International (Europe/Japan/Southern Hemisphere) The Season of Pow - China, Xinjiang Province

Mattadvproject · Apr 30, 2017

G'day everyone,
Hope all is bueno! Due to the pending demise of Epicski, I need a new place to host the trip reports I write each season. I didn't get to finish any of the reports I started this season, so if it's alright with you guys, I'd like to re-post this season's trips (China, Japan and India) and finish them off here. I hope you enjoy the adventures and as always, love to hear back with any questions and comments. Cheers guys and looking forward to being part of this community!

If you've already been following the old blog on Epic, then this will be a repeat of what was up their initially, but there will be a lot of new video coming that you won't have seen yet, so worth checking out hopefully. For those that don't know, we are in China with a small group of skiers checking out some new freeride options in the far NW of China in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. We are close to Mongolia and not too far from Kazakhstan. It is a wild and beautiful area.

The ski industry is absolutely exploding in China right now. They have been building several new ski areas a month (not that we Westerners would know) and they want to have around 800 resorts by the time the Beijing winter Olympics come around. It's pretty crazy stuff but the money over here for skiing right now, is ridiculous. These are very exciting times for the Chinese ski industry right now. Traditionally most of the resorts have been built close to population centers, with little consideration given to terrain and snowfall (build it and they will come, plus add lot's of snow making..... seems to be the mantra). Consequently, they don't really have much skiing to write home about but finally they are starting to look at areas (they happen to be very remote though) where they actually have mountains and have decent snow. The Altay mountains have that, but they have been very hard to access, until now. The airports are in and the roads are being built. There are some resorts and more are planned, but the exciting opportunity is in the new heli and cat skiing operations that are starting up. That is why we are here, to check out these new operations and see if the area is a viable option for us to start a program. This is that adventure.......

Saturday 18th March – Travel Day

With the late departure from India, I only had 1 ½ days back home in Denver. My body clock was therefore all over the place when I left for China on Saturday late that night. Thankfully I only had a quick flight to San Francisco where I would stay overnight. Then it was the 11 hour flight to Beijing the next day. That was relatively easy (long distance flights are feeling pretty easy after all the travel I have been doing lately). I flew United again and this time flew in regular economy. They had one of the big old 747’s (it’s been a while since I have flown on one of those) and to my disappointment, I saw that they didn’t have the personal entertainment systems (no headrest tv screens), but they did have the system to connect you to their entertainment system through wi-fi (and free movies) via your smart phone or laptop. So I ended up watching a couple of movies on my phone and got a few hours’ sleep. Thankfully the middle seat was empty so we had a decent amount of room.

The flight arrived a little early in Beijing, but there were a lot of international flights arrive at the same time. It was super busy at immigration and a bit of a shock to the system (already confused enough as it was!), when I saw the queue. Thankfully it moved pretty quickly and I was through immigration in about 30 minutes. Both my bags arrived and I was able to head to my hotel. Unfortunately there was no one there to meet me (I was staying at the Ibis near the airport and they had a free shuttle), so I went to an information kiosk and they have staff who speak English. They called the hotel and asked them to send a driver. Then they gave me a piece of paper with the Chinese translation of the hotel and my name on it. I went up 4 levels and outside to where they said to meet the car and about 20 minutes later, the car was there. Then it was a 15 minute drive to the hotel.

On first viewing, the hotel didn’t look like an Ibis, but sure enough, there was the branding as I stepped inside. I checked in and headed up to the room. This was a decent looking and new enough hotel from a distance, but when you got into the rooms, they looked pretty ramshackle and obviously lacked any maintenance. My room had obviously had water leaking underneath the bathroom door into the entrance and the wooden floor had started to buckle and crack. They had place plastic sticking tape over the top to try and cover it but it looked like a mess. Inside the bathroom the grout between the tiles was getting moldy, overall the hotel looked like it had been new once, but they did not do any repairs or proper cleaning. Anyway, $30 a night and I will just have to find a new hotel on the way back. No big deal.

It was about 7pm and I was hungry. I went downstairs to ask about food but they told me to go around the corner. There were 4 restaurants and I looked inside through the windows. The last one looked a little bigger and cleaner so I went in. They ushered me down to a table and I sat down. The menu was pretty big; thankfully they had some (funny) English translations and some helpful pictures. I had some exciting options in donkey meat, chicken and pig feet, fish heads and so on, but I went for the safe chicken curry option and a beer. They like to drink warm drinks in China as it turns out, the beer was pretty warm so using Google translate, I was able to ask for a cold beer. Thankfully they have those for pesky foreigners like me. The food came out in a massive bowl (enough for 2 to 3 people), but it was good and I put a decent dent in it. I had a few groups of drunken business men come past (one so drunk he stumbled into the table) but they apologized and went on their way. No problem. I headed back to the hotel and then hit the internet. I finally got the VPN to turn on and I was able to get online. Grant’s flight was late but he was on his way. I would meet him the next day at 445am in the lobby in preparation for our flight to Aletai. Then it was off to sleep.

