A splitboard is essentially a normal snowboard which splits into two halves. These halves become skis for travelling uphill, or touring. To enable the rider to walk uphill, adhesive-backed ‘skins’ are attached to the base of the skis to provide traction on the snow. Once at the top of the slope, the rider removes the skins, attaches the two skis together and it transforms back into a snowboard, ready for a well-earned descent through untracked powder.The alpine is both symmetrical and asymmetrical and only has a shovel on the tip unlike the all mountain and freestyle which has shovels at both ends. The construction means that, the alpine is supposed to be ridden only in one direction.