I just got some small yak hides. Wish I knew how to shave them down. They seem spring slaughtered too so some hair is already slipping though…
All this talk about skis makes me wish I was in a climate that would justify making some. 
Minute 27 in summer part 2 goes into the details of making the spruce skis.
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I have a big pile of elk legs I’m lazily going though. I should really try to save the skins. They are just below the knee so the skins will be short, but at least it’s something.
I have access to clear aspen 2x6x8s at a lumber mill. Does anyone think just cutting through with a bandsaw to make 2x1s (or thinner) would work? If the grain is straight you can make board bows from red oak from Home Depot. Couldn’t one do the same with Aspen boards? All the Aspen logs I have (and I have half a cord at least) are already full of cracks as I didn’t think I would want to use them for wood working.
I want to try an make these skis here while I have the tools and time.
Did you ask about the hide? The dimensions of the hanti ski are 5’ long by 6" wide by .70 thick. Not sure I can figure out how to sew these small elk ankle skins. I guess I could just glue without sewing?
No go.
The author of this article, Jamie Van Lanen, has a deep interest in this topic, and has traveled to the Altais and other areas with this tradition.
Ski-Hunting, Past, Present, and Future
Paleolithic aged rock art in the Altai Mountains depicts what appear to be skiers pursuing antlered animals and sheep[iii]. In some of the depictions the skiers hold bow and arrow. Thus there is a strong likelihood that the origin of skiing is closely connected to big-game hunting, and it is well known that both historical and contemporary Altai skiers have used their skis primarily as hunting tools. Even to this day the Altai skiers do not own firearms and they continue to make their traditional longbows[iv]. Besides, it seems that their primary method of taking down big game is first-and-foremost the very ancient tactic of persistence hunting: running down animals to the point of exhaustion and then dispatching them at close range.
http://www.coldsmokesplitboards.com/part-3-cold-smoke-red-zone/
He’s an anthropologist with a focus on subsistence hunting. I’ve had long email discussions with him, but I don’t have his current email address. I suspect reaching out to him would yield good results in this quest.
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In the article Jamie mentions that Altai skiers use small finishing nails to attach the rawhide. It’s tempting to use Barge cement or something similar, but maybe I can find finishing nails that will work.
That snowboard company uses poplar for their boards. They call it strong and flexible. I’m making my yurt out of poplar and I am almost sold on the idea. I watched the guy helping me build the yurt bend a lath piece quite a severe amount. I am so stuck on what strong woods are in the bow world that I still feel skeptical about poplar, but it’s growing on me.
@andrew would you consider making some spruce planks in March or April? Or whenever makes sense?
Jamie in a footnote mentions skiing in to hunt caribou in the Dalton hiway…but that’s another post.
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I have a lot of logging coming up in the near future. We should put together a shopping list of stuff to harvest when the sap is low for staves, snowshoes, skis, toboggans, and building materials. I might not be able to get to all of it, but I am in the vicinity of black spruce, white spruce, balsam poplar, white birch, aspen, and tamarack.
If you would be interested in starting a new thread about appropriate times to harvest which trees for which purposes, maybe we could flesh that out.
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Went to a lumber yard last weekend. They have poplar planks in the right size (6" wide x 7’ long x .75" thck). I would just have to sand, soak, steam bend the tips and then put on bindings. Simple enough 
(which means not really that simple). Costs about $40 for the pair.
And I then have to figure out the skins. I have elk hides I could buy from my boss… I think some have the full leg skins intact. If not I don’t know what part of the skin will work…And I may have to pickle the hide. Not sure how the hair is preserved during the non winter season. I guess it helps I live in a desert for now.
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