Adventure Evening

Gorge Adventurer Showing Expedition Film in Hood River

By Dan Richardson, 12-01-06

Local publisher and adventurer Dave Waag will be presenting a film about a team of friends, skiers, who made an expedition to the remote Altai Mountains in China.

The one-hour film, Journey to the Source: The Search for Skiing’s Ancient Roots, will play Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. at Dog River Coffee, in Hood River.

Waag is probably best known as publisher of Off Piste, the back country ski magazine. He was one of the three members of the Altai expedition; it was a six-week outing in the spring of 2005.

The Altai comprise a range of mountains between China, Mongolia and Russia. Besides remote and much un-schussed terrain, the mountains are home to a hardy, semi-nomadic people for whom skiing is a way of life. Some people believe that skiing began in this region of Central Asia, and later migrated to Scandinavia, later to emerge in Alpine Europe and the United States.

Waag recently consented to answer a few questions in advance of the film:

New West: How did the Altai expedition come about?

Dave Waag: The idea originated with Nils Larsen(pro ski instructor, and filmmaker).

Nils saw images of the area and local skiers during a presentation given by fellow ski instructor, Naheed Henderson. Naheed was in the area in 2002 on a ski mountaineering trip. Nils shared the images with me and we began to plan. Nils, Naheed and I ended up going to the Altai together in March 2005.

With a big trip like this there are always changes in who goes — it is such a juggle of time and money – and in the end Nils, Naheed, and I were the folks to go. Once in China we met up with an interpreter and what is called a liaison officer — great guys who traveled with us into the mountains.

Our expectations and goals included exploring the area on our skis with hopes of a few ski descents and to interact with the local ski culture with the aim to explore the history of skiing for the folks in the Altai (and Central Asia in general).

Was this a sponsored trip, or were you just out for the fun of it?

We were sponsored by several ski/equipment companies (Arcteryx, Karhu, Mountain Gear) and received two grants, one from the Banff Center for Mountain Culture and one called the Polartec Challenge. In addition, many more companies supplied equipment.

Was the outing successful?

The outing was very successful. Although we had limited success with our own skiing objectives (snow conditions were less than ideal), we had an incredible experience meeting the local people in the region. We skied with them, talked skiing, built skis, played music, and drank and ate like nomadic herdsmen.

Were there any surprises for you along the way, either as a ski adventurer, a traveler, or simply as a human being?

The biggest surprises were cultural and how the Chinese have influenced and steered the remote mountain cultures in the Altai. These folks are literally at the end of the road or beyond the end of the road but the Chinese have presence there. The locals do not even speak Chinese but the Chinese government has a presence in their life and is slowly (and not so slowly in many ways) taking their culture and traditions away by way of manipulation.

Describe the people of the Altai.

The local people are nomadic herdsmen who maintain a semi-permanent winter home. They are primarily of Kazakh and Mongolian descent – with some racial mixing over the generations – but most folks referred to themselves as either Mongolian or Kazakh. We even met some folks who spoke Russian with a decidedly Caucasian appearance.

Describe your accommodations there, and your food.

One of the highlights was really the local food and accommodation. We often stayed with the local people in small villages and in remote settings. The homes were one- or two-room log buildings with dirt floors. We often shared the sleeping platform with several people, and there were often newborn calves and goats in the house with us too. As for food – we ate a lot of boiled meat (horse, cow) homemade noodles, wild onions, homemade breads and loads of salt butter tea. All in all, the food was a good experience. These folks waste nothing, so the boiled meat dishes were a bit of a challenge for the western palette at first, but we enjoyed ourselves. The highlight dinner would have to be the boiled cow’s head.

What are the skis there like, and how are they used? For work or winter transportation?

Skis are homemade affairs, long wooden skis with leather thong bindings and horse hair attached to the bases. They are about 100 mm wide and at least 200 cm long, surprisingly light, and not very maneuverable. They are designed to go straight in deep snow. The local use is all about practical travel and in the past were used for hunting. Hunting still exists but the Chinese government discourages it and has taken away any firearms they had.



WHAT/WHERE:
December 8, 7 p.m., at Dog River Coffee, Hood River. A $5 donation will be requested at the door.

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