Splitboard Test 2023-2024

Last March, the annual Splitboard Magazine test brought us back to the Pyrenees in a season worth forgetting. Given the poor conditions pretty much everywhere, our call was to stay in our local playground, Cerdanya (Easternmost Pyrenees), to be flexible and reactive in case the snow arrived somewhere near providing for a better set up for the test.

It all seemed quite promising in November, when a couple of powerful weather fronts started building up a good base layer on the Northern faces of the Pyrenees, although the excitement quickly turned into a nightmare. With no precipitation whatsoever in the Northern valleys for two months, last season ranked overall as one of the worst of the past years. Beginning of January, a Southern front took us back to Winter for a while, however, the Northern valleys experienced a two-month long draught that jeopardized the ski season in most Pyrenean resorts.

A cold front from the East hit the Easternmost Pyrenees at the end of January significantly improving the conditions on the Capcir, where we enjoyed the best snow in a long while. Following a week-long cold sunny weather, we scored some big days on the mountains and the best conditions in the whole Winter. It wasn’t before the end of February when the snow finally arrived to the North faces and we were treated with a couple of decent splitboarding days in our favorite terrain in Porté-Puymorens ski resort. After a lousy March, we wrapped up the season in one of our most cherished areas in the French Alps, les Écrins, where some sweet touring days reminded us why we love splitboarding so much.

So here we are once again, stoked to offer you a taste of the splitboards you’ll find in the market this season. Some of the brands that have been loyal to our test from the beginning, skipped this year’s test because their collection offered nothing new under the sun, but we will give you some insight on some of the most innovating splitboards in this season’s lineup, such as the Jones Butterfly Ultralight, the updated Jones Hovercraft 2.0 and Nitro Squash, the Amplid Kodama and K2 Snowboards’ new splitboard, the Isolator.

Also, as usual, we were pleased to observe the great variety of shapes and constructions available, aimed to reach to the widest range of users. From classic freeride cut boards like the Jones Solution or the Borealis Alpine, to freestyle backcountry boards such as the Stone Forest, true quiver-killers like the Amplid Tour Operator, the Nitro Squash, the Jones Stratos, the Stone Legalize or the Ogasaka Facet, powder boards like the Fjell MT1342s^ as well as authentic big mountain splitboards such as the Korua Escalator Plus or the Jones Butterfly Ultralight.

Women splitboarders will enjoy Jones’ new addition to their lineup: the Women’s Stratos, as well as the K2 Isolator, a unisex splitboard for those women looking for new experiences by adding a unique shape to their quiver.