Splitboarding requires more gear than resort snowboarding — and the gear matters more, because there's no infrastructure to bail you out when something goes wrong. This guide covers every piece of kit you need, what to look for when choosing it, and the training that should happen before any of the gear gets used.
If you're building a splitboard setup for the first time, come into our Richmond store. We can put the whole thing together, check compatibility across components, and make sure nothing critical is missing before you head out. We've been setting up splitboard customers in Australia for years, and we know what first-time kits typically get wrong.
The splitboard itself
A splitboard is a snowboard that divides lengthwise into two touring planks. In tour mode, the two halves attach to a set of touring brackets on your splitboard bindings and function like cross-country skis — your heel lifts freely, the skins grip going uphill, and you walk. At the top, you clip the board back together, lock into riding mode, and descend on a full snowboard.
The transition between tour and ride mode takes a few minutes each way. Most experienced riders can do it in under five minutes once they know their system. In cold or wind this takes longer — gear that makes the process simple and reliable matters.
What to look for in a splitboard:
Shape and size: splitboards generally run slightly longer and with more setback than a comparable resort board, because they need float in powder and directional stability on traverses. For all-mountain Australian backcountry — which typically means variable snow, firm morning groomers and occasional powder — a mid-wide all-mountain directional shape is the most versatile choice. Jones Solution Split is the benchmark in this category: excellent edge hold for firm Australian snow, enough float for soft days, and construction quality that holds up over multiple seasons of touring.
Sidecut and waist width: a splitboard needs to carve well on descent, not just tour efficiently on ascent. A board that's too wide feels sluggish on edge on firm groomed runs; too narrow and it washes out in soft snow. For most Australian riders in the 9–11 boot size range, a 255–265mm waist works well.
Weight: every gram you carry on the ascent costs you energy. A lighter splitboard is genuinely better for long days or multi-day tours. The Flagship Split from Jones is built lighter than the Solution for this reason — it's the choice for riders doing serious touring where uphill efficiency matters more than maximum descent performance.
Binding interface: most modern splitboards use either the universal puck interface (compatible with Spark R&D and most other bindings) or a brand-specific system. Check compatibility before buying bindings separately from your board. We do this check for every customer buying a splitboard kit.
Splitboard bindings
Splitboard bindings are fundamentally different from resort bindings. They need to:
- Lock into riding position as a rigid snowboard binding for the descent
- Convert to touring mode with the heel lifting freely for the ascent
- Attach to the splitboard's touring brackets quickly and reliably, in gloves, in cold conditions
The transition mechanism is the most important thing to understand when choosing splitboard bindings. Two systems dominate the Australian market:
Spark R&D (puck system): the most widely used splitboard binding interface globally. The puck — a disc interface that attaches to the splitboard's touring brackets — is fast, proven and compatible with a wide range of boards. Spark's Phantom and Arc are the core models. The Arc is the all-mountain choice with a balanced flex; the Phantom is stiffer for riders who want more response and power transfer on technical descents. The puck system has been refined over many years and is the safe, reliable choice for most splitboarders.
Karakoram (Prime Connect system): a direct clip-in interface that eliminates the puck entirely, using a more mechanically direct connection between the binding and the touring hardware. The transition is faster and the binding-to-board connection is more direct. Karakoram suits experienced splitboarders who tour regularly and have decided the puck system's transition time matters enough to upgrade. Note: Karakoram requires Karakoram-compatible board hardware — not all splitboards are compatible out of the box.
Flex: softer for all-mountain touring, stiffer for technical descents and hard snow performance. Most riders touring Australian terrain run a medium to medium-stiff flex — enough stiffness for decisive edge control when the snow is firm, enough forgiveness for the dynamic movements of the skin track.
Shop our full range: Splitboard Bindings · Spark R&D · Karakoram
Climbing skins
Climbing skins attach to the base of the board in tour mode and allow you to walk uphill without sliding backwards. They work through directional fibres — mohair, nylon, or a blend — that grip the snow in one direction and release cleanly in the other.
Width: skins need to cover most of your board's running surface without overlapping the metal edges. Overlapping the edges significantly degrades glide on the descent. Most skins come in width ranges and are trimmed to fit your specific board using an included trimming tool. If you're not sure what width suits your board, we can check this for you.
Glue system: skin glue is temperature-sensitive and Australian backcountry touring spans a huge range — overnight frost giving way to spring afternoon slush in the same day. Quality skin glue from G3 and Black Diamond handles this variability better than cheaper alternatives. Store skins glue-to-glue in a mesh bag in a cool place and the glue lasts multiple seasons. If glue starts failing prematurely, it can be reapplied with a glue kit.
