BC Snowboarding tips

Hi all, I am new here to TAY. I have been riding "BC" for several years, hiking out of bounds up Big Chief mountain from Stevens mostly plus a few cat trips. I snowboard, and I would really like to get in on some early season Rainier action. Is a split board really the way to go, is it required? As pointed out in another thread, post holeing past your knees is ridiculous, so other than perhaps a set of snow shoes I don't know how the climb would work out. Any thoughts?

You'd do better to post this in the Random Tracks thread, a few lines north on your screen...

For what it's worth, all of my snowboarding friends who don't use an AT or Tele setup in the backcountry have splitboards. I can't imagine being able to fully "function" on snowshoes, for the long term. If you haven't taken a basic avalanche safety course though, that should be your first investment.

You wont keep up with yours friends without a split board.

Plus..snowshoes are killer on the hold hip tendons...lifting your big heavy foot w/ attached sloppy powder.

From my experience skiing with snowboarders Split Boards are great -- for longer runs. The transition time to assemble/take apart and put on/take of skins can add up on shorter runs. If you can access the a few runs from the same track, and have a group -- a boot pack may be more efficient. Around 2000 or so I remember people using short skis with permanent skins and clicker bindings, they would drop a line before anyone else could even scope it out -- that may have been a fitness issue.

From my experience skiing with snowboarders Split Boards are great -- for longer runs. The transition time to assemble/take apart and put on/take of skins can add up on shorter runs. If you can access the a few runs from the same track, and have a group -- a boot pack may be more efficient.

Heh -- you were with some slow transitioners then... The three folks I know who board regularly are often transitioned and ready to go as fast or faster than the skiers, though I think it's mostly just to avoid that particular reputation. They certainly don't slow down the group at all, but they've got it dialed in.

If you're only doing backcountry at Stevens and a couple trips to Rainier, slowshoes or hiking are fine. If you want to stop paying $58 for lift tickets try a splitboard. There are a couple of places that rent them. Take an avalanche course, get your safety gear, demo a board and do a post looking for a split boarder to show you the ropes. Also try splitboard.com for more info.

I love my split board and have no problems on the transition.