Wandering on Hoks – A World of Tracks Written on Snow.

One of my favorite things about Hoks is how they disappear when I take them out in the snow. Disappear? Let me explain. The Hoks are easy to ski on, so do not require a lot of attention during a good winter wander. Many types of skiing demand almost constant attention. Ski technique can require […]

The Sami and Reindeer herding

I found this video the other day on Atlantic ( a great website). Sami (they use to be called Laps) are believed by many ski historians to have introduced the more modern Scandinavians (Norwegians/Swedish) to skiing. There are some ski researchers that have put forth the idea that traditional reindeer herding was only made possible […]

Hoks in Mongolia

  Skiing for Ethnoarchaeology in Mongolia In the summer of 2012, I initiated the Dukha Ethnoarchaeological Project. Ethnoarchaeology is the study of living people for the purpose of developing tools to aid in the interpretation of the archaeological record. I am an archaeologist at the University of Wyoming. I normally excavate sites of the first […]

About This Site

Skishoeing.com is the companion site to our Altai Skis.com site. We thought it would be good to have a informational site dedicated to using skishoes in the many ways people do. You will find some posts on field work being done on Hoks, kids using them (the Hokstars!), schools, and some user posts as well. We […]

Skishoes in Minnesota

Hok skiing on the North Country National Scenic Trail   I first heard of Hok skis several years ago from North Country Trail Association (NCTA) volunteers Jim & Jeri Rakness. They kept insisting that I really needed to try them out. At first, I couldn’t imagine what it was they were describing and, to be […]

Moose Population Study – Yellowstone National Park

  My wife Lisa and I initiated a 3 year non-invasive moose population study in the Northern Range of Yellowstone National Park and adjacent Custer-Gallatin National Forest in 2013. The goal of the study was to use non-invasively collected DNA to estimate population size and parameters of the northern Yellowstone moose.

Tracking cougars in Yellowstone

The National Park Service’s Yellowstone Cougar Project embraced the Hok skis for their winter field work studying Yellowstone’s most elusive large carnivore. Biologists have been conducting intensive snow-tracking surveys in Yellowstone’s rugged winter terrain to detect cougar tracks and follow them through common travel routes to bed sites, scent marking sites, and prey remains.