Xinhua News Agency, Urumqi, January 17th Ma Mani, who loves skiing, slides from the mountain to the city
Xinhua News Agency reporter Xiao-Long Zhang, Zhou Yi, xuanliqi
Ma Mani loves skiing very much, but he never thought about it, I will slide from the hometown of the mountain to the city of the mountain in the season when water drops into ice.
On the 16th, Ma Mani and his eight companions stepped on fur snowboard and completed the 11-day taxiing in Altai Mountain area of Xinjiang with a journey of more than 300 kilometers, successfully reaching the destination city of Altay.
Nine herdsmen, including Mamani, organized the taxiing from the mountains to the city in order to make more people pay attention to fur skiing and participate in skiing.
The fur they used was Snowboard made of pine and horse fur, and only one piece of climbing cane was cut from Birch. The history of this equipment can be traced back to 12000 years ago.
Mamani got the first snowboard in his life when he was 8 years old.
“Without fur, my father wrapped some thick rope around the bottom of the skis to increase the friction so that he could step on the skis and climb the mountain. But after all, thick rope is not as good as fur. It was hard to climb to half the hillside, and slipped down again. Take three steps and take two steps back.”
Another year later, the thrifty father saved a piece of fur and made a real fur snowboard for Mamani. Father took him to slide on the gentle slope near the village and in the vast mountains in the pastoral area. Mamani fell down and climbed up again, climbed up and fell down again…… Until he managed the pair of snowboard, the best toy in his childhood.
Mamani said that fur snowboard was born for the mountains. Its biggest feature is the fur wrapped at the bottom of skis: going up the mountain against the fur, the friction increases, and it is easy to grip the ground; Going down the mountain is smooth, the friction decreases, and it is convenient to accelerate.
Before the 1980 s, people living in the Altai Mountains were still traveling and hunting in fur snowboard. Now, Mamani, born in 1989, is stepping on it to complete an “extreme sport” that is neither profitable nor dangerous “.
In skiing, the division between Mamani and his parents originated from the change of lifestyle in pastoral areas.
The construction of rural roads and the improvement of snow clearing ability have made Hemu, a small village where Mamani is located, become the “most beautiful snow village” favored by tourists and become one of the richest villages in northern Xinjiang.
Take marmani as an example. He is a herder, but he is no longer a herder in the traditional sense. He had 20 cows and 10 horses, but he seldom fed them himself. He gave the livestock to others to take part in tourism, set up B & B, restaurants, rent horses, sledge.
Last year, the income of the Mamani family was about 150000 yuan, the income from tourism accounted for 86% of the total annual income, and the income from animal husbandry just exceeded 10%.
There is no need to follow the cattle and sheep everywhere. Marmani has more time to ski. Since 2008, Mamani has made a pair of fur snowboard every year to participate in fur skiing competitions held in this county or neighboring counties. Although the bonus is not much, he is always happy.
According to local tradition, almost no women learn fur skiing. But last winter, Mamani made a pair of mini fur snowboard for her 6-year-old eldest daughter ulzilla to teach her how to finish the first slide on the thick snow. Next winter, chachila, the little daughter who has reached the age of 5, will be the next teaching object of Mamani.
Mamani himself is constantly learning. When the snow in the mountain was knee-deep, tourists from all over the world came to Hemu with veneer and double plates. Mamani became friends with them. He taught tourists to use fur snowboard, and tourists taught him orders, double board skills.
A month ago, more than a dozen skiers in the village and neighboring villages began to plan this special slide, which some called it “extreme crossing”. According to the plan, they will start from the neighboring village of Baihaba, cross the ravines, glaciers and jungles of Altai Mountain, and finally arrive at the destination city of Altay. With a total journey of 300 kilometers, 1/3 of the road section is no man’s land, and it takes at least 10 days to finish the whole slide.
Mamani has never taken part in such a long distance and long cycle of taxiing. He communicated with his wife who was 7 months pregnant repeatedly and finally decided to sign up. He was always shy and very sure about this matter, “Some places in the taxi route, I have been there since I was a child, where my father taught me to ski and I have confidence”.
On January 5th, nine herdsmen set foot on a long road at the risk of getting lost, falling behind and avalanche.
On the fourth day of departure, Mamani and his companions dragged each of them 40 kilograms of materials to climb steeper harakm dasaka. The team members climbed the mountain in the shape of “Zhi” and walked only 20 kilometers on the uphill road. After dark, the team still traveled for 3 hours, with a total journey of more than 44 kilometers on that day, and sweat thoroughly soaked winter clothing.
On the sixth day, the ski team arrived in the HA Rada Valley with gravel and rivers. This is one of the most dangerous sections. In addition to the remaining footprints of wolves and hourse and deer bones on the bank of the river, herdsmen are more worried about the loosening of fur or skis pressure-bearing fracture after skis comes into contact with hard rocks, I was also worried that the surface of the glacier covered with “snow quilt” would become loose. Some people fell into the glacier
on the seventh day, and the team entered the no man’s land without communication signals, above the vast snowfield, almost not even a small piece of forest that can cover the wind and prevent snow can be seen. There are only 9 faltering figures, marching deeper towards the snowfield at 1.1 o’clock……
In the past 11 days, nine herdsmen camped in dense forests, advancing in the snow and snow, and surviving in no-man’s land without supplies. Mamani himself once fell into a 1-meter-deep snow pile band plate. He walked through the unfrozen Glacier trembling and bypassed the vast cliff step by step. Ultraviolet rays and snow turned his face dark and red. His long beard was covered with frost and snow. The sheepskin pocket behind him was 40 kilograms when he set off, and now it weighs less than 10 kilograms.
At the moment of arriving at the finish line, Mamani revealed something hidden in his heart to everyone-why did he take part in this taxi, “I want to tell the children, no matter what difficulties they encounter in life, they should face them bravely and don’t give up. This is what skiing taught me and what I want to teach them”.
The place where the taxi ended was at the general Mountain ski resort in Altay city. This huge modern ski resort is equipped with cableways and cable cars. At the top of the highest snow trail, there is also a wooden house cafe.
Looking at the General Mountain, Mamani seemed to see her eldest daughter, ulezra, wearing veneer, and turning around on the snow road with her friends. Her younger daughter, chachira, walked into the wooden house with double plates……