The Rider Social ran three Trip and Split courses in 2016 and each one was a splitboard adventure but quite different in course content. This was ultimately down to the weather as the snow came late again to the Alps after a promising start mirroring the pattern we had at the same time in 2015. However, this season we had a marginally better base so when the mother-load did arrive in January we were able to ride some of the more interesting lines in the Chatel area.
The first group this year consisted of 3 riders who have attended our Split and Mix courses previously and a 4th (a friend of theirs) who jetted in from New York for the week. The snow came (around 1.2 metres) just in time for the start date of Jan 16th and it was of the super cold and light variety too. With so much of it on the doorstep there wasn’t a compelling reason to go driving around Europe looking for it so we opted to stay in the Haute Savoie region to ride.
We spent the week with Paul Verdier our UIAGM guide and hit up some of the lesser known spots in Chatel before heading over for a day in Chamonix to ride some incredible couloirs down to Trient in Switzerland. Thankfully the amazing Never Summer board profile (rocker / camber) made sure that leg fatigue was kept to a minimum given all of the powder.