Tuesday 21st March

Flight to Aletai – I was up at 4am and then headed down to the lobby at 445am to meet Grant. Grant Nakamura is a friend from Big Sky. He is onboard with the trip as our photographer and we first skied together during the Japan trip (there are plenty of photos of his I will be posting soon, for the rest of that blog). We were meeting Maolin Gu, our local Chinese connection at the airport. Maolin is setting up the Chinese version of the PSIA. We had met on Facebook few years back and he had put the trip together for us. Maolin is on the forefront of the ski area development in China and is extremely well connected. He speaks really good English and is a good skier (very passionate about ski instruction) so I knew we were going to be in good hands.

We headed to the terminal 2, the older domestic terminal and went to check in for our flights. We went to the wrong queue and were directed to another check-in desk. Maolin was there and we went to meet him. He helped us with the check in and straight away he showed us his worth. They flagged our bags as we tried to get them through the scanner, so we had to open our bags to show them to the security guy. Then we also had to pay excess baggage, after all that was done, we finally got our tickets and could head through security screening. Now, for anyone who complains about the TSA being strict, then please come to China as you have not seen anything yet. They have the tightest security screening I have ever seen. When they say please remove any electrical items, then they mean EVERY electrical item from your bag, even chargers, cords and adapters. When I fly back, I am going to put all my electronics in a plastic bag inside my backpack and just pull the whole lot out in one go. Poor Grant was carrying all his camera gear in his hand luggage and he had a ton of stuff to take out. We also had a lengthy pat down. The lithium battery in my JetForce bag was a concern to them, I had to show them that as they had the bag empty and put it through the machine again and it kept coming up on their screen. Thankfully they did not confiscate it but Maolin definitely had to help with that one (they have not seen airbags before, especially the JetForce packs). We also had a very thorough pat down and wand scan (nothing compared to the check for Aletai!).

Finally we had all our hand-luggage and were able to pass through security to our gate. Then we found out that the flight was delayed due to weather in Urumqi (pronounced Urum-chi). This was fine as we could then go and get some breakfast. We had some noodles and broth and got comfortable, but after about 40 minutes, they called us back to the gate for departure. We were off! It was about a 4hour flight to get to Urumqi on China Southern Airlines and the plane was nice and new and the hostesses all spoke English. It didn’t feel so alien (not quite the Dakota DC-10 with chicken coops and sacks of rice that I was expecting!) and the flight went quickly. We arrived in Urumqi around noon. Our next flight for Aletai (final destination) was due to depart around 6pm, so we had some time to kill. When we arrived, Maolin received a notification that the next flight was delayed until mid-night, so now we had a lot of time to wait. Thankfully Maolin, the Godfather of Chinese skiing (what we are calling him), knows a lot of people around the country and he knew plenty of people in Urumqi. He called up a good friend of his and about 45 minutes later, we had our hand-luggage stored in some lockers (after having the bags scanned again) and we were out of there for a tour around the area. This was a nice little bonus tour for us as I was keen to know more about Urumqi as I knew pretty much nothing about the entire region. It turns out Urumqi is pretty big. It is the regional capital with about 2 million residents. It is a pretty modern city, with large buildings and is surprisingly clean. I must say that was a nice change from Kashmir and India and I wasn’t expecting that. The drivers are definitely more chill than in Kashmir, with only a little bit of horn usage and a slight obeyance of traffic lights and give way signs.

I certainly don’t claim to be an expert about the area now, but I have experienced it and I must say I love the cultural diversity of the area. There are many ethnic groups living in the area and you have a majority Chinese living with Uighar, Mongolian and Kazakh people. Each group has its own language, culture and food. The people are very friendly and are keen to share their culture with you. They are genuinely excited to see Westerners for the first time. I thought we were an anomaly in Kashmir, but by some of the looks of amazement of the locals, they must have never seen foreigners before and they are blown away. It is really cool. You will get stopped and asked for a photograph many times here and they love to try and speak to you in English. If they receive a reply in English, they are overwhelmed. I love that about this place. People just want to connect and meet with people from far off lands. They are as inquisitive about us as we are of them. I love the interactions we are having. Just be careful if they want to take you drinking, and then be ready to stay up late! The local clear alcohol is like fire water. I stay away from it, but if you can keep pace with them, you will get a lot of respect. I’ll talk more about that later!

As I said earlier, Maolin’s friend turned up and we went for a bit of a drive. The Silk Road Ski area is the closest ski area to Urumqi, about a 45 minute drive. It was kind of surreal; we drove out through a flat, open farm land area. It was a bit foggy so we couldn’t see too much. We went through a police checkpoint (windows must come down so everyone can be photographed) and then you have to get out and go through metal detectors and have our passports checked again. You really do need to have your passport on you at all times in this part of China; you can’t not have it on you. That was another surprise. Security is very tight in this part of the country. Then we drove past some indoor stadiums built recently for the Asian Winter Games, purpose built, just sitting idle, out in the middle of nowhere. Surreal. It was still flat and then all of a sudden, the land started to rise and right there, was the ski area. We could only see the bottom runs, but there were a few skiers and boarders riding the slopes. It is definitely late season for this part of China. We then were allowed on the lifts and we took the ride to near the top. We got off and went to the lodge/restaurant at the top of the main lift. Maolin’s friend, unbeknownst to us had called ahead and organized a feast. We sat down at a table and before we knew it, different dishes were getting put in front of us. There was chicken and beef, rice and different vegetables. It was really nice! There were several local skiers who came into the lodge and most of them either knew or knew of Maolin and they all came over to pay their respects. It was a cool scene. Anyone involved in ski instructing either knows or knows of, Maolin Gu. He really is the Godfather! After our food, we took the last lift all the way to the top to have a look. The snow had all melted off the southern aspects, but there were three main runs off the top, 2 blues and China’s steepest black run at about 37 degrees. It was bumped up and with the fog and intermittent snow showers and crusty refrozen snow, didn’t look like too much fun without skis on. We hung out for a bit and took some pictures, chatting to more local skiers.