Tip and tail attachment: the tip clip hooks over the nose of the board, and a tail clip or strap holds the tail end down. Different boards have different nose shapes — verify your skin's tip clip is compatible with your splitboard before ordering. Most Jones and G3 boards are compatible with standard clip systems; some shapes need a different attachment approach.
Material: mohair skins are lighter, glide better and feel more comfortable to skin on, but wear faster. Nylon skins are more durable and grip better in icy conditions. Blended mohair/nylon is the most common choice, balancing the two.
Shop: Splitboard Skins
Avalanche safety gear — the non-negotiable three
Every person in a backcountry group carries a beacon, probe and shovel. Not some of them. Every one of them, every time. This is not a recommendation — it's a baseline requirement that the backcountry community in Australia has aligned on, and for good reason.
Avalanche burial survival drops sharply after 15 minutes. The only way to recover a buried person within that window is for the people with them to search immediately using a beacon, probe and shovel. If any person in the group doesn't carry this gear, a burial may be unrecoverable.
Avalanche beacon (transceiver)
A beacon transmits a signal that your partners can search for if you're buried, and searches for signals when your partners need to find you. All modern digital beacons operate on the same 457kHz international frequency standard, meaning BCA, Mammut, Ortovox and Pieps beacons are cross-compatible.
What to look for: a triple-antenna digital beacon with a search distance of at least 40 metres, a clear and intuitive display, and a reliable single-burial search mode. Multiple burial search capability is important for groups of three or more. The BCA Tracker range is widely recommended for its intuitive interface under stress — beacon searches happen in the worst conditions, often with an injured or panicked group, and a simpler interface matters.
Practice matters as much as the gear itself. Before every season, drill your beacon search with your group until the process is automatic. The avalanche training centres at Mt Hotham (near the Machinery Spur track from the Mt Loch carpark) and Thredbo (top of the Kosciuszko chairlift, near the Basin T-Bar) have permanently installed transceiver signals you can search for in a real snow environment. Use them every season.
Avalanche probe
Once your beacon narrows the search to a small area, the probe pinpoints the exact burial location and depth before you commit to shovelling. It extends from a collapsed carrying length to 240–320cm for use. The section lock — usually a cord tensioning system that pulls sections rigid simultaneously — should deploy in one motion in gloves.
What to look for: minimum 240cm length, fast single-action deployment, clear depth markings, and enough shaft stiffness to probe through compacted debris without flexing off course. BCA, Black Diamond and Mammut all make probes that meet these requirements at various price points.
Avalanche shovel
A dedicated avalanche shovel is not a garden tool or a general camping shovel. The blade geometry, shaft length and handle design exist for one purpose: moving the maximum volume of compacted avalanche debris as fast as possible in exhausting conditions. The engineering difference between a proper avalanche shovel and a cheap alternative is meaningful in a real burial scenario.
What to look for: large blade area for efficient snow displacement, an ergonomic D-handle or T-handle that can be gripped firmly in gloves, a telescoping shaft that packs down to 40–50cm for the pack but extends to full shovelling reach (ideally 90cm+), and blade rigidity that doesn't flex when levering out compacted snow.
Shop all safety gear: Backcountry Safety · Beacons · Probes · Shovels · Airbag Packs
The backcountry pack
A touring pack needs to carry everything above while keeping the load stable for the ascent. The pack you use for resort skiing or a day hike is not well-suited for splitboarding.
What to look for: load close to the back for skinning balance, hip belt (releasable for the descent), shovel-specific carry (external A-frame or dedicated shovel pocket), probe holder, compression straps, and ice axe attachment if you're heading into steep terrain.
Volume: 20–30 litres is typical for day tours. You need room for your safety gear, warm layer, food, water, first aid kit, map, and potentially a change of gloves. Don't go too small — an under-packed pack leads to compromises on what you carry.
Airbag packs: an avalanche airbag pack inflates on deployment to increase your volume and improve the odds of staying near the surface of debris. The survival data for airbag packs is positive, and they are increasingly standard among regular backcountry riders. They add cost and weight but are worth considering once you're touring regularly.
Shop: Avalanche Airbag Packs
Outerwear and boots
Backcountry riding makes specific demands on outerwear. You generate significant body heat on the ascent and then stop on exposed ridgelines where wind and cold hit you hard. Ventilation — particularly pit zips — is not a luxury in the backcountry. A jacket that lacks pit zips forces you to either overheat on the skin track or stop to remove a layer in conditions where you don't want to stop.
