I've been skiing since I was a kid, but the last few years have picked up snowboarding. My favourite style of riding is trees and powder, which snowboarding is ideal for... So this year I've decided to take it off the resorts back to where snowboarding originated from, and where the real epic powder/trees is: off-piste. With the advent of splitboards it no longer means us boarders are left to slowly trudge up the hills on snowshoes.
Basically, the snowboard splits in half to create two touring skiis with a binding that hinges on the front just like a telemark or touring ski binding. You put skins on the bottom just like touring skiis to stop sliding backwards, and when you get to the top you remove the skins, put the board back together and snowboard back down.
For my board I'm getting the 2010 AMF Splitboard from Prior. It's designed to be agile for quick turns in trees, and the hybrid rocker design lets it float through the powder. It's also twin tipped, so I can still ride switch. It should be here in a week or so, I can't wait! The guys at Prior have been super helpful, and it's great to be buying from a local company. I'm getting the 'Autumn' top sheet with the black/red bottom, which will look like the pic on the right, except with mounting gear on it!
The Binding situation has traditionally been a system of slider plates that you bolt a normal snowboard binding to, which then attaches to your board. This causes the bindings to be higher than normal and slightly less rigid than a normal binding, but a company called Spark R&D has developed a binding purpose built for splitboarding that removes the extra complexity and brings the binding back to where it should be - they claim you get a ride that's as low and stuff as a standard snowboard binding, and from user reviews i've read it seems they live up to it. We'll see soon enough! I've ordered the Fuse with my board.
This weekend I'm off to MEC to pickup the rest of my gear - Avalanche probe, Transceiver, Shovel. For the tranceiver I'm most likely going to pickup a Mammut PULSE. It's a nice 3 antenna transceiver that has good multi burial aid, a good range, and gets good reviews.
That's about it. Me and Eric are off to do our AST1 Avalanche training course on the 12th/13th, and then we'll be hitting the snow after that. Pictures and stories will likely follow! For any skiers out there, Eric is on skis - and has posted a similar post about what he's picking up in the way of backcountry ski gear.