We too busy shreddin'

+1

Tahoe is the nuts this year

I've been skiing with my 4 year old. Shredding greens and sometimes blues!

For those who are interested, I'm going on a pretty large group trip to Ischgl, in Western Austria. Relative to most trips, this will focus much more on Apres than skiing/snowboarding.

If anyone wants to come, we have details at www.ischglpedia.com - it's pretty open to anyone who's interested and willing to be awesome.

anyone been to Banff/Lake Louise this year?

Looks like it has barely snowed over the past month .... first time out this season possibly this weekend and it'll be on hardpack, wonderful

spent 3 weeks in georgia.

Another week in Norway

I made a similar video

Here are some ski pictures from my season so far

I spent 3 weeks driving and traveling around Georgia. Skied Gudauri, Bakaruani, Tetnuldi, Hatsvaldi and also did some splitboarding.




Skied a day at Cerler in the Pyrenees in Northern Spain



Skied at Mount Hermon, Israel in February which turned out to be an amazing powder day.



Splitboarded Nord-Lenangen Lyngen in Norway in May






bread was 30c and fresh from the oven
Georgian food is delicious

thx for keeping this thread alive!

that norway couloir to the sea looks so epic



3 weeks this season (montreal, val gardena, trois vallees), not a single powder day. thx climate change

MT you are doing it right, thanks for posting and feel free to do it more often

I posted this on splitboard.com but it might be useful to someone here too. I have been perfecting my ultimate splitboard setup over the years by reducing weight hence increasing performance so I figured I would share the hours of research I have compiled.

Ultralight is a term used in long distance thru-hiking. Everyone should know that if your equipment is lighter, you will:
– Use less energy by being more efficient
– travel longer distances, gain more altitude, more laps, more fun
– be easier on your body, joints, muscles
– have more maneuverability over terrain, scrambling over rocks, bootpacking etc.
– be safer. Time is important in the backcountry. Reducing exposure to unsafe terrain.

I have weighed every piece of my gear and keep everything in a spreadsheet and have saved over 3kgs (7lbs) from my original setup. I would guess that newcomers to the sport can easily save more than 5kgs. Here is my current kit with thoughts.

Amplid Milligram 163cm 2.6kgs – The lightest splitboard on the market. Not only is it the lightest, its arguably the best in riding and skinning performance. Swapped k-clips to ranger fixed clips (50g savings).

Kohla Skins 645g – far lighter but dont grip as well as g3 high tractions

Phantom Binding Plates each 454g – Non-hardbooters I run into still often dont understand that carrying bindings in your pack while skinning is far superior to sliding your foot every step with a 500g binding attached. It is also not uncommon to see very poor skinning technique akin to lifting each foot like walking with snow shoes which makes efficiency even worse. Another benefit of this system is the ease and quickness of transitions, especially strapping bindingless skis to pack for boot packing.

Phantom solo cleats 148g – less icing, lighter again

Dynafit TLT6 Mountain Boots each size 12 1240g – obvious game changer. Enough has been written about the benefits of hardboots (walk mode, safety with crampons, kicking steps, etc etc). Hardboots also last far longer than softboots, I have literally had Deeluxe spark boots fall apart after 10 days of usage, not uncommon for people to blow through a pair a season. I also removed the metal piece from heel cup to save further weight.

(If hardboots are not your thing, then it is generally accepted that Fitwells are the best softboots although they are very heavy >1.6kg per foot)

Mammut Light Removable Airbag 3.0 30L w/o cylinder 1600grams – lightest airbag on the market as well as the cheapest. plenty of room, comfortable. Literally half the weight of fan airbags and probably a third of the price.

