So as everyone knows I'm new to ski flying and needed to get a pair of snowshoes. I have size 14 feet so was looking for the biggest modern snowshoe I could find. REI seemed to have a pair that fit the bill (or foot in this case). The 36" Louis Garneau, Blizzard II 1036. I ordered a pair and was excited when they came in. But even with just hiking boots I needed help getting into them and the ankle strap is too short to be secured. If I was wearing some kind of pack boot or Mickey Mouse boot there would be no way. I would guess a size 10 would be the max size this would fit easily. Oh, I also required help getting out of these snow shoes.


Back to the drawing board. The talked to a number of outdoor stores and searched online. Everyone told me essentially the same thing, "yea they don't really make modern snow shoes for big feet, you'll need to go old school, try eBay". Back to Google and lots of searching for the old school snow shoes. Found some new ones but dreaded the idea of carrying a 60", heavy snow shoe (and trying to put it on).

Then I stumbled across Bigfoot Snowshoes in Canada. Gave them a call and he said "you'll have no problem getting any size boot into these. Excited I ordered a pair. Just got them today and wow are they nice. Much better quality then the Louis Garneau, and yep they'll fit any size boot a human will wear, and they come with a nice zippered stow bag (something the Louis Garneau didn't come with), and they are 40", and to top it off they are the same price! Highly recommended!
https://www.bigfootsnowshoes.com/collections/adventure-series-1/products/adventure-40-snowshoes

Get the biggest in surface area you can find. Small snowshoes in deep powder are useless.

Here is a better picture of the binding.

Phil,

A lot of trappers in the Upper Yukon Valley used to make their own snowshoe bindings out of inner tubes. Hard to explain, I'll look for pictures Point was, these guys were on and off dog sled/snow go all day, checking traps, so complex bindings just didn't work. These were simple: Just stick the toe of your boot in the front hole, grab the back end of the binding, pull it over the heel of your boot, and off you go.

Those bindings look pretty nice. Hard to tell how big those snow shoes are, but as Kurt noted, bigger is better.

MTV

Inner tube bindings: One style is 2-3" U-shaped wide strap tied to shoe then pulled over toe of boot area to hold front of foot to shoe. Another circle of rubber tube or an open U-shape of same rubber tied over toe strap area and extending to rear of boot. Push toe under front strap while pulling up same to fit...then pull rear of circle or U-strap behind and up the heel.

The advantage is getting them off quick if you fall into bear's den or deep overflow. But they stretch and turning takes several steps. If they break rubber is cheap fix but in this era of tubeless tires.......?

I have some of these and they work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC-x8NcJc2A One piece and search for commercial sources.

Homemade rubber by Tom Paragi. Now ADF&G bio that used to trap the Nowitna River out for Brownie's camp: http://www.alaskatrappers.org/stories_r ... dings.html

Gary

I had an urge to try snowshoeing a few years ago. At the time I had a condo across the street from Lake Hood, actually across from the west end of Lake Spenard. I went to REI and bought some of those modern snowshoes that the young urban dude recommended. He looked liked he knew his stuff with his man bun and wool socks under his sandals so I took his recommendation. I took them to the city park at Lake Spenard, strapped them on, stepped out onto about four feet of fresh snow..... and sank like a stone up to my hip. That made me say ugly words.

I'm not usually one to take things back for a refund but these things clearly didn't work. When I took them back and told the young urban dude what had happened, he said, "Oh, these won't work on snow. But you can use them to hike trails." What? I can wear my boots and hike on a well packed trail.

After much more research, including talking to my friend who grew up in Kenai (shoulda gone to the knowledge base first), I decided the old fashioned kind were the only way to go if one wanted to walk on snow. Unless you plan to get your plane stuck on a well groomed trail, you'll need 60" or more to walk on snow, in my humble opinion. If the newer style worked, you would see old pictures of trappers with a 24" piece of metal strapped on their feet. They had access to sheet metal and wood and, just like us, they would have found it easier to pack around a short snowshoe rather than a long one. They made long ones because that is what worked.

