Quite a few topic views and not much replies. Please feel free to comment I’d love to hear y’all’s thoughts, thanks

@HansGLudwig wrote:

Welcome to the splitboard life xIceHoundx.

Guides and rentals are nice. Giving splitboarding a go can be done cheaper. More importantly…

The first thing (even before riding) is to get become backcountry safe. In the military, I assume you know basic field first aid: :thumbsup: *check* A beacon, probe, & shovel are your ‘ticket’ into the BC. Don’t leave home without them AND the knowledge of how to use them.
Better yet, learn how not make the worst—yet often the most fun (…until things go wrong)—avalanche decisions. Your best option is to take an Avy 1 class. The next best option is go to an Avy Awareness presentation and supplement that with reading. At a minimum, read Snow Sense by Jill Fredston & Doug Fesler. Bonus points for reading Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain by Bruce Tremper.

There are a metric shit-ton of online resources too; but they don’t replace the hands-on training of a class. . .
Avalanche.org has a decent Online Tutorial
The US Forest service’s Avalanche Center Page
The Canadiens’ slick Online Avalanche Class.

The rest is a natural progression. Start small. At the end of the day, think of what went well and what can you do better (or what equipment might help). Gradually go bigger.
@xIceHoundx wrote:

I dont really know at what level of experience snowboarding would be a good time to step into the realm of splitboarding. Any advice out there?

Head into (the misnamed) “slackcountry” with your solid board. “Slackcountry” is lift or road accessible backcountry; keep in mind it’s just as dangerous as —and in-fact is— ‘normal backcountry.’ Trekking poles make it easier but then you need a backpack. Depending on the snow and terrain, snowshoes might help . For “slackcountry,” a bootpack is usually sufficient:
“Stairway to Heaven” Baby! :thatrocks:

IF you have had a number of days slogging & wallowing, earning your turns, AND you still enjoyed the day, THEN splitboarding is the answer!
[youtube:z37gov6y]fdxTjP8rrjw[/youtube:z37gov6y]
*I gather you’ve gotten this far. I just love that video.*

All freeride and avalanche skills can be honed in “slackcountry.” While honing your skills, you can put together a rig piecemeal; snagging bargains as they come: SteepAndCheap.com, backcountry.com, Ebay, Craigslist. Our very own Splitboard Swap is another great place to score deals. Be a Mensch and make a donation too. Prices generally go down in February and rise in October.
If you are patient, you can build a new (as in unridden) rig, with the best of last-season’s technology for like $1000 total. -or- You can put together a second-hand rig for $700 total. -or- If you’re really adventurous, you can DIY + second-hand for even cheaper. :headbang:

I firmly believe that almost every question you have has been asked before and the answer lies in the annals of this forum. Get good at using the site’s search function or better yet, enter “site:splitboard.com” in most search engines (Google, DuckDuckGo.com, Bing, Yahoo). It’s always rad to see a thread resurrected. :bananas:

The advantages of this approach are (A) you’re not pissing your money away in rentals. You can try a variety of gear (and meet people) at splitfests. (B) Ownership (both material and knowledge). You own the gear and can modify it to suit your needs. If it turns out you made a bad purchase, then remedy it with Craigslist, Ebay, or our Swap forum [And put it up on the forum so others don’t fall into that mistake too]. Guides make safety calls and rarely tell you what goes into making that call. This way, you own that knowledge, know your own skill level, and can make your own calls.
But most of all, the advantage of the step-by-step approach is (C) Price. If—God forbid—you discover splitboarding is not for you, then you haven’t blown an entire month’s paycheck on equipment that can take you waaay farther than you have any intention to travel; sitting in your closet for two seasons waiting for you to get the cashews to sell your entire rig. i.e. You always have the equipment for your commitment level; nothing more.
If you find splitboarding is your thing, once your rig has “paid for itself” by comparing it’s cost to the cost of a comparable number of days at a resort—then consider upgrading : Tesla bindings, Three-piece carbon fiber whippets, Four-piece boards, how to cut your brand-spanking new $800 boots.

Nota bene: If money is less of an issue, and/or you know splitboarding is going to be your thing, then save yourself the postholeing headache and go all-in, straight out of the gate: Carbon fiber, High-traction, Tesla (or Phantoms + Dynafits), Rocker. Have a ball! :disco:

But seriously though, beaconprobeshovel, knowledge, and crew come first.