Then we jumped back on the lift and downloaded. I was frozen by the time we reached the bottom (sand shoes and ankle socks don’t really cut it here in the winter…..) and it was good to jump back in the car. Then we drove back towards Urumqi. In the meantime, Maolin had received a couple of messages about our flights. First it was moved forward to 8pm, then it got moved back to 9pm, either way, it was better than midnight. Then we had a look around the city. We went to a Muslim area with a mosque and a big tower. We went to the top (6th story) and that gave us great views over the city. We had a quick look around the bazaar net door and then we went to our guide’s favorite restaurant. This was a Uighar restaurant and was like nothing I had been to before. The inside was absolutely stunning, with ornate wooden carvings everywhere and beautiful chandeliers. It was amazing. Our guide ordered all the food for us and we had a feast, with tasty yogurt/jam, Emperor Soup, lamb kebabs, noodles, rice dishes and honey and jam tea. It was quite the spread. Towards the end of the meal, a band with a singer started to play and we were treated to some local dancing and throat singing. I absolutely loved that! It was cool. We went downstairs and Grant and the dancer had a bit of a dance off. I would have stayed all night but time was unfortunately getting away from us and we had to leave in a bit of a hurry to get back to the airport to make it for out flight to Aletai. We made it in good time and thankfully we were already ticketed for the next flight, but we still had to go through security and as it turned out, that was even tighter than the flight from Beijing to Urumqi. The x-ray was of our baggage was full-on, I thought they were going to confiscate my lithium battery for my airbag (make sure you disconnect it so it can be scanned individually. We really slowed down the line, but finally after pulling EVERYTHING out of our bags, they let us go through. We had the individual scan and pat down and again, that was way more thorough than in the US. Try scanning the bottom of your feet and then hands down underneath the belt line. It was full on but we made it into the flight.

It was only a 55 minute flight and that was pretty much straight up and straight down. No problem. The flight arrived just after 10pm. The bags were all out pretty quick and then it was outside and after 5 minutes, a big van with Altai mountain snow park and heliski markings arrived to pick us up. It was a quick 20 minute drive to the start if Aletai and our hotel. We couldn’t see much as it was dark but we did see a lot of buildings with fancy lights on them. Looks like we were arriving in the Las Vegas of the far NW of China!

We had an awesome time in Urumqi! Thank you to all the awesome local people we met!

Here's some video to give you a better feel for the action.......

Mattadvproject · Apr 30, 2017

Wednesday 22nd March

We were up early but breakfast didn’t start till 830am. We headed down to the 3rd floor and immediately we saw a buffet with a lot of different looking things. I had a suspicion we weren’t going to be eating a Western breakfast and sure enough, it was all Asian items. No worries, I found some nice egg fried rice, some steamed meat dumplings, some hard boiled eggs and a bunch of other stuff. My little plate was pretty well loaded. Then we noticed a couple of Western looking guys already sitting down. Maolin was first to finish getting his plate together and he went over to talk to the Westerners. It turns out they were the guides from the place we were going to. How perfect! They were three guides from Canada and they had been in Aletai all winter. We immediately started picking their brains about the local area and what we could expect. We were told that they had a bunch of snow mobiles, a couple of cats and unfortunately the heli was gone, returned to the government who wanted it back (it had been leased from the local government but they had need for it plus the rent was getting too expensive with a lack of use). We had missed it by a week or so. I only knew about them having a heli, so I was glad to hear that they had plenty of other mechanized ways for us to get around.

After breakfast, we were told that we would meet our rides outside the hotel. When we got out there, we met the guides again and then several vehicles rolled up all badged with the Alatei heli and cat skiing branding. There was a Toyota Landcruiser and 2 brand new Toyota Tundras, one of which looked pretty trick with raised suspension, big fat tires and rims and body kit. It looked like quite the beast (it turns out that the owner of the operation, Mr. Gu, races that truck in some Chinese off-road series, so that is why it was pretty tricked out). Then we were told it would be an hour and a half drive to the snow park. I thought snow park was a funny name for a cat skiing area, but I really didn’t know what to expect. We headed left from the hotel, through town and then out into the countryside. Immediately we were surrounded by mountains. There were a few farms that we went past, with plenty of cows out for a wonder in the middle of the road. It was slow going. Then we started to head into an alpine valley and the scenery got better and better. There was a river bed and forest, and then we were surrounded by steep mountain sides. The road got more and more rugged, thankfully the 4wd’d had excellent tires and their traction was good. We stopped a few times to take pictures and finally we reached the point the guides had warned us about called “the gauntlet” where slides had come down and previously blocked the road. They had cleared a tunnel through and in places, the debris pile was 10ft above the car. It was impressive yet ominous!

