China’s Extreme Skiing

For hardcore types, true skiing only starts once you have left the groomed and controlled slopes to enjoy the natural snow of the wild mountains. To access extreme ski areas, quite a bit of mountaineering tends to be involved, as the terrain is too steep for normal skiers, and they have no lifts or cable cars. It is a lot of work, but for the discerning adventure seeker the effort is well worth it.

Of course there are a lot of dangers involved, as in any extreme sport. First of all, one already has to be an excellent skier and in very good physical condition. Despite the evolution of ski technology, which has made off-piste skiing a lot easier, so called “free-riding” still requires a lot of skill. It is a sport only possible after years of training and experience. In addition, there are plenty of risks from Mother Nature, including avalanches, crevasses, rocks, and bad weather conditions, just to name a few. Unless you are highly advanced, you should not brave the hazards involved in extreme skiing.

Mountaineering can vary from exploring rugged slopes using “telemark” equipment, or snowboards, to climbing 7,000-meter peaks, with a ski down the peaks as a reward. There is a big difference between normal skiing down more gradual slopes, and its extreme cousin, which can involve traversing slopes of up to 60 degrees. If you are in good shape and have properly trained it would not be unreasonable to hire a mountain guide or ski instructor and go off the pistes, or even go heliskiing. However, extreme skiing requires not only remarkable physical condition and a top ski technique, but also exceptional knowledge of the mountains and their dangers. Even if you have all of these factors in place, it still requires a lot of courage, particularly because the sport involves cliff dropping, meaning jumping off jagged, rocky peaks. In fact, the world record in cliff hucking was a 72-meter (245 foot) vertical drop. Needless to say, it is definitely not for the feint of heart.

The peril involved is not confined to the garden-variety broken legs. Two years ago two thrill seekers climbed Mount Everest and skied down the dangerous Norton Couloir. Swedish skier Thomas Olsson died when a self-made anchor for repelling rock faces failed. His fellow skier, Norwegian Tormod Granheim, made it safely to Base Camp, but at the tremendous price of his friend.

Stories like this serve as a reminder about the dangers, but there is also an upside, particularly when exploring untamed areas. Slovenian Davo Karnicar was the first person to ski the so-called Seven Summits, the highest peak of each continent. Extreme skiers all over the world are always looking for new challenges and recently have been focusing much of their energies on the Himalayas. Nevertheless, aside from this mountain chain, China remains relatively ‘undiscovered’ despite offering a wide range of fantastic peaks with some of the most extreme potential ski lines in the world.

Each year skiers climb and ski Mutztagh Ata in Xinjiang, which reaches a height of 7,500 meters and has a ‘gentle’ slope of 20-25 degrees (considered an average intermediate ski slope). Nonetheless, this remains one of China’s few well-traveled extreme skiing spots. Most of the best challenges are still either unknown, or have been ignored.

Sichuan, as well as Yunnan and Xinjiang, offer huge areas of relatively virgin mountainous terrain for skiing. Sichuan alone, offers more than 35 as-of-yet unclimbed mountains, each reaching more than 5,000 meters! What is more, all of them are only a few days travel away from Chengdu.

For all of its potential, China extreme skiing is not without its obstacles. The main problem is the lack of consistent and sufficient natural snow. Most clouds are pushed by the winds from India towards the Himalayas, meaning they tend to drop their snowy loads on the south side of the mountains, covering Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nepal, but missing China. By the time the clouds make it down to Tibet, they are nearly empty, so heavy snow falls are relatively rare, and the winters generally very dry. Nonetheless, most mountains above 4,500 meters are normally at least partially covered with snow, albeit often with less than would be optimal for skiing.

One might think that these reduced snow levels would mean a lower risk of avalanche. Unfortunately, China’s extreme ski conditions do not even offer this benefit. Avalanches are more dependent on temperature, and most importantly wind, rather than simply snow coverage. In November of 2006, the international mountain community tragically learned this lesson. Charlie Fowler and Christine Boskoff, CEO of the famous mountaineering travel company Mountain Madness, and one of the world’s most successful female high altitude climbers, died on remote Mt. Genyen in southwestern Sichuan when an avalanche struck their private climbing tour. The two Americas were among the most prolific pioneers of mountain climbing, demonstrating that extreme skiing is risky even for the most advanced experts.

Despite all of the dangers, China’s mountains will sooner or later attract the Western climbing and skiing community. There are plenty of unclimbed peaks, and hundreds of unknown, and extremely challenging, climbs left to be conquered. In addition, China’s beautiful landscape, the remote location of the mountains, some of which require more than seven days of travel from Chengdu, and the inexpensive infrastructure will all contribute to the attraction.

Skiing is definitely among China’s booming sports. However, the lack of snow and water (for artificial snow making), low temperatures, and the shortage of experienced experts in this field will keep it from reaching the levels it has attained in the Alps, North America, Japan, and Korea. But with all these remote areas, China has a huge potential for going extreme and sooner or later the eye of the world’s mountain climbing elite will draw its attention to China. CE

For more information go to Chinaexpat.com/ski