Snowshoes

[Benjblt]

I was hoping to get a little advise on what snowshoes to get or what to look for. I'm hoping to use mine mainly to hike roads that are crusted over with winter snow and trails that would be described as "rolling terrain", something middle of the road to get my feet wet. Any thoughts or advise?. . . specific or general is appreciated. I've never snowshoed before. Thank you.

 

[ramont]

I use a pair of MSR Revo Explore shoes because;

1. They are light
2. They grip ice and sidehill well because they have teeth on the vertical and horizontal
3. The style of bindings make it easy to put them on and take them off and tighten them
4. They have tails that can be added to give better floatation
5. The open design lets snow fall off so you don't carry as much weight as you walk

The most important things to remember is to pick a shoe that is rated for the weight you expect that they will carry and look for bindings that are easy to use.

 

[doverpack12]

For what you describe I think most snowshoes will work so focus on the weight capacity and bindings and make sure the boots you will wear fit in the bindings well. Costco sells the Mountain Profile by Yukon Charlies and they work pretty well or as well as any other tubular snowshoe with a pretty decent cleat under the ball of your foot for grip. I use mine antler hunting with steep sidehilling and that is the only area I feel like I would rather have something like the MSR Lightnings for the edge grip. I think mine were $40-50

 

[oldgoat]

It was alluded to above about the weight rating, you don't want to be on the maximum side of it. So if you weigh 210, buy the 250# rating, not the 225# rated, at least that's my opinion and experience. Packed trails it won't matter much, but step off the trail and it will become apparent. By the time you add winter clothes, backpack etc etc, you are all of the sudden over weighted.

 

[ramont]

I agree with oldgoat, that's why I like being able to add the tails on to my MSR snowshoes, when I'm just trail or road walking I don't use the tails but when I'm hunting and I'm carry more load I add the tails.

 

[b2one]

Another MSR fan here. One selling point for the removable tails is that if you get into snow camping the snowshoes and removable tails will account for 4 snow anchors to build a shelter with. You can also adjust flotation by adding or removing the tails if you move from packed trail to loose powder. That, and the side rails mentioned above. It's hard to do without them once you have used them on hills.

 

[Benjblt]

I agree with oldgoat, that's why I like being able to add the tails on to my MSR snowshoes, when I'm just trail or road walking I don't use the tails but when I'm hunting and I'm carry more load I add the tails.

So oldgoat used the example of buying something that is rated for about 20% more weight than my body weight. Would I do that along with the tails? I weigh 175 so I was thinking of buying the 25", which is rated at 220 lbs. I'd generally just be adding about 15 to 30 lbs to my weight. Would you think buying the tails would pay off as well? There is always a possibility I may pack out an animal with them too.

 

[b2one]

You can start with the 25", which will probably be adequate 90% of the time. The tails can be purchased down the road if/when a trip may require them (packing out an animal). No need to buy it all at once.

 

[Kotaman]

I run 3 pair based on conditions:

*Atlas Mountain 1235’s ( I believe the new version is the Serrate) All purpose, Mountain shoe. Awesome bindings.
*MSR Mountain Lightning Ascents - Great on hard snow/ice. I don’t “float” on these in soft snow like I do on the Atlas.
*Maine Guide Rabbit Hunters for the deep, fluffy stuff. Awesome shoe for deep snow.

If I could only own one pair, it would be the Atlas. I wear these 90% of the time. Though the bindings on the MSR’s are nice, nothing that I’ve found compares to the Atlas Mountain bindings for comfort and ease of use.

 

[ramont]

Those Maine Guide Rabbit Hunters look really nice. I like the idea of having the slightly turned up back, I'm always really careful when I try to backup with my MSRs, I tripped one time and ended up with a pretty bad head gash from banging my head on a small tree stump due to me getting my shoes tangled up.

 

[couesbitten]

My girlfriend and I both use the MSR Evo snowshoes and absolutely love them, one piece design, durable as hell!

Durable Snowshoes with Built for the Trail—Evo Snowshoes by MSR

 

[6mm Remington]

I have the MSR Lightning Ascent and love those things. The bindings are great and easy to manipulate with gloves or cold hands, the traction is superb, the heal lifts work great for going up steep slopes, and they are very rugged. A little more than a lot of shoes but you will only have to buy once!

Ultralight Snowshoes with Aggressive Perimeter Traction – Lightning Ascent Snowshoes by MSR

If you are in the 200 pound range or heavier I would get the 30" shoe. Also get some good trekking poles that are collapsible. They are great to have and help in lots of ways.

 

[frankrb3]

If I were going to buy a new pair of snow shoes it would be the MSR Evo Ascents. Problem is I still have a pair of those old military surplus magnesium snowshoes which get the job done when ever I actually need snowshows (maybe 2-3 times a year). They can be bought pretty cheap and you can rig a lot of different kind of bindings to work on them.

 

[Violent Hippie]

MSR Ascent . Ive used them for over a decade every winter with no problems.

 

[BRWNBR]

I’ve been in enough varying snow conditions with gear
Or no gear I just buy the biggest shoes I can. I’ve never been over shoed. But man there’s time I wished they were a foot bigger in all directions! I’m running tubbs 36” mountain shoes right now. Wet snow is about the only snow I’ve seen that I feel the weight ratings on any shoe is almost accurate. Once you hit sugar snow/powder/thin crust the bigger shoe the better!!

 

[BRWNBR]

36” shoes 200lb. Post hole hike.

Military shoes only good for hard snow or sand.

Small shoes. Good for small people in small amounts of snow.

36” shoes, 260lbs hard crust

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SLDMTN]

This picture struck me as pretty stinking funny.

 

[BRWNBR]

Ha well I got sick of walking in sand with all that weight.

 

[Lawnboi]

MSR lightning with the ascent binding. I weigh 150lbs and went with the big ones. the lightning deck has boat loads of grip, even when compared to MSRs other offerings. Also don't skimp, just get the ascent binding.

Just got 10" of fresh snow, in April! Still have a good base. Put on a few miles with a 50lb pack and my wife's msr revo shoes, just to try them, im glad iv got the lightning.

 

[SLDMTN]

Ha well I got sick of walking in sand with all that weight.

Oh it's logical solution to the definite suckfest of walking on soft sand with heavy packs. I'm just not sure which is funnier to me, that you thought of it or the looks people would give you if you did that in a populated area. Necessity is not the mother of all inventions, suckfests are haha.