We went higher and higher, eventually we crested over a high point and there was the view in front of us, a massive open, alpine wilderness. It was a seriously impressive view; I have not seen many sights more impressive than that. Still the road went on but we started to see little snow roads lined with flags heading up the sides of the mountains. We crested another high point and then the main camp came into view. This was another impressive sight; several 4wd’s lined up parked in a row, 7 or 8 snowmobiles and then a bunch of groomed trails leading in all directions, lined with colorful flags. Then in the center of all of this, a large yurt complex with several connected rooms and then some large workshops and sheds out the back. What a complex! The mountains went on forever, all caked in white and I immediately felt very small. Most of the terrain looked pretty mellow, but there were larger, steeper peaks in the distance. This would be quite the location. We jumped out of the truck and headed into the main yurt. Inside it was warm and colorful, with rugs on the ground and on the walls. It was huge inside. There was a fire burning in a stove, keeping the place heated. There were tables and chairs and racks holding a fleet of demo ski boots. In the adjoining yurt, they had a lot of fat skis, all brand new. There were supplies in another tent.

Then it was time to gear up and get ready to go ride. We were told we would be using the snowmobiles that day. We had a group of the owner’s friends in tow, plus a Chinese film crew flying a drone that would be filming the group. We headed up the small hill in front of the yurt, taking a couple of the switchbacks to make it to the top. It was deceptive; the vertical would be longer than I first thought. There was about a dozen or so of us, with 3 guides. It was quite the crew. We went for a quick warmup lap, finding plenty of untouched snow on the main face of what they call the snow park. The snow park is the main area serviced by snowmobiles close to the basecamp. It is a relatively small part of the (massive) national park that they have been given access to (free access to as well, I might add!). Now, immediately I discovered the challenge of the local snowpack. It is facetted to all hell (pardon my French). You could push your pole all the way to the hilt without much problem and when you skied it, you had to be very careful as you would easily break through. Speaking to the guides, it snows pretty hard until mid-January, and then it dries up. It gets very cold and the nights are clear, perfect conditions for major faceting of the snowpack. It was rotten. Now this can still make for fun skiing, you just had to be on your toes and also terrain selection would be important. Seeing that there was a lot of mellow terrain, making safer choices shouldn’t be an issue and I had confidence in our guides that they would do a good job with that too. They seemed pretty experienced and switched on by all accounts.

After the first run, we headed further out, away from the snow park and into the backcountry proper, in the direction of Mongolia (it felt like we were already there….). I won’t go into too much detail here, I will let the pictures do the talking. We came back for lunch around 2pm and then headed back out for more. Given that China does not have any time zones, it stays light here till very late. We stayed out till 630pm before heading back. We were back at the yurt and had our gear off by 7pm and then we were back at the hotel by about 9pm. Maolin then took us out to dinner to a small local place (recommended by his friends) and we enjoyed some amazing Wygar bbq, various meats on sticks (a lot of tasty lamb and beef) with some noodles and some vegetables. The food was awesome and we ate like kings for less than $10, with a few local beers to wash down all the bbq. It was an amazing and eye-opening first day. I really wanted to feel like I was in the wilds and I definitely got to experience that. The next day we would be taking out the cat, so another great day was in the pipeline.

- Matt

Mattadvproject · Apr 30, 2017

Thursday 23rd March

Cat skiing – Day 2 was an exciting prospect. It was time for cat skiing! I’m really not a fan of snowmobiling; I just don’t feel safe riding a (snow) crotch rocket at high speed on uneven terrain, especially with drivers that are new to the game. I’m ok riding my own sled, but I feel infinitely more nervous when someone else is driving me, so I was definitely feeling better about riding the cat all day. It was another bluebird day and we made the 1.5 hour drive in good time. We were at the yurt around 11:30am. We got our gear ready and then the guides did a very quick safety briefing for the new guests. We were still skiing with the owner of the company, Mr. Gu and some of his friends, plus the film crew were still there so it would be a large group and slow going. The snowcat is only a Pisten Bully 100 series; the cab on the back is a tight fit yet very heavy for the size of the engine. With a dozen people or so, the cat definitely struggled up some of the hills, but at least we could (somewhat) relax compared to the snowmobiles. I definitely preferred the cat, even though it is a little slow. For next year, they will be getting a couple of new 400 series Piston Bully’s with much bigger yet lighter cabins. It should be a lot better.

We went further and further out, it felt like a different world. We went way beyond where we went with the snowmobiles. The best skiing was in some of the open, old growth trees. There the snow felt a lot less faceted and the surface snow was a lot more predictable. We managed about 8 or 9 runs and it was a fun time. Again, I will let the photos do the talking. That night, we had a really nice dinner with the owner of the company, Mr. Gu, his wife, ABC (the operations manager) and some of their friends. We dined in a local restaurant and enjoyed some really nice banquet style dining in a private room. That seems to be the high rollers here in Xinjiang do it. They hire a private room in the restaurant and then they order multiple dishes. The food is served on the glass revolving center piece, so the food rolls around and then you just take what you want. As is customary, the white liquor is on hand (several bottles of the fire water) and you take shots as people make toasts. The toasts are pretty much constant, so you keep drinking and toasting the whole time. I definitely had to make a couple of toasts, with Maolin there, it was easy to make a quick speech and have him there to translate. The dinners are so heart-felt and social this way, you are really made to feel welcome. The hospitality so far, has been second to none. They really want more Western tourists to come to the area, I myself will be more than happy to come again.

