I've been using 22" snowshoes but they sink so far into the snow that I've ditched them a few times. Would 30" (potentially with tails) be much easier to walk in, or am I going to be sinking in just about as far but with a bigger heavier shoe?

Depth when I wear snowshoes is usually 9-24", unpacked. Weight is 155-165lbs including gear

I write to stir the pot and perhaps get folks to look at backcountry snowshoeing in the mountain deeps differently. A lot of this defies modern thought.

I snowshoe in the Colorado mountains. Before shifting to snowshoeing, I backcountry telemark skied for 30+ years. I found modern snowshoes lack float and were very frustrating and energy inefficient, often giving me one foot of float in 4-5' of snow. Oof. I also found the modernism that you need a snub-nosed snowshoe to climb bizarre. No one needs a snub-nosed backcountry ski to climb. Grin.

So, I went nuts and bought 12x60 Ojibwa traditional snowshoes, added steel crampons under my forefoot (next season I'll add crampons for lateral grip as well). How'd it work? A few points of my experience, in deep rocky mountain powder, into spring conditions (icy, dry, snow packed, powder, shifting every ten feet) ...

1. Climbing: lateral crampons will help, but with just an underfoot crampon, herringbone (when trail's wide enough), side stepping, et al, climbs up 30˚-45˚ slopes are doable.
2. Float is stunning, well beyond anything a postage stamp extended crampon (aka modern snowshoe) can achieve. I stay on top. This fact alone means I use far less energy moving through the mountains.
3. Long Ojibwa snowshoe: brilliant. Climbs fine, much better than sinking to arm pits in modern shoes and then facing a 5' wall for the next step. Narrow form handles tight spaces well and is very much like climbing with backcountry skis. Narrow/long form means no waddle to my stride as the shoes nest close with each stride ... very comfortable and efficient. Tip cuts through tight forest trees and bush sticking out. I wouldn't mind a more aggressive upturn of my front tip's front third.
4. I use a 6' tiak pole, and uphill side "paddle" technique for balance as needed (I use it far more when wearing microspikes on the low trails hiking up to the good snow above, snowshoes strapped to my backpack). Search "tiak altai skis" for technique. Works amazingly well on steeps, and narrows: simply shift to a shorter grip and angle the tiak as needed through the trees.
5. Torque on the binding increases exponentially as the slope increases, most notably above 30˚. Solid, hearty biding required. I plan on testing modified H leather bindings next year. Super A bindings weren't as solid as I'd hoped.
6. On steeps greater than 30˚ "breaking trail" still feels like breaking trail. Everything else, there is no more breaking trail, the float is that amazing.
7. Silent. Shhhhh.

If you've tried backcountry snowshoeing the modern way and been frustrated, consider going against the grain and give the above lunacy a try. Grin.

I borrowed a pair of snoeshows and summited Maggies peak this winter. I want to buy my own and do some more similar stuff (e.g. Mt. Ralston, snoeshowing in Yosemite, etc.)

Anyone have any recommendations? I was thinking maybe the MSR Evo Ascent from REI.

Weight is 170 lbs. give or take.

Hello,

My husband and I have only gone snowshoeing a couple of times, and we are thinking about buying a pair to take our daughter hiking the winters, while the other one snowboards.

Is it possible to get pair that would fit us both ? ( We are similar weights) and his shoe size is men's 9.5 and mine is women's 6.5-7.

Are binding adjustable enough to fit both our shoe sizes?

Any recommendations on entry level snowshoes?

Some background that might be helpful? We live in Colorado, we will carry our daughter on our back in a backpack.

Any advice for some newbies would also be great!

I'm using Gortex hiking boots and I have this issue where snow accumulates on the tops of my toes and melts through to make my toes wet by the end of the day. It only happens on the toes where the gaitors don't cover. Does anyone have any snowshoeing hacks they use to prevent this?

it looks like a copy of the MSR lightning ascent for almost half the price. There aren’t many reviews of this model online and I haven’t found any direct comparisons between the two. Thanks!

About a week ago I had the beginnings of an eye infection. Normal conjunctivitis, I didn't really notice it. I just brought more eye drops with me when I went out. Probably the third or fourth time in my life that I've had one. Then the next day I went snowshoeing for about 3 hours. The day after that my eye infection went from 10 to 100. Easily the worst that I've ever had and a week later my eye is still pretty unhappy. It's under control, I've been to the doctor etc.

The only thing that makes any sense here is that the cold air dried my eyes out and made the eye infection much worse than it would have been otherwise. I did not wear goggles. It wasn't windy that day. It wasn't snowing much either.

Anyone else experienced anything like this?

Is it practical/possible to use cross country ski boots for snow shoeing? I use a very comfortable pair of x-country boots for skiing. They seem to fit my snowshoe bindings quite well but I’ve never actually used them skiing. Will they wok?

What say you?

Hey all! I tried searching the sub, but didn't find anything similar to this, so here I am.

Balling on a budget with an old pair of USGI magnesium snowshoes. Had to make the bindings myself because I've got some dummy wide feet.

That said, the built-in crampons on the bottom are pretty smooth, and I am planning on filing them a bit, but I was wondering if anyone else on here has ever made their own crampons for snowshoes? Or might have some advice or alternatives?