One winter, I had a group of Boy Scouts who had backpacked on snowshoes to Aspen Meadow (above Pinecrest and just over the ridge from Dodge Ridge ski area) for a 3 day trip. During our lunch on the middle day, a snowboarder came by "skootchline blunt". He said he had apparently boarded out of bounds without seeing any ski boundary signs. He had been "skootching" and potholing for hours (since about 10:30, he thought, and it was about 1PM), trying to figure out how to get back to the ski area. We told him that if he continued another quarter mile (uphill most of the way), he would come to the section of the road that is pretty much downhill most of the way to the Dodge Ridge parking lot (a bit over 3 miles). He could probably slide most of that distance. Then there would be a quarter mile uphill to the lower end of the parking lot. I loaned him a pair of snowshoes and went with him to the road crest and turned him loose. I guess he got back ok. He also told us he had nothing to drink or eat, but, as a high school football player, he was taking creatine daily, so he was really strong (never mind that creatine is a fairly strong diuretic). We did give him some hot soup and cocoa before I took him to the road crest.

So backcountry snowboarding is not exactly new (this was about 1994 or 95). They now have split boards and skins, so going uphill is easier than "skootching". Doesn't help with the statistic of lots of boarders caught in avalanches, though.