G44 wrote:Get the biggest in surface area you can find. Small snowshoes in deep powder are useless.

Kurt knows .......

After seeing the following newspaper article a few years ago, I had hoped to fly out to Ruby and buy a pair of George Albert's snowshoes but life got in the way for me. I still hope to fly out there one day...... I hope he's still there making shoes.

https://www.adn.com/rural-alaska/article/alaskas-master-snowshoe-maker/2010/03/29/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZefeeHPMqI

Happy Flying,
Keith

MTV and Gary thanks a ton for the inner tube tip, that video is cool. Keith I had a good laugh, thanks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would love to have a set of George's snowshoes.

Kurt

Here's another option for bindings. The first is a long video that eventually gets to the traditional method. The second and third links are a set of pictures that explain the method using flat oil lamp wick as the material.

I first saw these in the mid-80's when a trapper and big game guide named Linus O'Brien stopped by my camp on the way to his. He visited several times in later years and always had snowshoes on his dog sled....rumor was the dogs didn't last long but the shoes were always dependable and didn't need food. Not sure if he used rope, lamp wick, or leather but he could get in and out of the bindings quickly without having to use his hands if caught in a bad spot or overflow near a beaver lodge. .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyd8QXG5uh8
http://www.wildernessrhythms.com/1304
http://www.snowshoebindings.net/lampwickbindings.pdf

For me 10x56 were a minimum in deep snow.

Gary

I'm old-school: traditional Yukon (or Alaskan) Trail snowshoes with lamp-wick bindings. With practice you can get in and out of them quickly and without bending over. Nothing to break that can't be easily fixed in the field. Best used with mukluks, either traditional or Steger.

The First Nations people in Teslin, Yukon, used to make a very functional design. They had short radius rounded tips, were long, and not too wide. Dad had a pair with sinue webbing. Very traditional and authentic. Wide short snow shoes might float well, but walking, never mind running, with your feet spread apart 18" is tough. Long and skinny is best for speed and comfort. Cross country skis come to mind.

I hope there are still some being crafted in Teslin. It really was a trademark of the town.

For those needing snowshoes to handle those 'big loads' might I suggest the GV Wide Trail 12"x42". They are awesome!
Excellent binding system. Built tough. Not too heavy. I ordered a couple pair with a friend to save on shipping. My hoofs are bigger than yours Phil and these fit just fine.


You know what they say about guys with big feet?
Big socks

One thing you're going to have to accept is that in deep, fluffy powder, you're going to sink a fair amount no matter what's strapped to your feet. You can ski waist deep powder with gigantic skis that are 130mm wide and if you're not flying/planing, you're going to sink a fair amount until the snow under foot is compressed.

Of course, there are all different types of snow. The legend is true, as many as you can think of. A lot of denser snows will support big snowshoes fine, but it is good to oversize.

It's also a skill to be learned. Snow compresses at different rates under a big footprint like that so it's not going to feel like a nice firm base. it will be unstable and you have to use a little balance or you're going over. Pick up some telescoping backcountry ski poles with powder baskets while you're at it.

Why not make your own? I know today if it's not carbon fiber it's the old way. George Yaska Sr. shows us the old way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QntyCORt10

Some early snowshoe history related by him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBi_W5kFEU0

Gary

Teslin snowshoes: http://www.yukonmuseums.ca/treasures/gj/13.html

Still being made: http://www.yukon-news.com/life/snowshoe ... to-teslin/

I have three pair of shoes; two modern and one classic. I thought the modern metal/plastic ones would be much lighter but then I weighed them. All three types were within and oz or two. They were a recreational pair which is well worn and failing after about 50 miles of use. A professional trekking pair which are much stronger and good on slippery surfaces. The classic which are 14 by 60 inches and the best on loose snow. I had to replace some web on these after miles in very wet snow. The web stretched and broke. Of course the modern style would be best for plane carry.

