Weston

Backwoods Carbon Splitboard - 2022

Split Pow for more then just pow

Familiarity:

I've put it through the wringer

Size Bought:

160

Height:

5' 1"

Weight:

185

Backwoods 160 Carbon Split Rider: Male 5?10 185 LBS (Not including pack) Boots: Phantom Atomic Backland Pro 27.5 Bindings: Phantom M6 Skins: Jones Nomad Pro I decided to test the Backwoods Carbon 160 split and Ridgeline 162 split in the same 4 zones in Tahoe in early December. Generally for 3 of the 4 zones you start around 6600? and summit at around 9000?. Early season brings variable and elevation dependent snow. With some storms and zones you can yo-yo the top ° to 2/3 of the area, have lunch, and get the better snow at the higher elevations. This worked out great for testing these boards in great snow up top and difficult snow at the bottom. The uphill. The first 800?-900? were firm on the skin track, which is pretty standard for the skin track in this zone. I?m generally pretty quick to put on my Split Crampons around here as I?ve been humbled too many times. These days were no different. About 200? before the bench the wetter ?Sierra Cement? transitioned into classic blower pow on many of the early days. I was a bit concerned with how a board with so much taper, and designed for Pow, would handle touring up steep, frozen hard pack shin tracks. I tried multiple different styles of kick turns and round turns. The board toured uphill great with the perfect toe piece placement giving you a slight upward angle as you lifted your foot. I thought the shape might prove difficult when following a established skin track but this wasn?t an issue, even when we encountered breakable crust. The Ride. There was a ton of SWE and snow density changes within the upper snowpack between storms and during storms as well. The Backwoods did great in all of them. If there was one condition that it didn?t perform well on it was when we?d get it to the elevations where it rained on top of snow. It felt classically sluggish and slow in those conditions, but most of the boards I?ve been on in these conditions felt that way. It didn?t help this was in flatter terrain. On the lower elevation, variable frozen ice tracks I knew we would encounter I was pretty skeptical, especially for a carbon board and a hard boot set up. While this certainly was a standout as far as performance, no turning ice to pow here, I was generally impressed with how this tapered, carbon, stiff, set up was able to keep and edge and blast over the frozen used snow. It was significantly better then some of the other boards I?ve used in these same conditions. The board has great energy and dampening at higher speed traverses and holds an edge great. This is only the 5th carbon I?ve tried. I did not notice a big difference in torsional rigidity or overall stiffness in comparison to the solid non carbon version. I think that?s one of the best things about this board is you can demo or buy the solid version first then bring it to the backcountry. I?ve demo?d, rented, borrowed, tested, used, and worked on somewhere around 15-18 different split boards from 7 different manufacturers. Most boards were pretty good but had one area of needed improvement. The Backwoods 160 Carbon Split is now my go to board when I?m Guiding in the Snowcat. If I knew I was on a bit more variable conditions or with less snow I?d use the Ridgeline 162. You really can?t go wrong with either of these in the solid or split versions. They are backed by a 4 year warranty which from a guiding perspective is a great added luxury. I?m careful with my equipment but on it often. I?m confident on this board and highly recommend it, especially if your going to be on good snow. TW