Walking on (Frozen) Water: A Primer on Snowshoeing

Snowshoes are a simple concept. Weight distributed over a larger area doesn’t sink as much into the snow.

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Walking on (Frozen) Water: A Primer on

Snowshoeing

by Darren Bush on November 13, 2012 · 4 comments

in Travel, Travel & Leisure

This post is brought to

you by State Farm

What’s this?

Once upon a time in Central Asia,

some prehistoric inventor

watched his friends trudge

through deep snow in hot pursuit

of a tasty mammoth A snowshoe

hare went bounding by and the

prehistoric equivalent of a light

bulb went off

Homo ingenius slapped a few

pieces of wood on the snow and

tied them on his

feet Rudimentary, but he got to

the mammoth first and got to

keep the tusks

For thousands of years, native

people from the North Country

have been using snowshoes as

four-wheel drive for their feet

Without them they would have

been immobile for the winter,

which means freezing or starving

For these people,

snowshoes were critical to

survival Contrary to

popular belief Eskimos

didn’t use snowshoes, as

they mostly walked on ice

It was further south where

deep snow made travel

impossible

without flotation

The effectiveness of snowshoes wasn’t lost on the military When a battle was fought in snow, the better snowshoe won A few decisive victories were won by the British during the French and Indian Wars due to their superior snowshoes The famous Tenth Mountain Division was issued both skis and snowshoes as they trained on the slopes of Mount Rainier Their valor in World War

II was well documented and their effectiveness as a fighting force was enhanced by their ability to

go where others couldn’t As I build and repair traditional shoes, I’ve become a bit of a magnet for people who find an old pair of snowshoes in their father’s or grandfather’s garage More often than not, they’re Army issue from the 10th Mountain Division

Voyageurs and trappers learned quickly from the indigenous people the benefits of traveling by snowshoe Even today many trappers still travel this way, using smaller, more maneuverable shoes for working their trap lines In Scandinavia some postmen even still deliver the mail by snowshoe Their utility has not diminished with time

Snowshoe Construction 101

Snowshoes are a simple concept Weight distributed over a larger area doesn’t sink as much into the snow I weigh about 200 pounds My feet are size 10.5 According to my back-of-envelope calculations, one of my hiking boots has about 50 square inches of floatation, or about four pounds per square inch My traditional laced snowshoe is 12×60, and after a little calculus to

calculate the area under the curve, my snowshoes have about 450 square inches of floatation, less than half a pound per square inch All things being equal, where I might sink to my knees in my boots, I would sink only to my ankles as the snowshoes compress the snow Below I am walking in

18 inches of snow

Traditional Snowshoes

Traditional shoes have been made the same way for centuries The traditional wood for

snowshoe frames has always been ash, due to its durability to weight ratio and its relative ease of shaping Ash staves are split out of a log and worked down to size with a drawknife or crooked

shaping Ash staves are split out of a log and worked down to size with a drawknife or crooked knife These staves are never sawed as it’s important to follow the grain so that when the frame is bent it doesn’t crack After the staves are shaped, the wood is steamed to soften the lignin, which acts as a glue holding together the wood fibers Steam it too much and you can cook out the lignin; steam it too little and it won’t bend It takes a practiced hand and a few ruined frames to learn how to do it

Here’s a chair created by some design students in the UK Yes, it is wood Amazing

Once the wood is soft and

flexible, it’s time to clamp it

onto a form The form is just

a frame shaped to create

your snowshoe in the style

you want, with lots of places

to clamp the wood in

place This must be done

quickly (you have about a

minute) or the lignin starts to

harden and you may have to

re-steam or toss your

stave Let the wood rest on

the form for an hour or so

and you have a snowshoe

frame

Lacing Your Frames

The traditional material for lacing is leather cut into thin strips called babiche It’s a species of

rawhide that softens when soaked in water and hardens as it dries It can be thick or thin, but

whatever it is, lacing with it is like weaving linguini It takes a practiced hand to weave with babiche.

The patterns can be quite open with thick lacing, or very fine with thin, almost string-like lacing The tighter the weave, the better the flotation, so for powdery snow a tighter weave is

best Some of the patterns woven by my two favorite shoe builders, the Attimatek and Eastern Cree, are works of art Function and beauty go together perfectly

A nice combination of modern and ancient is to use wood frames but a modern material for the lacing I have used sliced neoprene and flat nylon webbing for lacing shoes, and they both work very well, are more durable, and can be more forgiving Babiche needs to be kept varnished or it will soften on contact with moisture, and to keep it from wearing out

