New All Terrain Snowboards

A cool snowboard that rides well in any terrain but also allows you to hit the backcountry without lugging along snowshoes (or skis) to make the climb is Voilé's Split Decision Twin Tip Snowboard. Introduced in 1995, Voilé's hybrid refines what was originally just a niche oddity into a true high-performance, all-mountain board. Gone is the flat tail that made riding fakey awkward, if not impossible. Gone is the inside sidecut on each ski that left a snow-spewing gap in the center of the board. (Duh.)
The design is remarkably clean, though it may not sound that way. Here goes: Bolt any strap bindings to the board's removable steel plates that in one configuration help bind the halves together and in another serve as randonnée ski bindings to let you lift your heels to scoot uphill. Hinge the toes of each plate to the skis with steel pins, slap on the skins, and you're ready to climb. Fast. The 120-millimeter-wide skins provide impressive purchase. Once you've reached the top, slide the binding plates onto mounts to turn them into snowboard bindings, lock them in place with the same two pins, and latch the halves into a solid whole with burly metal clasps.

With this updated version you can even rotate your bindings to customize your stance, as with any snowboard. Just be sure to really torque down the adjusting screws; I lost three of them during a three-hour ascent of Mount Adams. The metal edges running down the center of the board make for a stiff ride, and the raised bindings make the Split Decision incredibly responsive-a quality you'll appreciate on long descents of unknown terrain, or even corduroy-carving at your local hill. $630. 801-973-8622. www.voile-usa.com

Stephanie Oakes is a fitness correspondent for Discovery Health Channel, a contributing editor for USA Weekend Magazine and the LA Times, and appears on NBC's 'Today in New York'. She can be reached at soakes@beststuff.com.