- Matt

Mattadvproject · Apr 30, 2017

Friday 24th March

This was a bit of a frustrating day initially. We were due to head back to the mountain for more cat skiing, but there was now military stationed at the main gate to the national park and we did not have their permission to go past. There was a new general just posted to the area and he has called for more troops to move into Xinjiang and security has been tightened again. So we spent a frustrating morning going from one police station to the next, waiting to see if we could get clearance to proceed. That never came so by about 130pm, we called it a day and decided to go back to Aletai to go and have a look around.

We got changed and went down town. Aletai is quite a large town (maybe not quite a city yet?), but it is clean and the people are friendly. Most of the adults tended to stop and look at us; but it would be the kids would follow us and try to talk to us. They like to try their English out on you and if you speak back to them, they get very excited. It is a really fun time. We had some nice lunch (Wygar restaurant) and then even managed to find some ice cream. Grant was super happy as he loves his ice cream and had been missing it badly!

Then we took a little diversion to go and check out the General’s Ski Hill, Aletai’s local ski area. It was about a 10 minute drive from town and looked pretty good. It’s all above treeline and has some prominent ridgelines down to the bottom that they have carved runs down. They groom those. The off-piste is heavily fenced off with 2 layers of netting (mostly I think to stop people from falling off the side of the runs) but they do have openings in certain areas and people to go out a ski off-piste. The runs looked really steep too and the off-piste, though short and very rocky in places, also looked like fun.

The base area was pretty big and modern. They have the obligatory security check complete with x-ray and pat down to go inside the lodge, but the security guys are friendly and happy to see some foreigners. We had a look around. There was a large rental shop downstairs and a big locker area, plus a pro shop with some decent looking gear and some conference rooms. Upstairs there was a big restaurant. There was also a large sun deck outside with a great view of the mountain. We made a plan to return before we headed north to Hemu/Kanas.

That night we were invited to another dinner. This time it was with friends of Maolin and Mr. Gu’s. They were a group of pretty high ranking local VIP’s apparently. Unfortunately Grant had a crook in his neck and wanted to stay home so it was just Maolin and I. We were picked up around 8pm and then driven about 5 minutes around the corner from our hotel to what looked like on first inspection, someone’s house. Apparently this is a Kazak family restaurant, not a public restaurant as such, but more of a private eating club with a Kazak family who cooks for you and hosts you in their private dining room. This place is very popular apparently and is booked out well in advance. Someone had pulled some strings then and it was easy to understand why; we had quite the crew around the table: Mr. Gu and ABC from the snow park, then their friends. I’m not sure what all of them did, but we did have the head of the police, the head of the local bank, the head of the airport and his second in charge, then a couple of ladies (not sure what they did) but they were also very prominent locals. One of the ladies knew the new general, so she called him to get permission for us to be able to go up to the mountain again the next day. Nice work!

There was a copious amount of food; all served on the rotating glass table, with all different types of Kazak foods. I can’t remember exactly what we had, but the food was good. The highlight was the meat (lamb and beef) that they dry age by hanging out in the open all winter. The meat is dried by the wind apparently. Because it is consistently cold, the meat stays fresh and there are no bugs obviously. Then they cook it. The result is a very flavorsome and tender meat. It was really good. Of course the drinking happened straight away and it was toast after toast after toast. There were many bottles of the white spirit going around, with everyone having their own little glass jug that they would then fill their own small shot glass with. No one drank unless they were being toasted, thankfully (for them), this happened nearly every 2 or 3 minutes. I had declined the white spirit and had asked for beer, so they gave me red wine instead. No worries.

Now I do enjoy the concept of the toasting as it is very heartfelt and warming and it keeps things very lively and entertaining. There are a couple of different styles of toasting though. You can toast the entire table if you like, either by saying cheers or the local equivalent (sounds like gambei?), tapping the base of your glass on the glass table and then drinking OR you can just toast individual people or one or two people, giving a specific little speech to them. I had several individual toasts made to me, mostly thanking me for coming and to bring more people from overseas with me next time (like I said, they are very curious about us Westerners and want to meet more of us). All the group were skiers, so we talked a lot about skiing too. Then they asked me to give a speech as the “honored guest.” The pressure was on! I had Maolin translate for me. I basically said that I was very happy to be there and I was enjoying the hospitality and the experience very greatly. I said that I enjoyed visiting places around the world (India, Japan and Chile) for skiing and that initially, I am attracted to these places because of the snow and the mountains. What keeps me coming back though, is always the local people and their warmth and friendliness. The people of Xinjiang and the Altay Mountains, have been the most hospitable people I have ever met and they are what will keep me coming back to the area in the future. Then it was cheers all round.

That went down very well and that encouraged them to try and get me to drink the white spirits again. I finally relented and did one shot of the fire water. They liked that even more. They tried to give me more but I stood firm and had to say no. Then they would try and get me to down my glass of wine. Maolin told me the locals can be quite persuasive when it comes to drinking and they are impressed when someone can hold their liquor. I ended up having the whole bottle of red wine to myself and that impressed them that I could finish it. One of the guys gave a very stirring rendition of a song about Aletai and the whole room was singing and applauding. It was quite the scene. Finally close to mid-night, they all remembered that they had to go to skiing the next day, so we ended the party. It was a really fun night and it was fun to meet all these locals. When it came to all the drinking, then Grant had definitely dodged a bullet there, but I was feeling pretty good considering and was looking forward to one more day of cat skiing.

