If the park runs at the local resort are too wimpy for your taste, your next best option as a snowboarder is to snowshoe up your favorite peak with a board on your back.
As a committed one-planker, I spent my winters happily trudging my way up Mt. Shasta with a board strapped into my fancy and expensive backcountry backpack. Happily, that is, until the moment a pack of skiers would glide past me on their way up the mountain, sliding along on their skis – then zipping down the mountain minutes later while I was still only halfway up.
I used to say that the only problem with skiing up mountains was that you had to ski back down them. Luckily, with the rise of splitboards – snowboards made of two long halves that unfasten from each other form a pair of skis – that's not the case anymore.
K2's Panoramic Splitboard kit is one such piece of hardware. It makes it possible to ski to your summit, then snowboard back down.
The kit includes the board, custom-made skins, and the Voile attachment split system, a set of discs, clips, and mounting plates that let you switch the bindings from a ski to snowboarding setup with ease. Basically, the plates mount to the bottom of any snowboard bindings and allow them to attach to the kit in snowboard format or to line up with the board halves with the pull of a mounting pin.
The skins and skis were a huge success while ascending Mount Shasta's Avalanche Gulch route in my tests. The skins bit into the snow, and the loose-heel bindings made gliding up the mountain much more comfortable (and quicker) than snowshoeing ever was.
While the skis worked well on the way up, the big concern was the ride down. How would a snowboard with a split down the middle ride? Amazingly well, it turns out.
The board comes together with clips at the nose and tail, two levers about a foot down the board, and directly underneath the bindings. The result is a stiff, responsive float down the mountain. The edges had plenty of bite, and the board/binding interface was much more responsive than I'd anticipated. There was some compromise: the nose clip came undone during an especially icy descent and I had to stop and reclip. Also, the bindings are elevated about an inch off the board, so first-time splitboarders will have to adjust to a different feel, but the transition was quick. Finally, the board's clips tend to get icy on the way up. It took a few minutes to loosen them up enough to put the board together. A few cold-ass minutes, since I had to take my gloves off to transition from skis to board.
Minor annoyances aside, the benefits of going up the mountain faster, easier, and without the bulk on your back are definitely worth the tradeoffs. I don't plan on wearing snowshoes any time in the near future.
WIRED Ski up a mountain without having to ski down. Mechanically easy transition from skis to board. Feels very close to a non-split snowboard.
TIRED Slight adjustment period to binding height. Components tend to get icy while skiing. Tough to assemble with gloves on.