Pena Husky's fifth birthday, on Altai Skis!

Today is the fifth birthday of Pena Husky, congratulations! Pena is my dog, working as an important guiding assistant on our trips in Wild Taiga. As a birthday present for Pena we went to Saukkovaara Hill to have a short day trip and to try interesting Altai Hok skis in deep snow in -20 degrees weather.

Altai Hok skis are invented by two Canadian guys. The skiing tradition of Altai Mountains is thousands of years old and inspiration for Altai Skis. Nils and Francois, owners of the company, wanted to combine the qualities of skis and snowshoes.

Skis are wide and short, sliding quite easily on powder snow. Skins are laminated to the bottom of the skis and they are slowing down the speed on the slope, so these skis fits perfectly to my idea of slow adventures! 

We had 145 cm Skis with Xtrace universal binding. Bindings are doing fine with normal hiking boots and enough ankle support. For longer and more demanding tours I recommend more robust bindings and skiing boots. 

It was a bit short time today for making longer trip with Altai skis but this was enough to be sure that these skis are perfect to day trips at the Finnish forest and hill areas on one meter snow. Altai Skis floats very well on powder snow. Speed is a bit higher when sliding with these skis compared to snowshoes. Interesting pair of wood for our purposes!