Just going to leave this here

[Morwax]

I snowboard, and I've never skied. Not even once. I snowboard because I prefer standing sideways
so many skiers are such douche-bags about it.

Well said, no bias here

 

[Nick]

Haha, I'm pretty sure every commentator on that Liftopia blog post is from AlpineZone :lol:

I see bobbutts, dmc, conwayeast .... :lol:

 

[dmc]

Well said, no bias here

funny...
You act like a total "tool" but I don't think all people that ski are "tools"...

Did you get hit on the head and suddenly your brain thought it was in 1991?

 

[Morwax]

funny...
You act like a total "tool" but I don't think all people that ski are "tools"...

Did you get hit on the head and suddenly your brain thought it was in 1991?

Naaa.. a tool is someone who gets butthurt about everything posted on the internet. You dont seem to be able to control your emotions very well with all the attempts at insults. Am I a tool? Yes I am a tool.. Im a BS meter!

 

[fbrissette]

My friends don't complain about my transition time..

And my friends that Tele did the Haute Rt a few years ago - it was only AT gear..
Tele was rare from what I heard.. I know people that split a ton of routes...

But...
whatever... Skiers win.... Is that what you want? because again... I'm good with that..

This has nothing to do with winning. I did actually snowboard a while back (when it was cool - got back into skiing with my kid). Nearly half of my buddies are on snowboards. My best backcountry partner is on a splitboard. This thread is about some inherent limitations of snowboards. Nothing else. I mean no disrespect whatsoever to snowboarders.

On most backcountry outings a splitboard (or regular board with snowshoes) is perfectly adequate. We don't complain about waiting, but we do in fact wait after snowboarders in the backcountry. When you do a single up and down, once at the top, you change, you drink, you eat and nobody minds the waiting.

With respect to the haute route, here's an example of an answer from an experienced guide:

To the split board question, it is possible to do either route with a split board if the boarder is very strong and competent, and very fast and efficient in his/her transitions. Possible, but there are several issues. First, the route is travers-y by nature with lots of flat sections and long stretches of up-and-down terrain. Dealing with terrain where a skier can skate for a few hundred yards or sort of "walk" along on flat ground for a while, is tricky with a split board, especially where such sections are long enough and complex enough that the boarder might have to do multiple transitions where the skiers need do none. Second, there is usually a lot of traversing or zig-zagging uphill on firm steep slopes, and the soft boots combined with the width of split-board "skis" make it quite hard to hold an edge while skinning on this terrain, and it also puts a lot of stress on the bindings. We've seen several binding failures in these situations. Finally, the boarder would need to make sure both that he/she could find boot crampons that fit and stay on the boots, and also ski crampons that would work with the split board. In short I would say that in a private group, where everyone is buddies and willing to wait for each other, it could work, again provided you can work out the boot and ski crampon issues.

 

[dmc]

I have a hard boot/plate setup for anything other than SlackCountry..
They fit my crampons... Works great!

 

[dmc]

Naaa.. a tool is someone who gets butthurt about everything posted on the internet. You dont seem to be able to control your emotions very well with all the attempts at insults. Am I a tool? Yes I am a tool.. Im a BS meter!

tool...

 

[Cannonball]

This thread is about some inherent limitations of snowboards. Nothing else.

Actually it's not about that at all. It's a thread is about the plateau of snowboarder numbers at recreational downhill areas. Someone twisted it into a discussion about skis vs snowboards as a tool. For recreational, downhill activities that's a pretty weak limb to climb out on to make a case for one being a better "tool" than the other. But when making a sweeping generalizations across a broad range of activities "skis" have the semantic advantage of encompassing a wide range of definitions where "snowboard" is a more specific term. When you lump XC, BC, AT, Alpine, Tele, etc into the term "ski"....yup you get a pretty wide range of capabilities. I wonder how many GS skis and park skis are used for military purposes. And I'd sure rather skin uphill on my splitboard than my alpine skis.

 

[dmc]

And I'd sure rather skin uphill on my splitboard than my alpine skis.

Gotta love that wall2wall carpeting from those fat skins...

 

[Nick]

Actually it's not about that at all. It's a thread is about the plateau of snowboarder numbers at recreational downhill areas. Someone twisted it into a discussion about skis vs snowboards as a tool. For recreational, downhill activities that's a pretty weak limb to climb out on to make a case for one being a better "tool" than the other. But when making a sweeping generalizations across a broad range of activities "skis" have the semantic advantage of encompassing a wide range of definitions where "snowboard" is a more specific term. When you lump XC, BC, AT, Alpine, Tele, etc into the term "ski"....yup you get a pretty wide range of capabilities. I wonder how many GS skis and park skis are used for military purposes. And I'd sure rather skin uphill on my splitboard than my alpine skis.

I for one could care less if someone is on a snowboard, a splitboard, a monoski, teles, powder skis, GS skis, sled dogs, an inflatable tube (well maybe the last one).

I do think snowboarding is seeing a decline in popularity. That's pretty obvious. But it's not going to go away. And in some ways a decline or lessening in popularity of snowboards might ironically make it more "cool" again. Kind of like Tele, but in an underground way.