- Matt

Mattadvproject · Apr 30, 2017

Saturday 25th March

We were on the road by just after 10am and this time, we had the green light to proceed up the mountain thanks to our friend at the dinner party the night before. We had to stop at the checkpost near the entrance to the national park, to sign in and hand over our passports to the guards. That would stop us from escaping to Mongolia! No worries, as long as they would give them back at the end of the day. The original plan was for us to go cat skiing for our last day, but the cat was full with Mr. Gu’s friends. No worries, they had plenty of sleds and drivers so we could take some sleds and do our own thing, but we just couldn’t go far. We had to stay in the vicinity of the snowpark area, but there were still plenty of untouched lines to be had there, plus we could also go down to the secret garden area too.

Our mission was to try and get as many photographs as possible and to take more video, before we left. This was our last chance. Unfortunately the weather was not looking like it wanted to co-operate with us as it was windy and flat light. We did 3 laps, trying hard to get the drivers to drop us in some logical areas that would enable us lap quickly, rather than having to do big circuits. The light was getting flatter with each run, so by about 1:30 pm, we called it to go in for lunch. One of the group from the previous night was in the yurt, cooking up a storm. I looked in the pot and he had a lamb’s head in there. Actually he was cooking up 2. We had our own lunch provided by the regular cooks, so we took our time eating and relaxing. No one was feeling super keen to get back out there are the wind was really picking up. Just before we headed out, one of the lamb heads was done and they started cutting that up, plus some lamb sausage so of course they wanted us to try some and actually it was quite good, very tender and if you got the better cuts, lean and tasty. There were some very fatty pieces, so you tried to avoid those. The lamb sausage was good too.

It was well after 3pm by the time we left the yurt. Thankfully the cloud had disappeared and the sun had come out again. The wind had died down again too. We did a couple more laps up high, finding some good snow (still very faceted and punchy if you got too aggressive) with conditions being a lot more conducive to skiing and filming. For our last run, we headed over to the pillows in the secret garden area. The snow was nice and soft in the more sheltered trees, I found a couple of steep lines and then a really rowdy pillow/spine line. I decided to go for it, jumping off a few pillows that were initially soft, but then finding hard snow. The hard snow didn’t allow me to slow me down enough and I high-sided and fell down hill. I was heading off a pillow head first and it had a tree on it. Thankfully, I hit soft snow again and punched into the facet layer. That slowed my momentum and I was able to flip over and get my feet below me as I went over the next pillow. I then linked a couple more turns at the bottom. I definitely had to say that was a fall even though I kept going but I was a little bummed that I blew the line. I was more relieved though I didn’t go head first off the drop and had gotten my feet back around in time. Phew!

We headed back to the yurt and packed up all our gear. The group from the cat skiing arrived back and then they brought out the second lamb’s head and also some beef sausage, so they cut that up and put that out for us. Looked like we were having dinner then and staying late there….. Of course the white spirit came out and they had bought me another bottle of red wine, so we had to join them. Again they honored me as their guest and this time had me cut the lambs head twice and gave me the first piece of meat. Then the meat was given to the rest of the group, the oldest getting the next serve, another one of their traditions. More toasts were made and we had another fun meal. We didn’t end up leaving till after 8pm (thankfully it doesn’t get dark here till 9:30pm). It was a late night but a nice way to end the skiing up in the park. We would be heading north up to the Kanas region (a 6 hour drive) but first we would go for a ski with some locals at the General’s Ski area in Aletai.

- Matt

albertanskigirl · Apr 30, 2017

Hi @Mattadvproject - welcome! I'm so glad this report found it's way here. This has been one of my favourite TRs on Epic! Thanks!

John O · Apr 30, 2017

Welcome! Glad to see you repost this here. It's been an amazing trip report.

Jenny · May 1, 2017

Me, too. It's all so foreign to me - both the country and that type of skiing - but fascinating.

mdf · May 1, 2017

Yes, thanks for bringing this here. I started reading it before but didn't have time to finish.

Core2 · May 1, 2017

Really cool reports. It will be interesting to see China grow their ski industry over the coming years.

Eleeski · May 1, 2017

Excellent adventure. Very entertaining read.

Mattadvproject · May 1, 2017

Sunday 26th March

We were supposed to be heading north about 6 hours to Hemu, a little village in the Kanas area, but Grant and I were intrigued by the thought of skiing the General’s Ski Area so we asked Maolin if we could push our departure time back. He made some calls and we were able to organize our transport for 3:30pm, which would mean that we would still have light for most of the ride, if all went well. If all went well, being the relative term, more on that later.

Maolin had organized for us to ski with some of his friends (of which he has many, in the Chinese ski industry) and we left by about 10:45am. The resort doesn’t actually open till 11am and it was a quick drive. His friend was head of the local ski association and as it turned out, an absolute ripping skier (on the groomers especially) and was the poster boy for the resort (we drove past some awesome billboards with him really laying them over). We were also meeting some of the VIP group that I had met for dinner and had hung out with at the cat skiing place, so we would have a fun little posse to ski with. We were given VIP passes for the day, so free lift rides. Awesome!