Generally the footbed is laced last This is the area right underneath your foot and is made with thicker and more durable lacing material, whatever it might be The tips and tails are usually a finer

thicker and more durable lacing material, whatever it might be The tips and tails are usually a finer size and have a tighter weave The pattern is fairly simple and anyone can do it with a little

practice

Whether it be nylon or babiche, the shoes

need to be varnished to waterproof both the

frames and the lacing A good spar varnish

(from a marina store, not Generic Home

Center) is critical as it is more flexible and lasts

longer Just slather it on and keep going until it

doesn’t absorb any more

Bindings

Bindings attach your feet to your shoes,

allowing the heel to lift while keeping the ball

of your foot right over the pivot

point Bindings range from a simple piece of

lamp wick to a formed leather or neoprene

harness that hugs your foot The tails drag,

providing a ruddering effect, keeping the

shoes facing forward This binding is a

full-grain leather work binding which fastens to

the footbed I like leather because it’s durable

and snow doesn’t stick to it, plus it doesn’t

get stiff in the cold

The purpose of this article is not to teach you

how to build a pair of shoes but to make you

aware of the basics, so you can understand

your equipment better and maybe be inspired to

make your own Resources for learning how to

build are listed below

Modern Changes

Modern shoes are a far cry from the wood and leather hand-built snowshoes of the last half

dozen millennia Frames of aluminum and even titanium became the order of the day, with decks made of neoprene or other similar materials Modern snowshoes come with injection-molded toe pieces and built-in crampons, which are claw-like teeth that grab the snow with a serious bite Bindings are more sophisticated too The shoes on the left in the photo above are moderns from Crescent Moon, and you can see a red plastic binding with two black straps across the top of the boot The modern bindings really snug down around the foot right over the crampon They are more complex, and that has advantages and disadvantages The advantage is adjustability; the disadvantage is that more complex means more things that can break

But in general the upside of the modern shoe is that they require less maintenance than traditional ones Metal frames and plastic decks and bindings don’t wear out if used properly There are other advantages as well The crampons are excellent for snow conditions where there is a lot of cycling between freezing and thawing, making a surface crust that is slippery for traditional shoes

Because they are smaller and narrower, some people find that their stride is more natural Models made specifically for running in the snow are available too; they’re as small and light as possible, which means less floatation than a wide shoe, but more mobility

The downsides? Aesthetics, for one No one hangs a pair of modern shoes over the fireplace They can be squeaky in certain conditions, and without the crampons, the deck material is very slippery And as mentioned, modern shoes tend to be smaller, so you sink a little more in light

snow

I won’t reveal my bias here, as I own both kinds and use them both in different conditions I can say

Snowshoeing makes a great date You should probably tell your gal to come wearing pants

though.

that in my area of the world where hills are gentle and snow is generally fluffy and untracked, I use traditional shoes When I travel to hilly places out west, out come the moderns

What About Using Poles?

I love poles Even with the most stable

snowshoes, poles provide a measure of

balance that makes snowshoeing a lot easier

for novices, and gives you a little boost up hills

It also adds a little upper body workout and

some serious cardio I also use them sometimes

as a sort of impromptu monopod for taking

pictures in lower light

Speaking of which, snowshoeing continues to

gain popularity with photographers who love

shooting in the winter Cross-country skiing is

great, but if you want to stop and take a

picture, slipping and sliding can make it tough to

frame a shot

The Zen of the ‘Shoe

In the fast paced world, we need something to

slow us down Cross-country skiing used to be

a fairly leisurely activity, but the Lycra crowd

came in with skate skiing and turned it into a

very fast-paced sport Not that there’s anything

wrong with that: a nice long skate feels good,

like a nice long run feels good But everything

moves faster now

I’m not sure if the need for slowing down is the reason, but snowshoeing has passed Nordic skiing

in its growth and shows no signs of slowing down I find myself carrying a small pack and walking rather than skiing, checking out the birds, and seeing more than I would if I were focusing on

balance and staying on track

Strap on your snowshoes, leave the world behind, and enter the quiet stillness

of the woods in winter.

For winter camping, I prefer snowshoeing while pulling a toboggan with all my gear on it Weight and bulk become non-issues with a toboggan, and camping in a canvas tent with a small

woodstove in it is as comfortable as anyone can expect in the wilderness When it’s 80 degrees warmer inside the tent than outside, it’s almost cheating Almost

Try it out You can build, buy, or borrow a pair and get out there If you live in warmer environs, drive to some snow It’s worth the trip, I promise

Resources

North House

Folk School

(www.northhouse.org): Teaches snowshoe building classes as well as a number of other traditional crafts and skills

Country Ways (www.snowshoe.com) Sells snowshoe kits with pre-bent frames and complete instructions on lacing and finishing

Ferdy Goode, an artist, canoe builder and snowshoe maker

(http://beaverbarkcanoes.wordpress.com/) bumps his head and forgets more about

snowshoeing than I’ll ever know His shoes are in demand worldwide and he also builds and restores birchbark canoes

Crescent Moon Snowshoes (http://www.crescentmoonsnowshoes.com) Owner and Founder Jake is the real deal His shop is powered by wind and they have a great

environmental story One of the top modern shoes

Atlas Snowshoes (http://atlassnowshoe.com) Another great company, one of the first modern shoe companies

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