3 is the magic number
Spring arrived early this season in the Northeast. It was a 10°C day, and the snow was soft like it was April.
I was a little bit on the fence of heading out for my first Splitboard tour this Winter, not really being sure about the snowcover, and if it's worth getting up super early and doing the drive up there. The only information I had available was the snow depth map in the Open Snow app. Turned out that map is pretty accurate. The snow cover I found was decent, no bare rocks or dirt, a solid compact base, probably around 50cm deep (Open Snow said 60-75cm).
The soft wet snow made skinning uphill also fairly easy, no slipping back down on icy patches or so. My skins were drenched and dripping wet, but they held up without any problem, even on sections where I usually pull out the ski crampons. It all made skinning up less exhausting, and allowed me to get 3 laps in, top to bottom. Ok, the altitude difference is just about 500m or so, but still, I'm often done after one lap on that mountain, especially if there are some icy climbing sections that require some awkward maneuvering.
On the ride down the conditions were really surfy, I had just such a good time! No ice on sections that were already a little bit skied out, everything was smooth, edges held up easily on those few dicy narrow sections. The upper snowfields offered still a few untouched really buttery areas. It was such great cruise down to the bottom, just a perfect day!
It was also the first time with some new equipment that I got recently. I upgraded my pants to the Black Diamond Mission pants. Really happy with them. Although I guess I would prefer a bib version, but they felt really good. Well thoughtout functional design with big cargo-style front pockets, where you can stash lots of things, without it slinging around your legs, and everything in there being easily reachable.
But I'm much more excited about the other equipment upgrade I made: new G3 pivot poles. They are absolutely fantastic for Splitboarding, they collabse super easily, are compact enought to fit in my pack, and that hook on top works super well with the risers on Spark bindings. No more bending down when trying to adjust risers, just using the pole to reach down and flap it. Really great, and preserves some energy on the skin track. I'm super happy about that purchase!