Maolin’s friend (sorry that I don’t remember his name, we are not always given people’s names when we are introduced to them……) gave us some demo skis to use as we were all on fats with tech bindings, not really great skis for the conditions and it was easier to ride to the resort without them. I was given a pair of 170cm Atomic Redstar World Cup slalom’s and Grant was given a pair of Fischer WC Slaloms. They would take some getting used to; I hadn’t been on a pair of slalom skis for at least 7 or 8 years, maybe more and they felt really twitchy for the first couple of runs. Being in touring boots with vibram soles didn’t help either, so I definitely had to ease back into them.

We went up the chair in front of the base lodge. It was a long, slow fixed grip quad. We thought it took us to the top but there was another chair next to it, an old double chair and that went to the highest point. We got the lay of the land on the way up. There were 3 main groomers that we could see running back down to the base and they were heavily fenced with b-netting. There were gaps in some places so you could ski off piste. Some of the snow on the more southern aspects looked pretty rotten, but in the shadier places where people had been skiing already, it looked pretty good skiing. I think earlier in the season, when the base was better, the terrain would have been really fun off-piste.

We got off the chair and then noticed the view of Aletai in front of us. It looked like a mini Las Vegas. Behind the resort the mountains quickly ran out and there was a massive snow covered plain that stretched way off into the distance. We could see the mountains that we were cat skiing on and they looked pretty impressive. We stopped for a bunch of photos with the locals and then we headed down. The skis felt really different (I had been on 132mm underfoot and now I was on 66mm underfoot) and the tune was very aggressive, really sharp edges and maybe a 0.5 degree base bevel. The skis did not feel like they wanted to pivot. I took the first run very easy, waiting till I had gotten off the really steep part before I had the confidence to really lay them over and go edge to edge in a pure carve. The skis definitely held an edge and were very stiff, so I really had to stay over them to avoid getting into the backseat. This is when not being in walk mode in my touring boots would have been a good idea…..

We went back up again and did the same run. Maolin’s mate was really laying them over, almost pure carving all phases of the turn (he had a slight pivot at the start of the turn to scrub a little speed and then he was hard on his edges, it was pretty impressive given how steep it was, he was clearly the most confident skier on the mountain). Either way, it was strong skiing. I certainly wasn’t game enough to go for it that soon, but I did start to pure carve a little higher up this time. I was slowly starting to dial in the skis. We went back up for another run, this time turning left at the top and hitting a little traverse to get over to the next groomed run, the steepest run on the skier’s right side of the mountain. Now this run was really steep, pushing 38 degrees, with really firm snow. This was pretty impressive and I definitely put the brakes on again until I was close to the bottom of the steep part. Grant and I had gone down first and we didn’t notice that the rest of the group had jumped on the double chair at a mid-load station. We kept going down to the bottom. We jumped on the double (it was slower than the quad) and it took quite a while to get to the top. We saw Maolin and the group skiing the groomer again.

The view at the top was pretty amazing, with nearly the full 360 degree view. Aletai looked lovely surrounded by all the mountains. There was a little shrine at the top covered in prayer flags. Then we took the groomer down. They had only groomed from the start of the steep part down, we skied that again and then this time, jumped on at the mid-load. We saw Maolin and the group skiing in the off-piste area, so we yelled and they said for us to join them and that they would wait for us. We went right at the top and soon found the entrance to the off-piste. There was a sign with a crossed-out picture of someone skiing in the trees, so as there were no trees in this area, we decided it was ok for us to drop in. I was a little nervous about taking the slalom skis off the groomer (not sure how soft and punchy the snow would be), but after a couple of turns, the snow was somewhat chalky and the skis were actually quite playful and fun. The snow wasn’t punchy if you stayed in the middle, with just a few exposed rocks that you needed to avoid. Otherwise the skiing was challenging but fun. We ripped it down to the group and then watched them ski the steep part and then we dropped in after them. The guy who was ripping on the groomers, now did not look so strong in the ungroomed stuff. His movement pattern definitely changed, to a less dynamic, short radius hop turn. Still good skiing, but not with the same ski performance or confidence as we had been seeing on the groomers. Maolin too looked like he was a little more out of his element, he was looking a little compact and static, without the necessary extension that would have helped him uncoil and manage pressure better in the choppy snow.

It felt good to be back in the rough stuff again and I got a little excited, trying giving everyone a pole tap as they came to a stop. I think they thought I was scolding them or something and they did not reciprocate the pole tap. They looked at me with a blank stare. One of the guys asked Maolin why I had hit my pole onto his and I explained I was giving him a pole hi-five. He laughed and told everyone else, then it was pole taps and pole clapping all round with every run. That was pretty sweet. We ended up skiing a bunch of ungroomed runs, Maolin was getting his confidence and he let me give him so feedback that helped his skiing. He was happy for the quick lesson. It was good to get back into instructor mode for a couple of runs. Maolin told me that there was no off-piste at the resorts closer to Beijing where he normally works. We had a late lunch around 2:30pm and by the time we were finished, it was time to say goodbye and head back to the hotel for our journey to Hemu. I felt a little sad to be leaving Aletai, I felt a great affinity with the place and with all the people we had met. Skiing at the General’s Ski Area, was a great way to finish this leg of the trip. I was sad to go but also looking forward to the next part of the adventure. So off we went.

