This weekend saw the official return of the unusual Czech sport of “autoskijöring” to the mountainous region of Kozákov in Czech Paradise.
Roughly translated as “ski driving” this snow sport isn’t really Czech at all; it’s of Scandinavian origin and typically involves a skier being towed along by a horse or dogs.
The extreme version replaces the animals with small motorized vehicles, a souped-up VW Golf for instance, whizzing along at top speeds with a brave skier roped to the back of the vehicle.
The sport, which possibly originated in Germany, is now a regular fixture on the Czech extreme winter sports circuit although, as you can see from this video from the 1960s, it does have a bit of history in the Czech lands.
The main annual Czech competition devoted to the sport took a hiatus last year due to lack of snow. This past weekend saw the return of the Krkonošský pohár (Giant Mountains Cup) to the Liberec-region autoskijöring track.