Carbon Cylinder 319g
Refillable Steel Cylinder 692 g

Arva Ultra Shovel 302g – small blade, not the most efficient shovel but the lightest metal bladed shovel I could find.
Mammut Barryvox Pulse 328g – I see people with 2 antenna beacons all the time and I always tell them to upgrade. This is not a piece of equipment to save money on. You will give yourself far more chance of surviving if people can locate you quicker. I am also concerned when riding with partners with 2 antenna beacons as they will take longer to find me. No brainer to upgrade for a couple of hundred bucks.
(Pieps Micro is the smallest lightest beacon 150g)
Arva 2.00 Carbon probe 98g – lightest I could find. You might get something longer and more sturdy if you do a lot of probing work.

(There are bigger shovels, and longer stronger probes here that can be substituted, I am probably going upgrade both)

Locus Gear CP3 Carbon Poles each 177g – A very underrated piece of gear. Everyone always recommends BD expeditions which weights 330g a piece. These CP3 poles are about the same price $130usd, hand made in Japan, have super quick delivery worldwide and are top quality. Widely known amongst long distance hikers as the best poles. Moving 150g less per hand thousands of times a day adds up.

Petzl Irvis Boot Crampons 330g – Half the weight of my old grivel haute routes. Comes in steel front points as well as all aluminium.
Dynafit 130mm Crampons each 115g – Another benefit to hardboots. The crampons are half the size.

Idol Ice Rock Carbon Ice Axe 188g – On my wish list, I currently use the Camp Corsa Nanotech Ice Axe 244g

Camp USA Alp racing harness 92g – or Black Diamond Couloir Harness 220g depending on situation. No need for those super heavy climbing harnesses.

Carabiner Camp HMS 2 Lock Gate 82g
Carabiner Camp HMS Compact Screw Gate 88g
Carabiner Camp Nano 22 22g
Carabiner Camp Photon Wire Straight Gate 29g
Sling 38g
ACR RESQLINK+ 162g
SOL emergency blanket 109g
500mm ski strap 26g

Petzl sirocco climbing helmet 170g – rarely take a helmet, but a climbing helmet is better than no helmet, skimo racers use these.

LED Lenser Headlamp 105g or I usually take my emergency Petzl Elite 30g

Patagonia Refugitive Jacket Goretex 424g – I often see newbies using their super heavy resort jackets that dont breathe at all. You can easily save 500g-1kg here.

Mont Bell Plasma 1000 Down Jacket 130g – well reviewed, probably has the best warmth to weight ratio of any ultralight down jacket.

Patagonia Kniferidge 538g – Again I see newbies with heavy pants with poor ventilation.

Dynafit Performance Dryarn 3/4 Tights 92g

montbell exlight wind parka 59g – I rarely take this layer off. It protects my body and head when its windy, enough for light rain.

Patagonia Capalene2 Lightweight 188g warmer days – has chest zip to regulate temperature. Breathes so well. It goes without saying that you shouldnt be wearing a t-shirt as a baselayer but I see it all the time. Usually soaked with sweat.
Patagonia Capalene3 Midweight 246g colder days

Oakley Holbrook 27g
sunglass case 59g
Julbo Aerospace goggles – I rarely wear goggles, saves time and faff transitioning but I bought a set of these for their open lens gimmick. Not totally convinced about it yet as I rarely use them for their intended purpose.

Mammut Fleece Beanie 21g – getting rid of those huge ass beanies means you can easily swap between a beanie, sun hat and buff in your pocket while on the move.
buff 30g – can wear it on your head as a headband, for wind protection on your face, neck etc.
outdoor research rain cap 22g – sun protection, lighter than a trucker hat, folds down to nothing.

montbell outdry overglove 85g
montane tornado goretex glove 112g
Hestra glove Liners 34g
salomon mountain running gloves 23g – always take a spare set of liners. They weigh nothing, and swap when one set gets wet.

Smartwool Ski socks 70g

Exped Synmat Winterlite M 447g
Katabatic Gear Grenadier 5c Quilt 850g - Switching to a quilt over a bag is a huge weight saver.

