Powder Day
They are rare here in the Northeast.
This weekend is the Mount Washington Backcountry Ski Festival. I've been going for the last 3 years, it's great! It was my introduction to Splitboarding, and backcountry in general. The experiences have always been very different, from a super easy first tour to get the basics of skinning and uphill travel down, to a gnarly frozen gully exploration where I thought I'm either gonna slip out and die, or a falling rock is hitting me and I die, very memorable.
Anyways, we have a substantial snow storm right before the festival here, which is great, and I decided to do the drive on the earlier side of the storm, ditch the worst part of it, and try to get a half day riding in at Wildcat.
Oh boy, was that 4 hour drive through a snowstorm worth it!
Even though it was "dust on some crust" - this week we had rain, followed by warm weather before everything froze in place, and was then covered by 20-30cm new snow - it was the best powder I've ever experienced in the Northeast.
The only board I brought was my Jones Stormchaser Split, and it was the perfect choice for the day. That board lives for powder. I don't know what you need to do to get the nose under the snow, but now matter how you stand on it, the whole thing just floats spraying snow left and right, it's incredible!
I had a couple good runs in the afternoon, when the snow cover got thick enough to cover and easy underneath ice moguls and make them managable. Almost like small pillows. I discovered a few almost untouched (roped off) slopes and let the Stormchaser shine, spraying on every turn, such a fun board!
The biggest adjustment coming from my resort setup were actually the boots. For touring I'm using the 32 Jones boots. They're super stiff compared to my other Vans Infuse boots which I'm riding in resorts. The first run felt really awkward, but then I got used to it quickly. I would probalby enjoy softer boots, but the stiffer ones have their advantages when it comes to climbing uphill, especially with crampons and on more challenging terrain. I guess it's all just tradeoffs.
Also shoutout to Subaru AWD and Yokohama Ice Guard for making driving through snow not a big deal!