u/Starky04

I’ve been living in Revelstoke this season and doing a bunch of touring out at Rogers Pass. Now that Spring has arrived I have been out on longer days. I’m happy skinning uphill or on the flat for long distances, however, I’m struggling with exits with rolling terrain that pass through trees. If anyone knows the area well, I’m talking specifically about the Illecillewaet lol.

The problem with this terrain is that it’s impossible (at least for me) to snowboard back to the trailhead because there are lots of little hills. I don’t have the opportunity to get my speed up enough between them and even using poles doesn’t help.

I’ve tried switching to ski mode with my Karakoram bindings with heel lockers. I feel completely out of control though. For context, I’ve never been a skier and I’m using fitwell freeride soft boots. I feel like I almost fell into creeks multiple times because I couldn’t hold my edges as I was traversing along the side of them.

The thing that has worked best for me has been going in ski mode with skins on and no heel lockers. I have mohair skins that glide well and the reduction in speed helps me stay in control a bit more. I still fell like 5 times last time I was out though and I’m conscious of being much slower than my skiing friends. They aren’t being assholes about it, it’s just annoying to me because I can always keep up in other situations and I have my transitions pretty dialled.

So do I just need to spend some time in the resort at the beginning of next season practicing my split skiing? Should I be practicing with heels locked or not? Or am I doomed to move to hard boots because this is the exact situation where soft boots can’t perform well?

I've been using Fitwell Freeride boots with Karakoram bindings for a couple of seasons now. I generally find the boots to be very comfortable on both the up and down. No rubbing or pressure points.

I have been having trouble with longer days. Let's say a normal day is around 10km with 1,000-1,5000m elevation and a longer day is more like 20km with 2,000m elevation.

It feels like my toenails on my big toes are bashed up. In the past when I wore Jones MTB boots I ended up losing a toenail because my toe was so bruised.

The boots feel like a good fit - if they were any larger I feel like my foot would move around in them. They aren't super tight either. Is there anything else that might be contributing to this?

One thought I had is that I don't change my risers very often - I tend to set them to the middle setting when it gets steep and rarely change them until I get to the top. Could it be possible that on more traversey routes the risers are causing me to bash my toes more?