This is what I have come up with and refined over the years. I have used and tested in a fairly wide range of conditions and climates. No doubt everyone has their different preferences on fit, style, whatever, but weight is weight and less you carry up a mountain the better your day will be. I have met plenty of experienced Splitboarders/ski tourers who have simply been unaware of a lot of products on the market, such as Locus Gear CP3 poles, montbell downjackets, airbags, outerwear etc,. I’m not saying these are the best products, no doubt there are better but so far they are the best products I have used and upgraded to until now.

Seeking someone or people interested in a trip to any resort in Argentina/Chile for ~1 week starting early august. Ideally would go to Las Lenas or Bariloche over larger resorts like Portillo/etc. (Argentina > Chile imo). I speak fluent Spanish and have no issue taking care of all reservations/transport/etc. for anyone interested. I ski somewhere at a level of 9-9.5/10, but don't mind riding solo or with snowboarders depending on the situation. PM me if you're interested or have questions.

Bump??!

Need some advice. I have a week from 8/14-8/20 off where I'm dropping the kids with my in-laws. I would like to go skiing during this time. I'll be going solo. I'll be flying out of Florida, and am willing to go almost anywhere. Any ideas where the best place to ski is in South America, or if I'm better off just going to like British Columbia or Switzerland. Thanks in advance.

I'd be interested. I'm free only the 14th-20th of August

Planning a late in the season trip to Colorado. 4/8-4/12. It looks like closing dates are: Breck 4/22 and Winter Park 4/29.

Has anyone gone this late? And if so, how was it? Also thoughts on which community has more to offer as far as eating and hanging out after the lifts close.

wow, sad to see this thread has died off a bit! buuump

Looking to ride this winter for the full season, 4 months or so. Currently narrowing down where to go with focus on cost, ease of access to a variety of riding - and I guess that's about all.

One of my larger concerns being ease of access to different types of riding is I grew up riding places like mammoth and tahoe. Everything you want is at one resort (mammoth) or closeby. I'd rather not have to deal with buy/renting a car for 4 months, so being close enough to either walk or public transport to the mountain is big for me. I've never dealt with this before because I've always had a car in usa.

and then for cost - season passes never really cost more than $1500 or so, I'm more concerned about cost of living and rental apartment. Some of the nicer places in austria/swiss to be paying 20 euros for breakfast and 2k/mo for an apartment just crushes me.

Also need access to pokerstars, so america outttt.

Suggestions, open rooms, collaborations all welcome. Appreciate any info and going to post around on snowboardingforum.com as well

nvm, headed to japow

weird to see there aren't more poker player/snowboarders out there, or maybe they just stay in more private groups with friends? Same with surf/poker guys, seems like such an ideal life/work combo. I remember 10 years ago there were poker/snow houses setup in colorado, whistler, tahoe... I guess poker ain't getting any easier and spending the season riding not getting any cheaper

I have a 1br condo in Whistler, BC available for a housing swap. I'd be interested in anything from 1-2 weeks up to a couple months. Other Epic Pass resorts, golf/beach destinations, and cities (especially with live poker) all interest me.

The condo is about a 3 minute drive from Whistler Village and from the ski lifts. It's worth about $250-400 CAD per night in the winter season so I'd hope to swap for something of similar value.

PM me to discuss if you're interested. I'm super flexible on dates and locations.

does anyone have any experience skiing in bariloche, argentina, or the nearby areas ? any recommendations or spots to avoid ? would you go there for a season or too touristic and/or expensive ?

Also available this winter.

Bump for what used to be a great thread. Hope everyone has some good plans this season...

heading out to slc in january for the season. sold my older east-coast setup last year and am starting fresh. i'm thinking about getting the volkl blaze 106's as my only pair this year. i'm most concerned about having enough float in powder, but i've never tried to ski groomers in something that wide underfoot. anyone think that'll be work out? or will i just be better off in the end going two-quiver with something in the mid 90s and a 120mm. i really don't want to spend that much tho. i won't be touring but we will be hiking into side country so i like that those are super light and i can just strap them onto my pack and not worry too much.