Xinjiang Skiing

A stomp pad is the smallest upgrade with the biggest payoff for flat-ground skating. Here is how I place and choose one for Xinjiang resorts.

Xinjiang’s Altai gets legendary deep snow. Here is how a groomer rider adapts to bottomless powder, from stance to board choice to the first face plant.

Trees, ice and big mountain lines in Altay mean real impact risk. Here is how I choose spine and chest protection for Xinjiang’s terrain.

Most snowboard injuries are wrists. After a fall on an icy Koktokay morning, I became a believer. Here is how to pick and wear wrist guards in Xinjiang.

Cold murders lithium batteries fast. Here is what I learned keeping my phone, GoPro and mirrorless alive through −30°C days around Altay and Koktokay.

The chairlift wind found the gaps in my helmet and froze my ears. A practical note on ear warmers and head layering for Xinjiang’s exposed lifts.

Heavy jackets, long transfers, and bad posture left my lower back aching. A first-person fix-it for ski sore back on a Xinjiang trip, core, posture, and the recovery that unknotted it.

The cold, dry Xinjiang air cracked my lips on day two. A practical fix-it guide for chapped lips on a ski trip, what worked, what was a waste, and the hydration habit that mattered most.

By day five my knees were complaining louder than I was. A practical, first-person account of ski knee pain on a Xinjiang trip, what caused it, how I skied through it, and the recovery that fixed it.

The sidecountry near Hemu and Kanas tempted me into the backcountry before I was ready. Here is the honest case for carrying, and training with, an avalanche beacon in Xinjiang.