Backcountry riding – whether on skis or snowboard – is particularly alluring for the inherent promise that’s weaved within it: untracked powder so long as you’re willing and able to put in the work.
More to the point, it’s the way down that’s particularly attractive, but after your first tour, you quickly realize that the lion’s share of time is spent hiking to the line you’ve been ogling. A few hours of work for a few minutes of complete and utter bliss.
Acclaimed rider and filmmaker Antti Autti first burst onto the scene as a freestyle prodigy from Finland, but in recent years has truly fallen in love with backcountry freeriding. And his films like this one and this one, that serve as odes to the discipline, are simply beautiful.
What’s often lost in film, though, is the work put in to hike to a line, and how the truly devoted splitboarder must also learn to fall in love with the uphill slog, because, depending on weather, exposure, and snowpack, you could hike an entire day only to get shut down.
Autti puts it this way: “It took me a while to understand that to actually be great in the mountains and to enjoy the things you do there, you have to be able to enjoy the way up as well.”
There’s a metaphor in there somewhere. About slowing down, being present, and learning to appreciate the tasks that are difficult that see you working toward a goal you may not even realize in the end because Mother Nature is in complete control. And perhaps that’s truly what makes splitboarding and other backcountry pursuits so rewarding – the difficult paired with the fun. The deep powder lines and the laughs with your buddies when you’re bonking and need a snack. The above sheds light on this truth. And if it doesn’t make you want to jump on a split, nothing will.