GORE-TEX or equivalent fully waterproof-breathable construction is the standard for serious backcountry use in Australian conditions. Australian mountain weather is variable and wet. A 20,000mm-rated hardshell with fully taped seams handles it. Layering underneath — a merino base layer and a midlayer that can be removed and packed — lets you regulate temperature through the day.
Backcountry boots run medium to stiff flex for the power transfer required on technical descents. Compatibility with your binding system matters — standard snowboard boots work with both Spark and Karakoram systems, but verify before ordering if you're using a non-standard setup. We heat mould every boot free with every purchase, which matters even more for backcountry where you're wearing the boot for a full touring day rather than lift laps.
Shop: Backcountry Boots · Backcountry Jackets
Touring poles
Telescoping poles are used on the skin track for balance, rhythm and power on steep sections. They pack down small enough to attach to the outside of your pack for the descent. Adjustable length — longer for climbing, shorter for traverses — makes a meaningful difference on long ascents. Most avalanche probe systems are marketed as probe-only, but some poles include probe-capable shafts. This is less commonly used now that probe carry in the pack is standard.
Splitboard essentials
Beyond the main items, a complete splitboard kit includes a collection of smaller accessories that matter in the field:
- Stomp pad: your back foot sits on the board between bindings when you're unstrapped on flat terrain. A stomp pad is non-optional.
- Spare hardware: touring clips, pucks and binding screws can fail at the worst moment. Carry spares.
- Risers / heel lifts: riser blocks attach between the touring bracket and binding on steep ascents to reduce calf fatigue. Standard on longer skin days.
- Skin wax / skin care: ski icing (snow clumping on the skin's glue surface) kills efficiency on cold, wet snow. A bar of skin wax applied to the tip prevents it.
- Crampons (splitboard-specific): some touring setups include crampon attachments for the skins when the surface is icy enough that skins slip. Not essential for most Australian day touring but worth knowing about if you're heading into steep terrain after a freeze.
Shop: Splitboard Essentials
The training and education piece
No amount of gear replaces the training that makes using it effective. Before going independently into the backcountry:
Do AST 1. Avalanche Safety Training Level 1 is the baseline qualification. It covers companion rescue, terrain assessment, snowpack reading and group decision-making. The skills are not intuitive and the situations where you need them are exactly the ones where you're least capable of figuring it out on the spot. In Australia, AST 1 courses are run by several MSC Alpine Guiding Partners — including Alpine Access Australia, Blizzard Academy, K7 Mountain Guides and The Climbing Company. Find current course listings via MSC's guides page at mountainsafetycollective.org/guides.
Check MSC daily conditions reports. The Mountain Safety Collective publishes daily backcountry conditions reports throughout the Australian snow season. Read the report for the area you're planning before you leave the car. The report tells you avalanche hazard rating, snowpack notes, weather forecast and any specific terrain observations from field observers. It takes five minutes and changes decisions.
Go with experienced people first. The most valuable learning happens on actual tours with people who have done it before. Let's Split, Splitfest DownUnder and guided tours through MSC's Alpine Guiding Partners are all paths to this. Touring with experienced people before touring independently closes skill gaps that no course or guide fully covers.
Start conservative. Your first independent tours should be low-angle terrain, close to the resort boundary, on days with low hazard ratings. Build experience and extend your objectives over time rather than starting with the biggest terrain you can access.
Putting the kit together
A complete first-time splitboard kit — splitboard, bindings, skins, beacon, probe, shovel and pack — is a significant investment, typically AUD $3,000–5,000+ depending on spec choices. It's gear that lasts many seasons when looked after properly, and the cost per use over time makes sense for anyone who commits to touring regularly.
At Twelve Board Store we can build a complete kit from scratch, check every compatibility question, adjust component choices based on your intended terrain and experience level, and make sure you have everything you need. We are Australia's largest Jones dealer and an official Jones EPICenter — we stock the deepest range of splitboard gear in the country.
Come in, call us, or use our contact form and we'll start the conversation.
Relevant reading: Resort vs Backcountry Snowboarding — What's the Actual Difference? · How Backcountry Safety Gear Works — Beacon, Probe, Shovel Explained · Why Twelve Board Store Is Australia's Go-To Splitboard Store
Shop: Splitboards · Splitboard Bindings · Splitboard Skins · Backcountry Safety · Splitboard Essentials
Guides: Splitboarding Buying Guide · Splitboard Bindings Guide · Backcountry Safety Guide
