I bought a milligram a little under a year ago and have done a southern hemisphere winter (Australia 2017 – one of the best seasons in memory) and a 2 week trip to japan this Feb.

I don’t think I’m getting any fitter, just older, but I definitely noticed I am generally faster and less fatigued touring with this board than with my old jones split.

I did upgrade to carbon poles at the same time, so there was a slight weight saving there as well. Also, I got new, lighter skins (kohla) that came with the board.

To be honest I’m not that good a rider to notice subtle ride differences between boards, but I’ll try and do my best to describe the difference with my old split (jones solution 161).

Firstly, size. My choice was between a 158 and 163 (i’m 5 10 and 80kg). The whole point of this board for me was to save weight so I was loath to go big, but I always go to japan at least once a year which usually involves some knee deep trail breaking at some point so I though about a bit of extra length for this, but in the end I went with the 158.

Touring – as I touched on, I found much easier with less weight on your feet and in particular booting (which we do a lot of in Australia) had noticeably less weight on your shoulders. The kohla skins that I bought with the board are noticeably lighter than my G3 high tractions. I used to be a “grip is everything” guy, but maybe my technique is improving and I now prefer low drag/weight.

Riding – I always thought of the jones solution as a bit of a tank, definitely not as manoeuvrable as a solid. Now with the amplid being lighter I think it makes turns easier and more responsive. I haven’t ridden it in any really bad, icy, puckering traverse style conditions, but it seems like it holds an edge nicely.

Durability – So far the board seems to be not to sensitive to the rigours of split boarding, although I guess more time will tell. Australia is definitely a place that is hard on your board.

They’re definitely pricey, I got a demo board for half price. Can’t see why you wouldn’t do this if it was an option. They even sent me pictures of the exact board I was getting so I could assess dings and scratches.

Here’s a photo from a big spring day trip I did to Mt Feathertop in Victoria which was a 22km round trip – I sure appreciated having less weight that day!

I have pretty much dialed boards that are a flat 5lbs in a 160 size, but I’d say that when a real lightweight core is made, it it the core’s failure in compression that makes them more susceptible to breakage in a crash or heavy impact situation with a rock, etc. If you put carbon on a solid core of poplar or a blend with maple or ash, the core seems to prevent to deck laminates (whether they are carbon or glass) from buckling and the board exploding in a hard fall.

But just using carbon instead of glass only shaves a little weight, you really have to lighten cores a lot to get a modern competitively lightweight board or to go lighter than the current production boards. This opens boards to core compression failures in hard crazy falls or impacts. So take two on that yurt trip or ride a more solid, albeit heavier board. This is pretty much the same story with racing rando skis from what I have been able to learn.

Hey Taylor,
Yes they are. Most rando race skis do break right there where the bindings end either up front or in the back. There’s a lot more of those being ridden hard and breaking so to me they provide the best information on this game of weight and durability. I had a compression failure in a superlight board that hinged right behind the heel lifter which is in that category.

I haven’t had failures there at the edges of the bindings in my more experimental lightweight boards but I have also loaded those areas with extra tapered patches of fiber usually a carbon/innegra mix in anticipation.

There’s a lot of ways to do it. Veneer is actually really good at preventing compression fractures. I had two boards, identical cores and fiber lay-up, the one with the same veneer as yours on top has lasted fine through three hard seasons of riding, it weighs 5.7 pounds for a 167 by 26.5. The one that was a plain composite top without veneer was the one that had a failure in tour mode right behind the heel lifter. It was the same outline and weighed 5.25lbs (that would have been under 5lbs in a 158/160). So veneer definitely adds some weight. (That board actually made a big 1700′ descent with it hinging on the pTex in the middle on one ski with the other half holding it all together. I think that shows how much stress a split can have in tour mode and how little stress there is in the middle of the board when riding.)

That really light 165 by 25 (5.1 lbs.) I showed you a while back died in a high speed cartwheel, It folded mid shovel right where the maple strip that was in the sidecut tapered down to about 1/8th. It’s hard to test bc boards for what happens to boards in crashes.

I have a thought that just like a 1/16th thick by 1.5 inch wide maple or bamboo strip set into the deck of the board might a good solution.

The replacement for one these lighter boards is going to have a single poplar stringer through the middle and one on the rail, then I am using some Nomex honeycomb in the core to offset the weight of the denser wood. This is the theory that I am most into. A mix of stronger materials and even lighter materials instead of just all paulownia. Using some harder woods that have great compression resistance, then try to offset the increased mass with honeycomb and balsa. Like a Trab rando race ski compared to a Fischer, though both can break.

The challenge is to make a board for folks who like boards to bend pretty deep and still weigh five pounds or less.

Fiberglass works and harder wood thin cores work, they are just heavier. The trick I have been thinking around is how to make light woods and carbon act like fiberglass and more dense woods. Innegra is interesting because when next to carbon it allows the carbon to flex farther before failure.

For sure splitboards have been on the wrong trail by not having core profiles similar to skis. Since a ski can have all the rider’s weight on one leg the middle thickness of skis is a lot larger than the middle thickness of boards compared to their tips and tails. So increased thickness under the toe pivot and heel lifter are mandatory to me in a superlight board. I don’t think folks thought that there was that much stress on a split half when touring but there really is apparently.

You’d be a great tester for some of these theories, I’d love to send you a more flexible 6 lb. 172 to romp on, but one huge work project led into another and I moved houses this summer, so my board making side gig got skunked this last year. I bought a lot of materials though. Good thing now is I have lots of heated dedicated shop space in the new place, so should be able to crank out more boards in the future.

get me talking about board design . . . 😉

@scooby2 enjoy reading about your board building. More curious than ever and wondering how light do think you could go on a powsurf (no inserts, no hardware)?

@taylor still hoping for good snow for a trip to the Henries.

Hope you both are getting some turns

Cheers!

I liked this one too.

nice super light strap option to foam deck pads

Hi, Im looking for a light and tough splitboard with mainly mountaineering in mind where 15-22 mile trips will be a typical distance which is quite far for me. I already have a Rome Double Agent which is actually pretty light compared to many of those Jones board etc, but I want something lighter that carries my weight better during skinning ie a bit stiffer and longer board. Im 183cm (6 feet) and 77kg (170 pounds). Is the Milligram still in general the best choice for my purpose? And which length do you suggest given my “metrics”….158cm or 163cm? According to Amplids web page I’m marginally heavy for the 158. It appears also that the board has become heavier the last years compared to the values shared by users at this forum. Is there any lighter board out there these days?

Yeah I know I probably should`ve purchased a pair of Dynafit PNG skis for mounteering specific trips and shaved 1.5kg pr foot but snowboard is my thing 😀
Thanks in advance.

-Trygve

you’re welcome, Trygve =) my setup is less than 3 kg/foot now (Milligram, Kohla skins, Phantoms, Backlands), lighter or as light as my skier-friends stuff. Def. no need to switch 😉

have fun and good days in the mountains with the Amplid!