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1/24/13

Vertfest - Mt. Bachelor - 1.19.13

Marathon start (photo: tapperphoto.smugmug.com)
Last Saturday, I did my first Snowboard Mountaineering race. There was little to no mountaineering, but there certainly was a lot of skinning, transitioning, and some good bootpacking. As my loyal reader(s) knows, less than a month has passed since I got my first splitboard--a Jones Carbon Solution 161--so I had a hard time deciding what category to do. There was a dedicated splitboarding division with a recreational category that did a single run up Mt. Bachelor's cinder cone, a moderate class that had about 2000 vertical feet of climbing, and then the advanced class with over 4000 vertical and 5 transitions--not including the bootpack up the cone.

LOTS OF PHOTOS AND A FULL RACE RUNDOWN AFTER THE JUMP 

1/16/13

First post: up to the Hogsback - 12.30.12

I am finally kicking off this blog, and reliving some of the good times I have had these past few weeks since setting up my first split.
Hogsback - wishing I packed sunglasses
But first, let me introduce myself: my name is Har Rai (whole first name; hippy parents) and I was born and raised in Portland, OR, where I learned to ski and snowboard on the slopes of Mt. Hood. I started skiing at age 4 at Mt. Hood Meadows. I also spent a lot of time skateboarding and windsurfing, and by the time I was 10, I didn't want to do anything other than boardsports and so I upgraded (yes, that's right) to a snowboard. I have had a resort pass most years since, and for the last 16 years, I have spent as much time as possible up on Hood--freeriding at Meadows, snowshoeing and camping with family and friends in the backcountry, competing in OISA and USASA events in highschool, coaching Grant high school's snowboard team while in college, and now working (for free) as a ski patroller. I relearned how to ski these past couple of years, and occasionally you will find me ski patrolling, but you are much more likely to see me on a snowboard. When it comes to working as a backcountry patroller,  I now exclusively splitboard. Yes, a nordic snowboarder--the rarest breed.

I spent a lot of my childhood hiking, snowshoeing, and cross country skiing on Mt. Hood, but I never really had the equipment to make backcountry the primary focus. Last year was my first year as a ski patroller, and in the process, I got certifications in Mountain Travel and Rescue, Level 1 Avalanche, Outdoor Emergency Care, and more importantly, I met a bunch of touring and climbing partners. Joining the Nordic Patrol gave me a great excuse to spend way too much money on everything I needed to splitboard, and quitting my position as a Snowboard coach--and thus losing my season pass benefits--committed me to the backcountry program and earning my turns if I wanted to ride.

I am creating this blog to document and share my adventures splitboarding in Oregon and beyond, and also to help others by sharing what I have learned throughout the process. Splitboarding is blowing up, but it is still a small niche of the snowboard market, and information can be hard to come by. I might be new to this specific aspect of snowboarding, but I have a lot of experience riding solid boards, and testing and selling gear--I worked in a surf/windsurf/snowboard shop for 8 years, and tested windsurfing gear professionally for 2--and I have been able to apply that to finding the best splitboarding gear that is out there and figuring out tricks and solutions to making it work as well as it can in a whole system. I will cover all of that here, to save you the time that it took me to find answers and solutions while getting everything set up.

TRIP PHOTOS AFTER THE JUMP