snow, it is too hard to walk on with modern skies” complained Micke. That’s why locals
keep using long wooden skies said Kurt. I did an interview in Akhorm with Serik and Maman. Serik the
famous hunter and skier, but has never participated in a race.
Maman is the skier and traditional ski racer
too. They told me two different way of using skis and two new names for the ski: “Tau Shanggi” (mountain
ski) and “zharis shanggi” (race ski).
After two more days staying in Akhorm, we left Thomas and Sondre in Akhorm with Tursin, and came
back to Khom. Mr Shan telephoned to tell me that I had to come back Altay city earlier than planned for
conference preparations, Micke and Anna had also to meet their team as well.
The other skiers in the village were doing their ski training just outside the Khom led by head skeir Malqin,
who was the ski champion in Altai region for several years. “We do not have to lose the champion in Altay,
therefore we have to have to do hard training” Malqin said. Later from his interview, I believe that he seems
proud of being of Tuvanian descent and trying to prove that Tuvanian people are the best in skiing?
After short visit in Khom we headed to Qungkur Township, where we are supposed to meet Nils, ski
researcher from US, at our former horseman’s house there. We stayed overnight there with Nils, and then
came back to Altay city on 10th of January.
Anna went to a Mongol village 30KM away from Altay city the day after our arrival and I went to a ski resort
near Altay City with Micke and Kurt. Micke met his Kazakh ski team members. We met Agizam, a local
Kazakh skier and he won the skiing championship title several times after Malqin He told us some skiing
stories in relation to his family. He seems a good example of Kazakh traditional skiing identity to us. He
promised us that he is going to be the champion in coming race. After watching several outings of times
training practice, Micke told me Agizam will be one of the best skiers he has met in the region.
In the evening, we met Anna in the hotel restaurant. She described to us her nice trip to the Mongol village
She said that the skiers from the village have a strong feeling for the origins and traditions of skiing.. Often,
there are more than 15 teams wanting to participate the ski race,
we choose the best three of them and those
candidates will represent the three main communities of the region.
The other researchers arrived in Altay city from 13 th of January, we invited more than 60 participants for
the ski history conference from 18countries.
Most of the participants, in addition to those from China
were from Norway and Sweden. Because of foggy weather in Urumqi most of the planes to Altay City
canceled. Some of our guests arrived by car, and others came one day after the registration day.
On the 15th of January, Altay city officials organized some performances and sightseeing for all of the
participants. We visited two museums in the city and a famous ancient cave painting in Dunderbulak In
addition, we enjoyed other events such as goat dragging on horseback, horse-racing and a traditional ski
show. These seemed more like a touristic show than traditional activity, but people really enjoyed it. They
may have never experienced such ceremony before.
The 16th of January was the Altai region traditional ski competition day.
More than 170 skiers gathered at
the ski resort area where the race was going to take place. The races were of two types: one was a long
distance ski race (6km), the other one was sledge pulling relay race (2.5×4km) which was presented by
Altay city sports administration director Duman. He estimated that the visitors, organizing officials,
skiers and media all together made more than 2000 people who came to the event.
We visited a street lined with ice sculpture in the evening after the ceremony. There was a great
wall, dragons sliding and different kinds of ice architecture.
The Chinese Altai mountain range is divided into the front range of mountains (Altay city area) and the
highland mountain range behind the front ranges. These highland ranges include the Khom and Kanas
areas. The front mountain ranges are often “bald” with less forest and less snow, and they are more exposed
to wind. Because of this the snow conditions on the front ranges are not as desirable for skiing as the
conditions in the highland ranges. Because the snow conditions were very bad the ski area used snow
making machines to prepare for the traditional ski race. Due to the artificial snow, some parts of the course
were very icy which caused the traditional skiers to fall during the race. Traditionally skiers were using their
skis and tecniques for hunting in the deep and wild snow in the forested mountains. This is where the
animals were living. The hunters carried their bows, arrows and long knives while they were hunting. The
absence of these details caused me to feel that something was missing from the Altay ski race demonstration.
The numbers of visitors to the Altai Region in winter have been increasing year by year; you could hardly
find a good viewing point to see some parts of the race. Moreover, The traditional ski race was taking place at
at modern ski area, so during the ski race, many modern skiers were there skiing as well. It is not easy to keep
the traditional skiers and the recreational modern skiers separated.
On the morning of the 17th the opening ceremony of the Skiing History conference was held at 8:00 am. The
participants gave their presentations one after another following the opening remarks of the Altay City
mayor. There were some demonstrations of making traditional Chinese and Norwegian style skis by Tomas
(last name) and Slambek, a local Altai craftsman, during the interval breaks.
The ski history conference in Altay city covered two days. Following the conference on the evening of the
18th, the weather conditions in Urumqi were still foggy so that the flight for the conference participants to
Urumqi was canceled. The result was that the conferees spent an additional night in Altay City and traveled
to Urumqi by bus on the 19th. We left Altay City early in the morning of the 19th by a night bus with sleeping
beds. This was a new experience for western travelers. After whole day of driving, our bus came to Jinjiang
International Hotel in the late
afternoon
.
On the morning of the 20th of January, Our group participated in the Xinjiang International Snow and Ice
Tourism Forum and some of our group presented papers on the subject of development. The ceremony for
launching the Silk Road Tourism Year was organized in the afternoon. There was a concert in the evening at
the Grand Bazaar. This event is the Traditional Uyghur Folk Art Performance. It was a great show with a
buffet following. Everybody enjoyed it.
, On the 21st of January after short visit to the Silk Road Ski resort and the Xinjiang Museum, most of the
participants departed for the airport. The Conference concluded.
.