I don't see the need to rip on anyone for their choice. Is a snowboard as easy on a traverse? Hell no. But if someone has a snowboard and wants to do it ... well go nuts. It's their choice.

It's like iPhone vs. Android. I just don't really get it. I prefer Android but i don't "hate" on iPhone users. Whatevs.

 

[Cannonball]

It's like iPhone vs. Android. I just don't really get it. I prefer Android but i don't "hate" on iPhone users. Whatevs.

You're missing the point Nick. The military uses Blackberry so therefore Blackberry IS a "superior tool" there's really not a debate to be had, and it's not an anti-iphone or Android statement and it's not an "opinion", it's a fact.

 

[Bene288]

The popularity will come back. It's just like any other fad. It peaks, fizzles, burns out then peaks again. Most of my friends snowboard. But I'm from that generation when skiing was lame and snowboards were the coolest thing. I picked up skiing because all of my friends were snowboarding. A rebellion inside a rebellion I guess. That and I could hardly stand up on a board. Skiing will be lame again. I'd ride with some of the 90's snowboard rats over the new trick skiers any day.

 

[witch hobble]

"Lazinessifying"???? Nick???? I think you just proved your own point. Grab a thesaurus dude!

Bubbles burst. Flames die out. Evolution happens. Snowboarding will survive because it is fun. People bitch about inane bullshit in forums and comment sections attached to articles in order to fill the gaping voids in their souls.

 

[C-Rex]

Morwax does it to fill the gaping void between his legs...

sorry, I couldn't resist Truth is, no matter how much bitching I do here, I'd ride with any of you and buy you all a beer after, becuase you all live to slide on the snow, and that's what it's all about. :grouphug:

 

[Nick]

"Lazinessifying"???? Nick???? I think you just proved your own point. Grab a thesaurus dude!

Bubbles burst. Flames die out. Evolution happens. Snowboarding will survive because it is fun. People bitch about inane bullshit in forums and comment sections attached to articles in order to fill the gaping voids in their souls.

I must have a huge void.

 

[Nick]

sorry, I couldn't resist Truth is, no matter how much bitching I do here, I'd ride with any of you and buy you all a beer after, becuase you all live to slide on the snow, and that's what it's all about. :grouphug:

+1

 

[BenedictGomez]

I'm sorry, I didn't realize that the fact that skis are better for military and SAR purposes, that that makes it a "fact" that skis are the better tool for everyone to use to travel down a mountain. There are no "facts" when it's up to the individual to decide what the best tool for the job is. Some people prefer snowboards as the best tool for getting down the mountain.

There is a helluva lot more to a snow tool than "getting down a mountain", which, you of course know.

There's getting UP the mountain, there's traversing ACROSS perhaps hundreds of yards of flats, there's maneuvering through endless fields of uneven uphill/downhill terrain etc...

You know all of this of course, and are being intentionally obtuse ostensibly for the purpose of making a self-righteous point that doesn't need making in the first place. Nobody is saying there is anything wrong or bad with or about snowboarding, but to claim somehow that a snowboard is as superior of an alpine tool as skis is simply ridiculous.

I do think snowboarding is seeing a decline in popularity. That's pretty obvious. But it's not going to go away.

I think the next snowboard boom will happen a few years after that ~10 year chunk of people that started snowboarding when it was "cool" start to have kids. You have TONS of snowboarders that are roughly 23 to 33 years old, and it seems logical to me that if the parents snowboard, they'll put kids into snowboard lessons when they're 5 or 6. One potential obstacle to that hypothesis is the mentality that seems to exist among both skiers and snowboarders that it's "better to start a kid on skis first" than on a snowboard.

 

[fbrissette]

Truth is, no matter how much bitching I do here, I'd ride with any of you and buy you all a beer after, becuase you all live to slide on the snow, and that's what it's all about. :grouphug:

I'll drink to that. Especially if the 'slow to transition' and 'unable to traverse in steep icy conditions' snowboarders pay the first round !

 

[BenedictGomez]

The popularity will come back. It's just like any other fad. It peaks, fizzles, burns out then peaks again. Most of my friends snowboard. But I'm from that generation when skiing was lame and snowboards were the coolest thing. I picked up skiing because all of my friends were snowboarding. A rebellion inside a rebellion I guess.

I'm SUCH a nonconformist, that I'm NOT going to conform to the rest of you!


[video]http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/154495/goth-served[/video]

 

[dmc]

There's getting UP the mountain, there's traversing ACROSS perhaps hundreds of yards of flats, there's maneuvering through endless fields of uneven uphill/downhill terrain etc...

Sounds like my entire week in Kashmir.. Add in the altitude while your at it...

In fact it sounds like my last trip to Jackson too.. Spent most of the week OB on split.

One thing is yes - on a splitboard you need to understand that things are different between 1 and 2 planks and different lines may be thought of for approaches and exits... Traverses do suck and they need to maintain some downhill because we can't skate - problem with traversin is it can cramp you up being in that posisition so you need to be able to switch to relieve the pain.. But I can traverse the headwall at Tucks pretty well.. Have gone from Sluice into the Chute a bunch of times.. Just need speed for any little uphills..