On the Trail With the First Skiers

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sardog1

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If it ain't snowin' there, we ain't goin' there.
Oh, are the Sámi and the Norwegians going to hate this. I've heard this tale before. :)

"The hunting party slowly glides into the Altay Mountains in search of elk. It is dead calm, minus 38°F. Just as their ancestors have for millennia, the five men traverse deep, feathery snow buoyed on handmade skis hewed from spruce, with strips of horsehide attached to the bottoms. In lieu of poles each man carries a single wooden staff. Since boyhood, they have learned to master their deceptively crude equipment with exquisite efficiency and grace—the grain of the horsehair providing traction to move uphill and a slick surface for rapid descents, the staff aiding balance."

On the Trail With the First Skiers
 
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