Snowshoes
I have an old Tubbs Snowshoes but I am interested in ones that give you enough float so you can carry a pack. (off trail.) Any ideas?
The msr lightning ascent with a pair of flotation tails give you a ton of flexibility for dealing with mixed types of snow and terrain.
It really depends on snow conditions and if you are on an established snowshoe trail others have walked. If you are going to be on established snowshoe trails that others have been walking, I use my MSR Denali snowshoes, as a note I am looking at the MSR Lightning Ascent as they tend to score well for their designed use. These shoes are fairly narrow as snowshoes go, designed to stay inside the track with each step and avoid punching post holes into groomed trails. If you are walking on newly fallen snow, a wider shoe may be preferable for better flotation which I use a pair of Tubbs snowshoes for maximum flotation. If its a combination of groomed trail and virgin snow walking, I have a pair of Atlas shoes that can accommodate both conditions fairly well.
Traveler has it right, as snow conditions can vary greatly. I have MSR Evo Ascents with the tails, and they give me a lot of flexibility for the winter hiking I do in northern New England. Here I value the aggressive traction, as I am more likely to find ice and hard-pack than deep powder, particularly if I am not breaking new snow.
If I were out west and likely to encounter lots of deep powder, then I would want something with more flotation.
The Evo Ascents are a bit more rugged than the Lightning Ascents, and less expensive. The "Ascent" part is the heel lift, which I find very useful when ascending a steep grade.
Enjoy!
I watch what the pros use, the NH Fish and Game officers who are the ones that do search and rescue in the Whites, mostly off trail in deep snow conditions, use 38" long 25 to 30 year old Sherpa Snowshoes (no longer made but they are out there on Ebay. Sherpas are basically bombproof.
What about the old type that are made with Rawhide that goes by the names like Beavertail or something like that? Better or worse then the modern types?
I started snowshoeing on wood and rawhide snowshoes and learned what the different shape frames did and when to use which type of shoe. There are still some wooden snowshoe makers around, though wood snowshoes are heavier, more difficult to walk with depending on the type, can be very difficult to regain footing if one falls during use and do not have the flexibility of the modern materials in my opinion.
Different materials like wood and rawhide snowshoes will have different shaping and construction than modern snowshoes generally speaking. To make things even more difficult, wood and rawhide snowshoes have different names as you move around North America which can make things rather confusing. A few basic types would include:
The Huron snowshoe is a commonly used type of wooden snowshoe that is typically teardrop shaped with a longer trailer off the back than other wooden shoes and upturned toe. Sometimes this shoe is called "Michigan Style", or "Algonquin" type and probably a half dozen different names depending where you are. These shoes are designed for different types of terrain, though they are not designed for climbing as oppose to traveling long distances on relatively smooth landscapes due to how they make a pretty firm trail once it's been walked on a few times by a few people in a line.
Bear Paw, a commonly used style wooden shoe shorter than standard use Huron type shoes but are wider (loosely shaped like a bear footprint). This type of shoe being wider than the other types can support more weight in their float and can be used for hills, though I would be careful about steep mountain trails in these shoes as they will be wider than most snowshoe trails and can be tiring to use due to changing one's gait to meet the shape of the shoes.
An "Ojibwe" is a fairly long (sometimes up to 5' in length) shoe that is designed for flat or rolling terrain use and are especially favored when walking many miles with groups of people and can quickly set up a sturdy trail path. Given the large surface area these shoes are favored by heavy users or those carrying extra weight into the back country. This type of shoe has a few different names like "Alaskan", "Ojibwa" that have slightly different features but do pretty much exactly the same things.
Having grown up with these types of shoes I have a fondness for them and keep a few pairs from my grandfather hanging in the garage for occasional use. However, I much prefer the modern snowshoes for their light weight construction, ease of use inside trail side boundaries, aggressive crampon claws in the toe and aggressive edging like the MSR Lightning Ascent for traversing steep slopes, along with a variety of features to choose from.
I would recommend getting a pair of modern snowshoes before committing to wood type shoes to get an idea of how these shoes work and if you enjoy the work involved to get into places few have wandered into before. Where you will be using these will play a large part in what type of shoe you get.
Last edited by Traveler; 11-26-2023 at 08:49.
IMHO, Unless you like the classic look, use the wooden ones for decoration. There was a radical change in snowhoe design about 40 years ago when Sherpa designed and patented the rotary pin binding. They "owned" the technical snowshoe market until the patent ran out. Almost every manufacturer copied it. MSR did a work around that IMHO is less robust (but still pretty good). With an old snowshoe the bindings did not pivot very well if at all. If on flat or slightly sloped snow, not a problem. But once you need to go upslope especially on crust the binding needs to pivot so the front of your boot sticks out under the angled snowshoe preferably with a set of spikes under the binding. If you take a conventional snowshoe on a conventional binding and hold you foot up in the air the snow shoe may pivot a bit but with pin binding the snowshoe goes vertical and the front of the foot is sticking out the bottom. Note some companies sell recreational snowshoes that look like the technical shoes but they skip the pin or pivot binding, dont buy them as they are no better than the old style.Originally Posted by Mother Natures Son
The one big advantage of the old style shoes are that they are quieter than most modern shoes. The plastic used on most new ones tend to be noisy. Old style shoes do need to be revarnished related to use, if not revarnished they can sag when wet.
Old style snowshoe bindings also were not great but they can be retrofit with an Iverson binding that works a lot better. My powder shoes for roaming the woods are Army Surplus Magnesium Snowshoes with Iverson bindings installed. No rotary pin or pivoy but they are quite large footprint compared to technical shoes and do much better on powder. The Army showshoes can be had for cheap but throw away the binding, I think that is why they stopped using them. The new style technical bindings are ever evolving but get better and better each year. MSR has a couple of great ones but they will not sell just the bindings.
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