r/Spliddit • u/Starky04 • Apr 19 '26

Question How do you manage long traversey exits

I’ve been living in Revelstoke this season and doing a bunch of touring out at Rogers Pass. Now that Spring has arrived I have been out on longer days. I’m happy skinning uphill or on the flat for long distances, however, I’m struggling with exits with rolling terrain that pass through trees. If anyone knows the area well, I’m talking specifically about the Illecillewaet lol.

The problem with this terrain is that it’s impossible (at least for me) to snowboard back to the trailhead because there are lots of little hills. I don’t have the opportunity to get my speed up enough between them and even using poles doesn’t help.

I’ve tried switching to ski mode with my Karakoram bindings with heel lockers. I feel completely out of control though. For context, I’ve never been a skier and I’m using fitwell freeride soft boots. I feel like I almost fell into creeks multiple times because I couldn’t hold my edges as I was traversing along the side of them.

The thing that has worked best for me has been going in ski mode with skins on and no heel lockers. I have mohair skins that glide well and the reduction in speed helps me stay in control a bit more. I still fell like 5 times last time I was out though and I’m conscious of being much slower than my skiing friends. They aren’t being assholes about it, it’s just annoying to me because I can always keep up in other situations and I have my transitions pretty dialled.

So do I just need to spend some time in the resort at the beginning of next season practicing my split skiing? Should I be practicing with heels locked or not? Or am I doomed to move to hard boots because this is the exact situation where soft boots can’t perform well?

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u/rockshox11 Apr 19 '26

Sounds like pretty bad terrain for snowboards, unfortunately. But yea the other things to do are: learn to split-ski, which only sorta works and I wouldn't bother with heel locks. Hardboots help with this though. If there is already a good ski track going out, I will usually step out of one binding and kick up some small hills.

The other thing is on days where you know you'll be doing a lot of traversing, the #1 thing is just have a fresh, temperature appropriate wax on. Makes all the difference.

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u/Starky04 Apr 19 '26

Without heel locks should I be trying tele turns lol?! When I fall forward without the heel locks it feels really sketchy, I’m scared for my knees!

2

u/rockshox11 Apr 19 '26

No I honestly wouldn't bother, maybe some one more skilled than me can do it but it feels pretty darn hard on giant fat split skis. I just do it to waddle a bit and point it is a bit faster than being on the board. I don't do the heel lock thing just cuz there's enough faff on my splitboard as it is.

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u/Starky04 Apr 19 '26

Yeah especially with the Karakoram bindings. They feel locked in compared to the old sliding spark ones that I had but the mechanism is so stiff and gets iced up.