Seriously thanks for the honest and detailed response, I really appreciate it. I am actually a Combat Medic in the US Army, National Registed EMT certified as part of keeping certified in my military MOS, so my medical knowledge is already up to par and ive also got quite a bit of medical equipment at my disposal. Funny enough I actually also just very recently invested in a Mammut Pulse light avalanche package (Mammut Pulse Barryvox beacon, probe, and shovel), and an ABS Vario 15 avy backpack and got that stuff in a few weeks ago and haven’t had a chance to get it out in the snow yet. A bit back I downloaded Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain on the Kindle app on my iPhone and have read a bit into it but I do need to get back to that sometime soon and finish reading that one up, i’ll look into that other book you mentioned as well. I do have full intentions to get into an Avy level 1 course if not this season def early next season depending on when I can find one I can get time away to partake in, being military doesn’t always allow me to just run off and jump into the fun, and being stationed in Germany with the terrible winter weve had this year with nearly no snow i’ve have to take all my riding out to Austria and cant even get an avy course any closer than Austria. Next season I may be out in Colorado though. I was thinking I could afford some SparkR&D or Karakoram bindings and a libtech trice splits board along with skins, poles, ect that id need for a decent startup set. I currently ride a 164.5 Libtech Trice pro HP, Union Contact Pro bindings, and Burton Ion boots so the trice splits should feel familiar enough, plus with size 12 boots I need a wide enough board unless anyone out there can suggest some other board options. Most of my riding this season has typically been getting off between pistes and riding powder bowls and small faces then cutting back onto piste at the bottoms and getting back to lifts, rinse and repeat, although ive had a few ventures that ended in having to hike out a bit which is murder booting. Just as you have mentioned I imagine carrying around snowshoes for situations like this or trying to get up to those spots that require some ascending would be too cumbersome for the descent, and a splitboard would be ultimately be a better solution.

True that, just as you said getting leave approved can be a hassle it takes putting in the paperwork 30 days prior. I do believe it is offered in English once in a while but I don’t think its all that common, I think Garmisch, Germany has offered it in English in the past but as ive said Germany has had a truly terrible winter this year.

I’m not at Vilseck but i’m just a rock throw away over at Grafenwoehr, our bases are sister bases. I’ve got a buddy who may actually even know your brother, he was stationed at Vilseck when he was a soldier, these days hes a GS civilian still working out at Vilseck. Anyways, he’s talked about that deployment to Sadr City before.

I tried to get out Austria this weekend to snowboard but being around a bunch of kids in the military who don’t do much other than drink, its at times very hard to get a crew or even just another mate to roll out for the sort of thing. Im hoping to get out there next weekend though pending the snow conditions and weather. All this week was really warm for the Austrian Alps, hopefully they will get some snowfall to roll through.

@ieism wrote:

@xIceHoundx wrote:

So i’ve been looking at some different splitboards on the market to piece together a setup. Im 73 inches tall and roughly 230 lbs in weight and wear size 12 boots, my solid boards are a Lib Tech T.Rice Pro HP 164.5 and a Never Summer Proto HDX 160. I was really interested in the NS Prospector split 167X but they are sold out in the united states. I could go with the Lib Tech T.Rice split 164.5 as it still can be found, but feel I should probably be on something a bit longer for splitboarding I assume. So I could buy the T.Rice split, hold out for next years Prospector split, or maybe there is another board yall could suggest?

Next years Skunk Ape split should be the ticket, I think I saw it in a catalogue so it should be fairly certian that this is going on sale soon.

Good call I did actually notice that the other day in Lib Techs 2015 catalogue
http://snowboardscatalog.com/post/73496742583/libtech-2015

Looks like I wont be leaving Germany this coming OCT, ALARAC message came out trumping my RCP plan so I will be in Germany another winter until JUL2015 or maybe DEC2015 when I am supposed to ETS the military. That means ive got a bit more time to play in the Alps.

Anyone got anything good or bad to say about Venture splitboards? That Skunk Ape split looks very promising, the Never Summer Prospector splits looks to be very highly spoken of too, def looking to see what other potential boards would be good for a wide footed guy like me.