ARRIVED AT THE TOP
While I was waiting for Max to get back to me, I prepared just the board for the downhill mode. I peeled off the seal skins (the skins are adhesive and stick to the base like a sticker) once peeled off, I put them back in the rucksack, sticking them back in their smooth plastic, so that they don't stick to each other inside the rucksack, another thing to do is to fold up the poles used for the ascent, these too must be put away in the rucksack. The last step to complete is to take the board split into 2, remove the bindings and reassemble it in Snowboard mode, hence the name "Splitboard", precisely because it is a board that splits into 2 and creates 2 skis, for the ascent. Once the board is reassembled, you take the 2 bindings and in a very simple way and without the aid of screwdrivers, you reassemble them in snowboard downhill mode, I chose a 54 cm wide footstep, (I'm 1.71 cm tall), with +24 degrees in the front binding, and +15 in the back binding, my downhill stance is regular.
THE DESCENT.
Here comes the best part, and the surprise. Yes, because the split board in snowboard mode looks like a normal snowboard to the eye, but in truth it's not really like that, let's start with the bindings. I chose Spark bindings, which in my opinion, and in the opinion of many other people, are the best bindings in the splitboard world, in snowboard mode they are very comfortable, honestly I didn't find much difference from my traditional snowboard bindings, but the thing that upset me a bit was the board, Yes, as long as there's fresh snow it behaves very well, if you think about it, it's a board that's mainly used in fresh snow situations, but it has to be said that at some point, sooner or later you'll find yourself, as happened to me, on a slope or in icy terrain, and that's where the difference from a normal board comes in.
Mine is a Nitro Doppleganger, the shape if we compare it to a non splitboard deck, is a directional shape, very accentuated with a very small tail, this in fact works great in powder, but on the piste at the beginning it was a bit strange, right from the first few metres, when I went to brake with the heel edge, the board braked very little, during the turns it wasn't reactive, and in the edge changes and it tended to counter-slope a lot, so much so that it even made me fall into a counter-slope, I hadn't fallen into a counter-slope for 15 years, this happens because the board is split in the central part, the central edges touch the snow when the board goes into torsion, to get around this problem I noticed that you have to push and make force with the back foot. Once you understand how to do it, the problem is solved. I think that if I had never used another type of snowboard, I probably wouldn't have even noticed the problem, however if you're used to the normal board, after a few hundred metres, you realise how to put the weight on, and you go like a train.