Bumps! Boots!

So after the visit to that little mountain in Victoria... (see the post) the idea was firmly implanted that I needed to get sorted to hardboot if I was going to take splitboarding seriously.

One of the two awesome backcountry gentlemen we ran into for lunch was was rocking a dynafit set up. This is an alternate and fairly recently developed alpine touring set up. It's main advantage being that it is extremely light. It is a compact pin system that pinches the front of your boot to lock in rather than a traditional style touring binding.

Lightweight Dynafit System

A traditional style touring binding

The Dynafit company mission statement says it all - this is a company dedicated to making the uphill as easy as possible while allowing good downhill performance. I thought it must be possible to install the toe piece and leave it on the board whilst riding. This would create an amazing uphill mode and solve part of the slow skinsition issues I was having.

I wandered into Bumps one Thursday morning after visiting my Great Aunt in Elsternwick looking for a new toe strap for my Burton soft boot bindings (which I had lost whilst carrying the splitboard uphill because I couldn't get an edge to traverse). Whilst trying to see if Bumps had Burton stock I noted that they did have a small section of touring gear. I thought I would just ask what they had in the way of touring boots. On getting talking to Byron, a lovely Canadian, I mentioned why I was looking for them and that I would really prefer if they were Dynafit compatible. After overcoming the initial shock that I wanted to snowboard in the boots Byron was totally professional - despite retaining a rather quizzical expression. We determined that it would be possible for him to order in some boots in my size that may work. The price kind of shocked me - I could purchase 3 pairs of regular snowboard boots for the same amount - but I knew ski boots would last a lot longer than soft boots. I left assuring Byron I would call back with my answer on whether I really wanted him to order them. I think he thought he had heard the last of me.

On getting home I decided to do some internet research.  I knew I wasn't the first snowboarder to feel the pinch out in the backcountry. I had seen my coach in Canada set up his board with hard boots, but not with dynafit toe pieces. The internet proved to be a wealth of knowledge yet again. I put a post on the Splitboard Forum looking for advice on how to go about making the switch. I was pretty shocked to get a few responses within 24hours. These Splitters sure are friendly people! It was indicated that the key was getting boots that fit well. So I knew it was time to call back Byron.

Trying on the boots for the first time was amazing. Who knew ski boots could be so light? My Dynafit TLT5s are only 1065g. Whereas an alpine boot advertised as being amazingly lightweight weighs nearly 2000g!!! Furthermore the sole is rockered (like a semicircle) and extremely squishy, I was actually enjoying walking around the store! I was sold within a couple of minutes and had them to take home before you could say splitboard!

My new boots - check them out hanging out in some Nidecker bindings I had borrowed from a friend to confirm the concept would work! I love that they are mauve and white - so feminine for such a macho environment. 

Next stage was getting the right hardware - Dynafit toe pieces and a light weight hardboot binding. This proved fairly simple when Adam from Firstlight Snowboards, a fellow Australian Splitter, introduced himself on the Splitboard Forum and explained which Spark R & D (located in Bozeman, Montana) pieces of hardware I would need. I ordered them and just had to wait for all the right pieces to arrive. It's funny how quickly you can become a local expert in a particular area when you get into highly specialised gear like this.

I'll update you on how it all looks and rides very soon but I had a pretty awesome trip up to Bogong on my old gear recently. So wait for photos of that first!