 Poster: A snowHead
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A mate is coming out for a weekend in January and wants to come ski touring with us. He's a boarder and we're all skiers. What's the best solution without spending a fortune? I was thinking he could hire some snow shoes or maybe those short skis I've seen snowboarders with?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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bobinch, depends where you're going. There are advantages to each method, briefly here's my disjointed take:
(1) Snowshoes: cheapest, you'll still sink in fresh snow although less than bootpacking and you'll need to rope up on any glaciated terrain. fine if walking on slightly compact snow although you'll mess up a skin track so you'll have to walk at the back. You'll be at the back anyway though. Have to carry them on your bag and they aren't great on steep hard snow. Watch out for the attachment type I had some once that kept falling off, ones with a snowboard binding type strap are much better.
(2) Approach skis: more expensive, have to carry them on your back work pretty much like skis although not as good at holding an edge on the traverse.
(3) Splitboard: most expensive, only need the one bit of kit, still not as good as touring skis but the closest you'll get, probably lose a bit of down performance.
If I don't sell my snowshoes you can borrow them for a pint or 2, got a split board now so don't really need them anymore.
Edit to add, there was a bit more discussion on approach skis in a thread recently. It was called something like to skin or bootpack.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Swirly, thanks for that. He's super fit so will be good for him to be at the back for once! Snowshoes sound like the ticket. Another question... Can you attach crampons to snowboard boots? I'm guessing they're too soft?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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bobinch, you can attach c1 crampons with straps for the toe and heel, fine on hard packed snow although I've not tried them on ice in my snowboard boots. I think the ones I borrowed were grivel g10s.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Swirly, thanks for that. Googled Grivel g10s and that's exactly what I've got! They work fine on my stiff hiking boots but didn't think they'd hold on a snowboard boot. Good news that they do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Agree with everything Swirly said. I used MSR Denali Ascent snowshoes, which were very good but still limited by fundamentally being snowshoes! Snowshoeing in deep snow is seriously hard work. Now got a splitboard. Much better, but still not close to touring skis.
Re. crampons, I use my Grivel Airtech crampons with my snowboard boots without any problems, but I've known some people to have issues with the length/width of their boots (I'm only size UK8). Grivel do a wide version of the G10 which solves this problem.
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MSR denalis ascent are very good, I have used them alot, they grip very well on hard snow and have massive great teeth so traversing is actually OK. In many spring like touring situations where the snow is hard they are just as effective as ski touring IMO. Once on your back i dont even notice them.
As swirly and stevemcd suggested, they are limited in deep snow.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Swirly, altis, stevomcd, norris, thanks for the advice guys.
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