Day 6

Some of the team on the sunny summit that capped off a great day of touring

One of the guys said it was about –26C during the night.  I certainly felt colder than earlier nights, but still comfortable despite my frozen sleeping bag shell.  I woke at 5am and snoozed.  After breakfast, more of the same Greenland touring ensued.

We toured to the accumulation zone of our home glacier and from there rode across toward the ocean, taking in two ok gentle angle descents on mostly hard and bumpy then crusty snow.  It was fun, but nothing to rave about. However the itinerary took us to a new part of our environment and we rode right down onto the frozen saltwater.

Walking across the frozen salt-water fjord we found a nice seaside bay with only thin ice for a lunch break.  Once again, it was a stunningly beautiful spot.

After lunch we skinned back across the frozen bay and around the back of a peak, ascending a long and moderately tiring route to a col. We now had access to the same powder bowl that I visited solo the previous day, so we traversed the cirque…

…and ascended the last rocky scramble to the little summit. One the way a rock dropped on Ben’s knee and I was again slow in my toy crampons so Neil short roped us back past an exposed loose face.

The ride down had good light snow.

Bed at 7pm again to read whilst the other continued their unrelenting passion for card games in the absence of TV.

Splitboarding in the Arctic

As mentioned, I was the only splitboarder in the team out of 5 snowboarders. I know of quite a few Austrian based splitboarders, however other than that it appears as though Splitboarding in Europe isn’t as well accepted as it is in America. Many people form opinions based on almost no personal experience actually using them. I am of the opinion that they work well enough for me to continue using them. I have used a splitboard perhaps 150 times now in the backcountry and know when they work and when they don’t. I also understand why others choose not to use them. Like Neil for example who tried one and finds them falling short in descent performance, quite understandable given his size, aggressive riding, a full weight glacier guide pack on Chamonix terrain and itineraries.

My splitboard with Spark R&D Ignition bindings strapped onto a dog sled ready to leave for the glacier on Day 1.  I couldn't care less about firsts, but at the same time I wouldn't be surprised if I was the first splitter in Greenland. 

Splitting works well enough most of the time thanks to a few companies that make better gear. I took my Never Summer Titan to Greenland, probably the best board for the difficult job. But undoubtedly the most significant piece of my touring equipment was a pair of Ignition splitboard bindings made in America by Spark R&D. I have been using them a lot in Japan where the touring is very splitboard friendly and found that the bindings made a huge difference leaving the first generation Voile slider plates looking like the primitive make-do that they are. In Greenland where conditions were not always splitboard friendly, the Ignition bindings closed the gap considerably, particularly when used in conjunction with the Spark R&D ‘ski crampons’. I had been given a prototype pair of crampons to try out in Greenland and they worked very well.

Near water level we were skinning on very hard crusty ice and the traverses were long and unforgiving. Johnny and Neil on AT gear, Ben on MSR snowshoes.  Myself on a splitboard at the end.

Sometimes skinning on either skis or splitboard was tiresome due to long and icy traverses. Occasionally I took a more direct route to avoid some traversing. Other times I took a lower route to remain on flatter ground for longer. Undoubtedly the very hard packed snow lent itself well to good MSR snowshoes at certain times during ascent. But carrying your board every day, for so many days, sometimes for over 10km’s, would have been unnecessarily exhausting. I was amazed at what the Ignitions let me do on the ascent, even making traverses a little easier (but traverses still are a drag on a split with soft boots).

Me and my split enjoying a warm day.  Thankfully I didn't take my powder board.

Before climbing a steeper section in my imaginary boot crampons, the board went back into one piece ready for the descent and onto my backpack.  This introduces one split drawback: additional weight on your back.  The Titan is a very damp performance board, great, but it is also very heavy board. This was offset greatly by the lighter weight Ignition Bindings.  Note the shiny ice - it was hard and edge control was vital on descent.  I felt that my split setup and my familiarity with it handled the conditions just fine.

During descent, when splitting usually lets itself down vs. solid boards, the Ignitions again closed the gap. There are some board rigidity issues that the bindings will never solve, but most other descent performance complaints with splits are all but taken care of by the Ignition bindings. I have used them a lot on easy Japanese powder and now in hard bumpy icy and sometimes steep Greenland Arctic snow and without question, these bindings improve performance. I’d go so far as to say that of it were not for Ignition bindings, I’d probably have given up on splitting by now and concentrated on ski touring, leaving backcountry snowboarding behind.

A repeat picture, but needed to show that my split setup rides just fine for me, even on less than optimal snow.

If you splitboard in soft boots then you owe it to yourself to buy these bindings or, using the Ignition baseplate only, try to adapt the plates to your existing bindings. Splitboarding isn’t nearly as productive or fun without Ignition Bindings and I can’t imagine why anyone would suffer without them.  Notice how much I am pumping this product?  Well, I'm shooting straight, that's simply how good they are (and I am notorious for speaking out against fluff, spin and self-interested opinions).  In case you missed it:  Spark R&D's website (thanks again to Will for shipping me a prototype set of ski crampons, they were vital).

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