We had a driver that they had sent over from Hemu come and meet us back at the hotel. He was driving a brand new Toyota Landcruiser 4wd, so we knew at least we had a really good vehicle for the drive out. As we left Aletai, the scenery quickly changed, it was like we were in the desert. We had a 25 minute stop for a police check point where we had to get copies of our passports taken and then have some of our bags checked. They have cameras every so often and sometimes I noticed that the driver would stop and wait in front of them for a minute or so. He was waiting for the camera to flash so it would get our picture but he said that the camera system is different here. It’s actually pretty smart. They don’t record your speed as you go through it; they are recording the time taken to get from one camera to the next, then the next checkpoint will register how long it took you to make it there and will calculate your average speed from there. That’s how they get you. Very sneaky!

Then we started to get back into the mountains again. There was plenty of snow up high, after about 4.5 hours we got to another police checkpoint (again we had to get out and register, this time we didn’t have our bags searched). The police checkpoint was a large building at was right at the bottom of what looked like, a deep gully and slide path. I noticed a big concrete barrier built around the backside of the building, most likely an avalanche deflector. It didn’t look that strong and was already partially buried in the snow. I said to Maolin that that looked like a pretty dangerous place to be putting a building but he didn’t think there was too much risk of avalanches (this trip has become quite the eye opener for Maolin in regards to avalanche theory). The driver then told us that the original police station had been destroyed in an avalanche and that they had rebuilt the building but this time much stronger so not to worry. So now instead of a quick death, the police guys get to be buried and die slowly in a big concrete tomb, what a great compromise. Maybe don’t have buildings there in the first place fellas?? We got out of there in quick time.

We made it through that area past multiple avalanche looking areas and then out onto a plain where we could relax a little. We saw the Kanas airport (only open in summer unfortunately) so I assumed we were close, but Maolin informed me there was still at least 50km’s of mountain roads to go, so more than an hour. The driver got a call and was told there had been an avalanche further ahead. We were back into avalanche terrain and then we saw a vehicle that had fresh snow on the driver’s mirror and on the window’s so I figured we were about to get into something interesting. Sure enough, we came through a very tight opening where they had just plowed through a new avalanche that had crossed the road. The debris was at least 10ft high. We kept going and then as we came around a corner, we saw another cleared slide and then the snow clearing machine itself and it looked like it was surrounded by debris. We stopped the car (looking up to see if we were underneath any obvious slide path, it was a small cliff above us so we had some protection at least) and got out to investigate. Sure enough it was the snow mover stuck in a slide. There were guys around it with shovels trying to dig them out.

We went over to see if we could help. Apparently they were out clearing the road and had been hit by a secondary avalanche in the path they were still clearing. Scary stuff for the driver no doubt. They had been digging for more than 3.5 hours (it was 5pm approx. when they got hit) trying to get the rotor free at the front. There were a lot of guys just standing around doing nothing, so we jumped in and started digging. I was hoping that a third slide didn’t come down and take us all out, but someone needed to get this crew motivated to move faster. I made the mistake of trying to get them to dig strategically and dig out the side first, so they didn’t have to toss the snow so high, but they didn’t get that and ushered me away. Some more people showed up with plastic shovels and finally, after another hour and a half or so, we had the blade and rotor free at the front. It took some fixing (one of the bolts had sheared off at the front) and some clearing behind the machine, but we finally had it free. It backed up and then was able to push forward again, the massive snow blower doing its thing. Finally it pushed through to the other side. We got in our vehicle and went forward, only to find the blower having to clear another slide. We got a little upset with the driver as he insisted on driving right behind the blower as it slowly cleared the debris. We had to yell at him to wait in a more protected spot, so he could move quickly through the cleared debris, rather than move slowly and expose us to secondary slides for longer. He finally got the message and he backed off. We then had another 30 minutes or so before we made it to the Hemu Hotel.

It was nearly 11pm by the time we arrived. We were pretty tired and hungry and thankfully the manager still had dinner ready for us. That was really nice. We were then shown to our rooms and we could finally get some rest after midnight. It was a big day.

- Matt

Philpug · May 1, 2017

WOW..Welcome...What do you need from us???

Mattadvproject · May 1, 2017

Whoops, I missed out the video from day 4, our last day at the Aletai Snowpark where we took the sleds out and did our own little mission. I don't seem to be able to go back and edit that post, Sorry we are getting a little out of whack, but here is the video that should have be attached to post 5. Apologies for that!

Mattadvproject · May 1, 2017

Philpug said:
WOW..Welcome...What do you need from us???

Hello Phil, thank you, excited to be on Pugski! Uummm, what do I need from you? Nothing, just a place to share my trip reports I guess?? I hope that's ok?

Regards,
Matt

Philpug · May 1, 2017

Mattadvproject said:
Hello Phil, thank you, excited to be on Pugski! Uummm, what do I need from you? Nothing, just a place to share my trip reports I guess?? I hope that's ok?

Regards,
Matt

I hope you like your new title.

Mattadvproject · May 1, 2017

Philpug said:
I hope you like your new title.

There we go! Thank you so much, now the pressure is really on! I hope everyone knows I didn't write that..... don't like to toot my own horn (well, not too much!)..... I've been called far worse, so I'll happily accept this title. Merci!