Lake Effect Sports

01/23/2026

Review of the Kom in this great article ;)

"In an office nestled amongst the rolling pine-perfumed hills of north-central Washington, not far from the Canadian border, Nils Larsen, a veteran of the ski world for the better part of four decades, talks about skiing–minimalist, backcountry, free-heel skiing."

Uniquely blending a cross-country downhill ethos with direct influence from skiers of Central Asia, Altai Skis marks a liberating contrast to the mainstream ski discourse.

12/19/2025

I reached my goal of selling 20 pairs of skis for the Winter of 24/25 and a few more before 2026 ;) With that goal reached, I just donated $10 per pair to POW Canada ($200). It was good timing as Arc'teryx is doubling all donations right now!
So $400 to Protect Our Winters Canada

Climate action seems to have taken a back-burner for obvious reasons these days. POW does a great job on keeping that conversation going.

Happy Holidays and thank-you for supporting my small Altai ski dealer biz. Here's to another amazing Winter!

Kyle

Mobilizing the Outdoor Community in Canada

12/01/2025

Customer's son getting his first tour on the 145cm Hoks in late November ;)

03/03/2025

Had a great time with the crew at Limberlost on Saturday for World Telemark Day! The snow gods were good to us with new snow overnight which made for some fast and fun conditions. Terrain was amazing. So good to meet and ski with fellow forest sliders. Look forward to playing there again! If u are curious about free heelin’ tree ski touring in Ontario definitely pay wwhsta.org a visit. And as always if u want to demo some Altai skis let me know❄️⛷💙

https://www.instagram.com/p/DGt8d7Iv7kS/

01/12/2025

Weekend slide and thoughts on the new 165cm Altai Tao

01/03/2025

https://www.instagram.com/p/DEXuA3kPcgX/

10/08/2024

https://www.instagram.com/p/DA4JLPRvzZb/

08/28/2024

Can't wait to try the Tao!

We have a new ski for this coming season. We call it the Tao which means mountain in the Altai. We have been testing on it since last spring. It runs about 10mm narrower than the Hoks (100mm in the waist). There is a integrated skin in the base and also inserts like the Hok. We also added a binding retention layer like the Koms to direct mount a wide selection of bindings. More downhill focused but still an excellent tourer.

02/15/2024

Nice review on the hoks from last March. Note on the skins: they can be replaced quite easily if needed.. but they do last a long time. My hoks from 2015 are still in good shape ;)

The incredibly versatile Altai Hoks open up a world of cross country skiing, and make it huge fun

01/08/2024

https://www.instagram.com/p/C12F03Sr5I8/

09/07/2023

I have recently signed up as a POW climate athlete team member where I will take part in monthly challenges in support of their program for climate action. The year 2030 is a crucial year for climate action both in Canada and around the world. Climate plans are being made, but we must meet our climate goals. I will post more about the monthly challenges in this program this coming winter.

To further my support for POW Canada and their pursuit of protecting winter, I pledge to donate $20 from each pair of skis I sell in 2023/24 to POW Canada.

More info at: https://lakeeffectsports.ca/POW-Canada-and-climate-action

Thankyou Marcus Quintiliano for getting this photo. I hope to ski with you again this season ;)

04/07/2021

Taking pre-order deposits on Hoks/Koms for next winter. Have till April 20th to put together my order. If interested pls email me at [email protected] thks ;)