Outdoor Retailer - December 2020 - 39

Feature .03
global snowsports world as anything other
than novelty destinations. Furthermore, the
challenges of growing a local snowsports
scene here are complicated by the lack of
broad multigeneration ski communities, minimal hotel and tourism infrastructure, and
safety education, and, in some places, there's
no grooming machinery, let alone lifts.
But, from my experience at the Afghan
Ski Challenge and skiing in Iraqi Kurdistan
in 2017, I knew the snowsports community
could, with the right support, blossom quickly.
In both the nations I visited, the stoke was off
the charts. In Afghanistan, there were plenty
of skiers who, even without any lift access, had
more than enough skill and steeze to rival any
crew of North American resort or backcountry skiers. And thanks to the hand-me-down
nature of the gear had a natural, retro feel.
As I was boarding my flight in Salt Lake City,
I wondered what the hell we thought we were
doing. Friends and colleagues throughout
the snowsports world expressed everything
from polite skepticism to disbelief in what we
were trying to do. " You think someone from
whateverstan will ever ski on the FWT? You've
got to be crazy, " was a common refrain from
those who couldn't see our vision. However,
there were enough folks-like Tom Winter,
Americas manager for the Freeride World
Tour; and Thomas Kray, who had pulled off
two hugely successful Freeride World Tour
Qualifying (FWQ) events in Lebanon in 2018
and 2019-who believed in us.
Someday, we hoped, we would be able to
run a series of community-driven freeride
events that would stretch from Western China
to Sarajevo. We would elevate new talent to
the global snowsports stage and groom future winners of the Freeride World Tour from
the Silk Road. Beyond that, we envisioned a
mountain bike tour in the summer.
Before any of those dreams came to fruition however, we had to actually go ski in
Kyrgyzstan, and the outlook was rough.
Everyone I spoke with from the U.S. who had
skied in Kyrgyzstan repeatedly mentioned
the facets in the snow-piles of facets, no real
snowpack, and horrendously difficult skiing
were the norm.

out to be a huge draw the entire time we were
in country. A lot of Kyrgyz either knew who
Ahmet was, or he was just so handsome that
hundreds of people wanted their photo with
him (the rest of us were politely asked to leave
the frame).
None of our skis arrived with us when we
landed in the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek,
so for our first day of skiing at the Karakol
Resort, one of two warmup and training days,
we had to make do with borrowed skis. For me,
that meant a set of 178s with adjustable bindings that could fit my mondo size 30 boots. I
had never skied a dedicated resort ski before;
I launched straight into a touring setup when
I started skiing at age 34. At 6 feet, 7 inches, I
also had never skied anything shorter than a
188 before. The setup was a real adventure.
That first day, we were introduced to Vadim,
the son of a former Soviet alpine ski champion
who is, if not the actual spirit and stoke leader
of the Karakol ski community, at least the
self-anointed leader. During the Soviet Era,
Karakol had been one of the main training
centers for skiing, though most of the skiers
were ethnically Russian (now though, there
is an ever-increasing mix of ethnic Kyrgyz on
the slopes, along with the Russians).
Vadim's family stayed in Kyrgyzstan after
the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early

1990s, and even though he had the opportunity to travel and ski all over Europe, Vadim
chose to come back home. " Karakol has the
best snow, the best mountains, " he told me
matter-of-factly when I asked him why he
would return here. " You just have to learn to
ski it-it is not maybe as easy as your snow. "
Vadim was a constant critic of my form.
He finally relented, thanks to gentle pressure
from Louis Arevalo, who was shooting stills
for the expedition, to give me a one-on-one
carving lesson. Even in his criticism though,
Vadim was always laughing, always smiling,
always stoking the, well, stoke. As we went to
check back in on the larger group, he told me,
" You have potential to be maybe a nice skier. "

AFTER A COUPLE OF DAYS IN THE RESORT,
and after the safe arrival of our skis, we headed
to Jyrgalan, a once-prosperous mining community at the entrance to the Jyrgalan Valley
National Park, in which a few folks are betting
on tourism as the future. We stayed in yurts
at the edge of town that boasted heated floors
and WI-FI. Each day, through a mix of snowcat transportation and a harrowing ride on
the back of or being pulled by snow machines,
we got to a high-mountain bowl that would
be the viewing area of the Silk Road Freeride
competition. I should point out that multiple

Vadim, the son of a
former Soviet ski
champion and
member of the
Karakol Air Force,
shows off his skills.

STILL, I WENT. WE HAD A WHOLE TEAM OF
folks from the States join us-a film crew, a
still photographer, a snow-safety expert, and
Völkl team rider Ahmet Dadali, who turned
December 2020 / OUTDOOR RETAILER 39

Outdoor Retailer - December 2020

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