Good weekend in Tahoe...

[NoKnees]

Well, it didn't snow going into the weekend as originally hoped for, but no worries... The backcountry had everything from windblown powder to spring corn... Good times..

The Couloir magazine Splitfest was a success... Anywhere from 40-60 splitboards showed up from around the country to exchange notes, meet factory reps, fondle equipment, and earn some turns in the Tahoe backcountry...

Oh, and there were a couple old-timers that showed up for a few turns with us as well.... Saturday had breakfast in the lodge with Tom Burt and Jim Zellers... Way cool guys... Did part of a tour with them on Saturday, but my sea-level desk job conditioning program couldn't keep up. While Tom, Jim, and some of the better conditioned Tahoe splitters went off for another couple thousand vert, I and some other enjoyed some of our own turns on the way back to the cars... Definitely a good time...

Tom had to head back early, but Jim joined us all later in the evening for a few rounds of beers and some chit chat... Definitely a way cool guy... Totally down to earth and just overall 'cool'....

Sunday we took some mellow shorters trips off the backside of Sugar Bowl and enjoyed some more fresh tracks...

Anyway, Winterstick has officially jumped into the split marked (helped by Tom and Jim) and their boards look pretty nice. Tom and Jim were ripping with them, but those guys could out ride most people while duck taped to a dinner tray... Nice looking boards, and solid....

Burton sent just a sample deck, basically the same as last years mdoels but now they are using Voile interface, after just too many years of issues with their own...

Prior is still the king of splitboard choices. Great stuff from ST's, freeride, Kyhber(fishy'ish but better)... They gave away one board at the raffle Sat night as well..

Voile was there with a good selection as well. New for this year their "Mountain Gun" series which is stiffer with a little less sidecut... Basically a better board for non Utah pow... So, better for the rest of us...

Fin from Bomber was there showing off his split bindings for the hardboot folks... Even showed some "Special" Ti versions for those weight freaks... Those work great for snowboard hard boots, TLT, Dynafit, you name it... Definitely a few folks like this setup for the approach and positive control on the steap nasty stuff...

Mammut was there demoing Baryvox beacons, and some other cool outdoor stuff. Lotta nice clothes...

Marmot kicked down some stuff to give away, and will be a larger supporter in the coming year...

I'm sure I missed some of the other contributers... Anyway, good time... I don't have any good pics as my wife had the good camera... Shot a tiny bit of minidv, so I'll try to grab a shot or two from there...

Anyway, good times... Definitely a bit more stoked on the working for turns these days... Fresh tracks 4+ days after the last snow is a nice thing in the Tahoe area...

[canuck]

sounds very cool!!

I like the imagery of being duct taped to a dinner tray also..full props on that one!!

[Tantrum]

It's been weeks since the last storm here and there you are getting fresh tracks 4+ days after the storm and on a weekend with a demo no less! Arggghh!

[NoKnees]

It's been weeks since the last storm here and there you are getting fresh tracks 4+ days after the storm and on a weekend with a demo no less! Arggghh!

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I wasn't demoing any boards at the time... I already demo'd them a couple weeks earlier at Kirkwood.. One of the other guys I was riding with was playing with a Prior 172 MFR split... Definitely a nice board, but at that size in soft snow he needed a little speed to make it dance nicely...

But yes, it's nice to find freshies a few days after the last storm. Just have to be willing to work a little for'em... Totally worth it...

Oh, and all I got were crappy stills from my vid camera... So I didn't bother taking many... Here they are though...

Oh, and in pic 2 the guys milling around the cars are (from left to right), ?, Chris(BCrider on other boards), Tom Burt (his car), and Jim Zellers... Nice to see Tom still sporting the old Subaru...

[Tantrum]

No more pictures of freshies.;)

Nice to see Tom still sporting the old Subaru...

That is old school indeed. Even has the requisite rust.

[NoKnees]

Forgot to mention my worst moment on the trip... About 2/3 the way down a nice little 400ft section of freshies my hat blew off. Had to pull the e-brake and hike back up to get it... totally ruined the flow... I was quite bitter... But, I did get first tracks and small cornice drop on the previous run, so I got over it quickly...

[Tantrum]

I can't hear you. <--Said in my best Pee Wee Herman voice.

[NoKnees]

I can't hear you. <--Said in my best Pee Wee Herman voice.

So we'll go with the visual approach... Someone else was asking where we road, I touched up the "target.jpg" photo with our lines. I have it on video where I zoomed in on some of our tracks, but I don't have that on the computer yet...

Red track was my deviation, thin blue was the route most everyone else took... Face was a little thin up top, but not bad lower, and better back towards the trees...

[NoKnees]

sounds very cool!!

I like the imagery of being duct taped to a dinner tray also..full props on that one!!

Yah, I'd actually pay good money to see Burt or Zellers ride a dinner tray... Maybe if we had a few more beers Saturday night it could have happened.. Ah well..

Anyway, trying to link to some images I just tossed up on http://www.fatimages.com/ .. free image site, but don't know how long they'll last there..






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[Ripzalot]

looks great! love that bluebird sky in every pic. did you get any pics of the new boards? i'd like to see that "mountain gun". i'm looking for a splitboard in the 175-180 range. got any leads on such a board?

another stellar 3 days on my swallowtail. after i "come down" i'll post something up...

[Tantrum]

Why do I keep looking at this thread?

