Splitboard.com Forums

From G3:



Snowboarders asked for it and we listened. G3's long history of climbing skin research and design have been applied to the new Alpinist Splitboard Skin - purpose built for backcountry snowboarders. Our premium Splitboard Skins have been engineered from tip to tail to be the lightest, fastest gliding, most reliable and secure splitboard climbing skins available.

Size BOARD LENGTH (CM)
Short 145-159
Medium 159-173
Long 168-182 140

Skin Width (MM)
140

Material: Synthetic plush, non-toxic solvent free adhesive, Curved low profile tip connector with self aligning stainless steel hands

Patent-pending tip connection
Splitboard specific offset
Easily trimmed to fit
Low-drag tail strap
G3 Twin tip connector for tail attachment
Advanced plush provides unrivaled glide and traction
Non-toxic, ultra-low temperature adhesive
Hydrophobic waterproofing treatment

At $170 these are not a bad deal at all.

http://www.backcountry.com/g3-alpinist-split-board-climbing-skin

I have a pair on order, a review will be up soon as I have them and snow

I bought some short fat G3 alpinist skins before they had a split specific version and did my own riveting job to make them "split specific."

Just to give some feedback - these skins are amazingly light. Like featherweight, hardly notice them in your pack once folded up.

They do not elongate when warm or wet, which is great - though like all skin glue, once waterlogged on really hot days you will have problems with adhesion.

These skins do not feel as secure as my original (purple/grey) ascensions on firm crust. Something about the plush texture - they just don't have the same bite as my ascension plush. Works great in pow though.


I'm excited about this new attachment mechanism, great if you've got boards with different shapes etc - I am a fan of tail clips.

Reading the reviews of the Alpinist skins there seems to be quite a few people mentioning that BD skins have more traction. Can anyone here confirm this. Does this out weigh the fact that the G3 skins are lighter?

http://www.backcountry.com/g3-alpinist- ... od=GGG0126

Depends on your choice of terrain/conditions and how much of a PITA you think it is to swap in ski crampons.
If you are going to be carrying the crampons anyways, then you save weight and the loss of traction becomes largely irrelevant.
If you are not going to be carrying the crampons, well then what's 8 ounces or so off your feet worth to you? How many laps are you getting in / how much vertical ascent, where you will really feel the difference?

Several of the skiers I tour with regularly use the G3 skins. There definitely seem to be some conditions where the G3s just don't perform as well as BD skins. Those guys still make it to the top though, just with a lot more cursing and sweating. I think if I was chasing after a lighter set of skins I'd try the Split skin that a few guys on here were rocking last year.

There are too many hits to search this, would you please post some more info or a link? I am curious.

They are skins that were made specifically for fat skis (splitboard width basically) ... like 120+ underfoot. the thing is that on a 190+ cm powder ski, you really don't need ALL that much plush underfoot to get you uphill. So the skin itself has a little strip of nylon ripstop sewn down the middle ... it is really two pieces of skin sewn to a strip of ripstop. So you get more glide, carry less weight, and are gluing in your skins at the edges, where you need to be getting grip.

http://www.backcountry.com/black-diamon ... mbing-skin

Thanks for the info-now I know what you were referring to.

I plan to pick up a pair of these, defintely worth a look.

I used the split skins last year and they were okay but not ideal. I'm already using the G3 tail pieces on all my skins and they work great.

Don't forget you can just add Spark's awesome new tail-clips http://www.sparkrandd.com/products/tailclips/ to your existing skins and redo the glue. You will have an almost new set of skins...

I think $170 is way too much, they are just pricing these the same as the Voile skins. Problem is Voile doesn't make their skins and has to resell BD's, thus the higher price. I bought a couple sets of G3's last year for $100, and did my own tip/tail clips for way less. Definitely not as plush as my CSD or Voile skins.

Those are very slick! No Drilling required! I think that I will just order those!