Igneous Women’s Carbon Swallowtail Splitboard

Like a masterfully forged katana, Igneous’s Women’s Carbon Swallowtail was gorgeous, deadly

A boutique shop out of Jackson Hole, Wyo., Igneous handcrafts custom skis and snowboards and, as it turns out, the women’s deck they submitted to the test was actually the owner’s wife’s personal split, designed after four years of prototyping on Teton Pass. Her built-to-spec 147 Swallowtail pairs an enormous 40 mm of taper—a measurement rarely seen even on bigger men’s boards—and a corset-tight 6.5-meter sidecut; testers found this unconventional combination allowed the Igneous to levitate in bottomless powder and pivot nimbly through tight, technical glades.

“A ninja in the trees,” commented one freerider, who judged the Swallowtail prime for deep, big-mountain objectives—so long as you don’t end up riding switch. She called the build “stiff and hearty” and the tail stable, “despite its lack of substance.” Another smitten all-mountain rider wrote, “You merely have to think about it and it turns.” She, too, found float unparalleled, pop energetic and kickturns “smooth.” Believe it or not, the Igneous is not built with “wizardry,” as she guessed. Rather, it’s centered around a fir core with maple stringers and sidewalls, which is supported by an aramid-reinforced triaxial carbon fiber weave and sandwiched between a sintered graphite base and a stunning beetle-kill-pine topsheet. The biggest compliment one tester could give? Even after she found out about the unholy price tag, she vowed to go out and buy one for herself.

$1,549
igneousskis.com
5.2 lbs. (147)
Lengths: 142, 147, 152, 157