[NoKnees]

You know, I didn't take any close pictures of the Mountain Gun... I was a bit bitter about not having my regular camera and ended up not taking a lot of the photos I might have. It should be up on Voile's site real soon though... I may get my hands on pics from someone else who was there though.. I'll look into it and report what I find out..

As far as big split boards go, your choices will be the larger of the two Voile Mountain guns, think it's in the mid 17x range, all mountain. Voile also has a 178ST, but it's not as stiff as the Mountain gun series...

Never Summer will make any of their current line of boards in a split, and customize it with additional stiffness if you want, but you really don't need to add anything as they start stiffer than Voile's regular boards, and about the same as the Mountain Guns.

Prior has the biggest line and specs are all current on their website.. Their regular splits are based on their MFR line, they have swallowtails, and their Khyber line as a great mix of pow and all mountain. I'm a big fan of the Khyber 165, as it floats like a 175+, but turns like a 162... Still has stiff enough tail that it you don't notice that it is a hair shorter than a standard freeride board. A huge plus with Prior as well is you can spend an extra $100 and they'll use Quad-glass as opposed to the standard tri-glass giving it a little more stiffness, and saving a noticeable amount of weight...

Winterstick, well, I'm waiting to see the actual specs on their split boards. The next issue of Couloir mag should have a full review of all the new boards, including specs, etc... They were testing them all last week in Tahoe.. They did manage to blow up one Voile board, but it was under extreme circumstances...

[Ripzalot]

NK, thanks for the info. i'm in scramble mode right now trying to find something before my buddy comes out in two weeks. probably not going to happen but i'm searchin. i was checking out that splitboard site and the idea of splitting a 4807 sounds interesting. if i could pick up another cheap 178 i might go that route. how do you rate the stiffness of the 4807 vs these other boards? does the split process change that much?

[NoKnees]

NK, thanks for the info. i'm in scramble mode right now trying to find something before my buddy comes out in two weeks. probably not going to happen but i'm searchin. i was checking out that splitboard site and the idea of splitting a 4807 sounds interesting. if i could pick up another cheap 178 i might go that route. how do you rate the stiffness of the 4807 vs these other boards? does the split process change that much?

So far only one person has split the 4807, and his thoughts were all positive on it. It's a bit tirickier with the hull shaped nose, but other than that it's all good.

The question about stiffness is that it doesn't change the stiffness much at all.. I would say that the splitting the 4807 will give you a board stiffer than the normal Voile ST, and stiffer than the normal Prior. The newer Prior's with the Quad-glass will be lighter and stiffer than either of the above two boards..

Now, how much touring are you planning? You will miss out a little on the edges in firm snow and on traverses in ski-mode. But if it's only in soft snow, you'll be fine..

Good luck with it!

[Ripzalot]

Now, how much touring are you planning?

how much? quite a lot if i had the equipment. as you might imagine, the touring potential here is vast and immense. in the late spring / early summer, it would be a great gap-season sport.

You will miss out a little on the edges in firm snow and on traverses in ski-mode. But if it's only in soft snow, you'll be fine..

i'm not clear on what you mean here..... what is the problem in ski-mode?

[NoKnees]

Factory split boards give you metal edges on all sides. If you split the board yourself, those straight middle edges have no metal, just the exposed core that you'll want to seal yourself with some kind of slow dry 2-part epoxy or a few coats of polyurethane..

So, in ski mode, with a factory split you get full metal edges to help you dig in on traverses, etc... Basically guranteed always 2 metal edges, 1 per ski in the snow. With a home-brew split, you'll just have one metal edge digging into the hill... You can still get some leverage and purchase with the non-metal edge, but it's definitely not quite the same. Even with metal edges, the setup with soft boots lacks the edge leverage you get with normal skis resulting in some side slipping if you aren't carefull. The one way around this is grab a pair of the Voile split-crampons to go with your setup, or make your own. They'll keep you from side slipping on traverses, or back slipping going up hill.

If that didn't clear it up, I'll grab a photo of my board up tonight and post it for you...

[Ripzalot]

Factory split boards give you metal edges on all sides. If you split the board yourself, those straight middle edges have no metal, just the exposed core that you'll want to seal yourself with some kind of slow dry 2-part epoxy or a few coats of polyurethane..

So, in ski mode, with a factory split you get full metal edges to help you dig in on traverses, etc... Basically guranteed always 2 metal edges, 1 per ski in the snow. With a home-brew split, you'll just have one metal edge digging into the hill... You can still get some leverage and purchase with the non-metal edge, but it's definitely not quite the same. Even with metal edges, the setup with soft boots lacks the edge leverage you get with normal skis resulting in some side slipping if you aren't carefull. The one way around this is grab a pair of the Voile split-crampons to go with your setup, or make your own. They'll keep you from side slipping on traverses, or back slipping going up hill.A

If that didn't clear it up, I'll grab a photo of my board up tonight and post it for you...

good point. i didn't realize that factory splitboards had full metal edges. ok, nix the DIY split idea....

[NoKnees]

Don't nix it completely... I'm about to do one for a second board for less than ideal powder conditions... Lotta folks do just fine with them. Just be aware that they can be a little more work on icy or firm/off camber traverses...

There are some folks out there that have their own split kit that actually cuts the board into three peices... Gives you narrower approach type skis that fit in ski tracks better, and are lighter.. but you are left with a long narrow center section on your back...