Traditional skiing lives on as fur flies

Ahelibek Ulalib is one of just a few people who can make fur skis, a skill passed down in his family.

"Skiing has been closely related to hunting for centuries. The area around Altay has always had plenty of snow and animals in the forest, so the materials used for making fur skis have always been accessible. Also, the pattern and paint used, and tools made of stones discovered in nearby caves, all suggest that the painting could have been made by the primitive people who used the cave as shelter in the late Paleolithic Age," said Wang Bo, an archaeologist from Xinjiang Museum who has examined the painting.

Although the world's oldest ski, thought to be around 8,000 years old, was found in Russia, the Kazaks who live in the area also know how to make and use fur skis.

Ahelibek Ulalibek, from Nuogaite village near Altay, was unaware of the history of fur skis, but he knows how to make them - the skill has been passed down in his family from generation to generation.

The 54-year-old, who has been making skis for more than 10 years, made 50 pairs in 2012 and sold 30 of them last year. His customers included villagers who still hunt and local ski resorts which use them to attract visitors. "I also sold a pair to a Russian," he said proudly. When we met, he was busy making more skis in response to a large order from a ski resort.