Backcountry riding at it's finest!

By Walt Walter March 20, 2009

I stopped skiing 16 years ago because snowboarding just had more appeal, especially at the resorts. However, I was always at a disadvantage on a snowboard when it came to backcountry riding. I usually had to swallow my pride and strap into some skis again. I've used snowshoes with limited success, but the rest of my party usually ended up waiting for me at the top of the runs.

A few weeks ago I used a Burton S Series Split Board for the field portion of an avalanche 1 certification class. I'm sold. No more lagging behind everyone, no more slowing the whole trip down, no more fumbling with the switch to snowshoes at the top of the ridge. With the S Series Split Board, the change over from skinning up to riding down was a breeze, and the riding was never sweeter.

This is basically a Burton Custom split down the middle with a few extra pieces of hardware to hold the board together. It's lightweight and good for varied snow conditions. While the people on skis complained about poor snow conditions I was loving the added stability of a wide board. I still felt like I was a little behind everyone else during the change over to riding down. However, no one had to wait for me to make the switch and start down.

You have to buy a Voile binding interface and some skins and getting everything dialed takes a little while. But once you get used to the system the change over is pretty fast. And I never felt like the board stiffness was compromised by the split.

View Details: Burton S Series Split Snowboard

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