The state of the modern snowshoe is a mystery to me. All I can figure is they are for groomed trails...most of them are ridiculously small for all but the hardest snow conditions. But there are good ones out there...just not in REI for the most part.

I've used several different snowshoes over the years, traditional and modern. The pair I settled on are the Northern Lites Tundra. Lots of flotation and very good grip on crusty, icy snow, too. I have size 15's, and the bindings fit fine. They're the lightest, toughest, best floating synthetic snowshoe I've found to date.

24.5 ounces per shoe


http://northernlites.com/tundra/

The best floatation I've ever had in powder was with 60" traditional shoes, and if stamping out a runway in deep powder is your mission, they're your shoes. But they suck on steep hills or brushy country or in crusty, icy conditions.

Traditional snowshoes also take a fair amount of upkeep. The varnish will last a whole season if you don't walk in anything but powder, but all it takes is a half hour on crust or ice and the varnish needs to be reapplied. Not a huge job, but not worth doing day after day when there are better alternatives.

Without the varnish the wood and rawhide is vulnerable to moisture. It takes very little moisture to swell the wooden joints or turn the rawhide to mush...conditions which are aggravated by refreezing them, and a pair of snowshoes that should last three lifetimes can be ruined in a month. That's one reason you see snowshoes hanging outside the cabin...it was disadvantageous to let them thaw out. If you're putting them in a warm airplane you'll have issues if you don't care for them.

Synthetic snowshoes eliminate that problem, and properly designed they will give more floatation for the same footprint because the decking is solid, not meshed. They're also much tougher (if properly built, and not all are), and most importantly, they give vastly superior traction on crust and ice. That's not a big deal on flatland, but it can be a HUGE deal when the terrain gets steep.

This sort of grip can literally be a lifesaver in steep country with hard snow.


Compared to everything else about flying, much less ski flying, snowshoes are ridiculously inexpensive. Pretty sure there's no law against having more than one pair...

WTH! So snowshoes are like airplanes? You can't just have one?

Thanks everyone for your posts I really appreciate it, I've learned a lot. I'm in Texas for about two weeks so probably don't need to worry about snowshoes, but we are supposed to get another couple inches while I'm gone so I'll get some new snow on top of the old to try out the newest shoes.

We got into snowshoeing several years ago. After looking at the popular priced brands, I concluded that the best bang for the buck at the time were made by Atlas, so I got a pair for each of us. We're both kind of hefty, so we went for the large sizes. Bigger (more surface area) is better, but like Z said, no matter what you wear, you'll sink in soft snow. Atlas makes pretty OK bindings, which seem to work with different shoes and boots.

I bought a different Atlas pair for keeping in the airplane in the winter. I don't find them on their current website, but they are slightly wider and shorter although with the same weight rating and approximately the same surface area, which made them a bit easier to pack in the baggage compartment. I tried them out in soft snow, to see if having them a little wider made it harder to motate, but I couldn't tell much difference.

Poles make a huge difference in the comfort of snowshoeing. Constantly trying to keep from falling over in deep snow is really tiring, but the poles make the difference--as long as their baskets are big ones. Telescoping poles that can be adjusted for different conditions are best--it's not like having specific lengths as is done with cross country skis. And of course, they can be telescoped down to be pretty compact.

The important thing to remember is that without snowshoes, anyone in the back country in deep snow is in real trouble. You can't get there very fast on snowshoes, but you can't get there at all without them.

Cary

I tried several different bindings on my snowshoes. When I was working in the woods marking timber 30+ years ago we had the traditional leather bindings. They were just too flexible. After I retired I started snowing for recreation so tried a couple different pairs of rubber and nylon types. They are too flexible too to suit me too. A couple years ago I got these and love them.. Very easy to put on and take off and hold the snowshoe straight on my feet.

From Ebay: "These are the World's best snowshoe bindings. I make them myself and have over 2000 pairs sold to date..." link https://www.ebay.com/itm/snowshoe-bindi ... Q-wQNUV4Ig

I don't know if they will work on alumimum snowshoes or not. Shouldn't be too difficult to attach then though...I think.