Gnubbs Blog

In my last post, I explained how I decided I needed a splitboard and how I came to buy one. At this point you might be thinking…

What on Earth is a Splitboard?

Here is the idea. I want something that I can ride down the hill like a snowboard, but then climb up the hill like skis. (Yeah, skis can go up hill. More on that in a minute.) Most snowboarders choose to either boot pack — just stomping up hill. That gets old fast with a small amount of powder and quickly becomes impossible as the snow gets deeper. The other choice is snowshoes. I have been on snowshoes once, and decided they suck. They just don’t work that well, and are way slower than a skier with skins.

The solution is a splitboard. It locks together into a snowboard for going down hill, but then splits apart like skis for going uphill. Maybe some photos will help.

So, that is the core of it. When in ski mode, the heels of the bindings are free. Put climbing skins on the bottom and you are ready to cover some distance. (Climbing skins are goofy strips of fabric with glue on one side and hair on the other. The hair is directional — one direction is sticks the other direction it slides. This allows you to kit forward, and then allow the skin to glide.)

Here is a shot of the interface. In snowboard mode, the binding slides across the two pucks and is held in place by a pin. In touring mode, the binding goes on the brackets in the middle of the board and the same pin is used to hold the toe in place.

That is the idea behind split boards. They seem like a kludge when you look at them, but in reality the system works well. It is very secure in both modes, and the transition is pretty quick. They are very wide and stable when using them as skies (but also slow and heavy.) As a snowboard, this board is heavy but handles very, very well. It plows through just about everything, but still initiates turns very quickly.

I will provide a more in depth review once I have a few days riding in and out of bound.

The Problem:

Snowboarding at the resorts is fun. The problem is that the drive is too long, the resorts are too crowded, and the powder gets skied off way to fast. Plus, it is kinda like Disneyland there. You get a flavor for what it is like to snowboard, but are left thinking that there must be more.

The truth is that there is more — millions and millions of acres more. Hidden in the National Parks, Wilderness Areas, National Forests, and BLM land is basically an infinite amount of runs to ride. The problem is getting there. Skiers have a wide variety of options for getting up hills, but snowboarders have very few.

The Story:

On Saturday, me and my buddy Eric were planning on going up to Vail to get some love from the foot or so of powder they got on Thursday. I decided that I was tired of only hearing the wind in my ears, when I could be riding to sweet, sweet death metal. So I mentioned to Eric that I was going to be buying headphone/ear pads for my helmet. He asked me to pick up a pair for him as well.

After work, I first headed to Boulder Ski Deals and then REI. Neither of them had what I was looking for. As a last ditch effort, I thought I would try this little snowboard shop in town that I had never been to. So, I drag Stephanie to one last shop - All Board Sports.

When I show him my helmet and explain what I am trying to do, he points out a couple of things. First, that my helmet doesn’t have replaceable ear pads so I can’t put in headphones. (Hasn’t he ever heard of drilling out rivets and being a dirtbag snowboarder?) Next, he points to the scratches and missing bits of my helmet and tells me I should really replace it. Although that is a definately a good idea, I explain that I am hoping to buy a splitboard in the coming weeks and need to save my money.

I think at this point, his eyes light up just a bit. He starts to ask me about what I am looking at (a Voile Mountain Gun) and he tells me I don’t want to buy the Voile. I ask what he would recommend, and he pulls out a Prior 178 Swallow Tail.

About this time, one of his coworkers walks up with some beers, and he offers me one. “No, if I drink a beer I am going to buy a snowboard.” He smiles, cracks open a beer, and hands it to me. I ask what else he has in stock around a 165, and he brings out a Prior Backcountry 165 Split and a Prior Khyber 165 Split.

Stephanie at this point tells me that I should just buy it so that I shut up and she doesn’t have to listen to me talking about it anymore. After a bit of deliberation and talking about which board I prefer, I settle on the Prior Khyber 165. I lay down my credit card, and a bit over $1k later I have myself a new snowboard.

Continue on to the next post…

As of yesterday, I am happy to say that I have snowboarded as many days this winter as I managed to all last winter. So far I have rode 4 days at Breckenridge, 1 day at Keystone, and 1 day backcountry at Rocky Mountain National Park.

Unfortunately, this has a lot more to do with how crappy my season was last year than how good this season is. All of my friends have goals for how many days they want to get in this season, but I don’t really. My goal is to get in as many good days as I can. That might mean 10 days, that might mean 30 days. I am hoping for more like 30…

Along those lines, JT and I are taking an Avalanche course this weekend. It is a couple hours of class room work on Friday night, all day saturday and sunday in Rocky Mountain National Park. It will cover understanding how terrain affects avalanche risk, understanding the snow pack, predicting how risky a slope is, travelling safely, and rescuing someone who is caught in a slide. I am sure it will cover more, and I am mostly looking forward to spending time in the back country with an experienced guide. At the very least, they always have good stories.

I will hopefully write a bit more about the class after the fact. Hopefully I will never have to write my post about going for a ride.