Snowshoeing is a great way to explore the hills and mountains when the landscape is blanketed in a layer of snow. It’s a pursuit that sits between hiking and skiing and allows outdoors fans to stay active in the winter. While snowshoeing looks straightforward enough, when you there are few things that are helpful to know.
Here’s what I wished I had known before I went snowshoeing. When looking for the it’s important to know that there are multiple types, and while they all have the same aim to allow you to walk on snow, they should be chosen carefully. I was fortunate to have a pair of lightweight but when my partner wanted to try my snowshoes because he felt his were too heavy, it turned out they were not the right size for him.
You see, snowshoes should be chosen according to your overall weight and also your shoe size. My MSR snowshoes are actually for women and while they were ideal for my size and weight, they were not great for my partner and did not provide enough float. Float is what stops you from sinking into the snow.
You want the snowshoes to have a large enough surface area to keep you “floating” on the surface of the snow but not so large and heavy that they make walking hard work. I found that my snowshoes, made for my weight, provided the right float but they were not suited to my partner. There are some snowshoes, as I discovered later, that can be adjusted to provide a different float according to the conditions and the weight of the user.
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