What You Get for Earning Your Turns in ColoRADo

In Jackson, splitboards seem to sell faster than cheap beer and clothes with cheesy pictures of moose or bison. Sure, they have 4 edges instead of two, which a tourist at J Hole informed me is a big pain if you're riding down a groomer but, realistically, should you really be riding a splitboard down a groomer? In this video Ben Gardner show's the ideal way to be riding a splitboard: through beautiful, clean pow turns in the Colorado backcountry. Turns like these are why splitboards are going to quickly– they say, "free the heel, ski for real" if you've dismissed this, you may related better to, "free the heel uphill, ride the best turns of your life on the way down."

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Colorado is one of the ski tourist hubs of North America, yet, with some work, dedication, and copious amounts of skill, Gardner sends near perfect lines in the apparently wide-open backcountry he's managed to hike into.