Snowshoeing!!

I'll stick with cross country, using a walking staff and try uploading images.

 

When I was growing up back in the 1950's; my father had a pair of snowshoes that looked a lot like those wooden ones in your picture, Northern Dancer. His were a wooden frame, and rawhide stretched across the snowshoes and leather straps that hooked the snowshoe to your feet. They were awkward to use, but they did do a great job of keeping you from sinking in the snow. You would not have been able to walk in a very heavily treed area with these snowshoes since they were over two feet long and almost a foot across; but otherwise they worked just great.

I am sure that the ones my father had were pretty old, and might have even been made by Indians. Since he didn't have to use them a lot, they lasted for years and years. When I had to try and wade through that deep snow that lets you sink unexpectedly , I sure was wishing that I had a pair of snowshoes.

 

I've never had the opportunity to live where the snow was deep enough for me to have to use snow shoes. I don't think it gets that bad here either, at least it did not last winter.

 

I got my snowshoes some time ago and I like the Huron style. Funny, I should be reading this, I was at Sail (a large outdoor store) and was pricing some of the newer models. Costly, for sure, and I don't think that I will be replacing my set soon.

 

Depends of the terrain and where you are. I've seen snow as deep at ten feet in Algonquin. You just never want to negotiate any kind of a hike through that stuff - you simply wouldn't make it. If you have a sled behind you, you are not going anywhere.

 

Ten feet deep is some pretty deep snow, Dancer, and I sure would not want to be trying to walk on that and fall through ! Just walking on top of the snow that is 2-3 feet deep is seriously hard to get back out of when suddenly one leg sinks almost up to your hip in snow and the other leg is still on top. I usually ended up trying to crawl out and then stand up again, and hope I didn't sink in any more.

When the snow plow had to plow a lot of snow in the winter, and we had had some heavy snow or a blizzard; the intersections were often over 6' high. People would put bright ribbons on the top of the car antennas so we could see the other cars coming at the intersections. Once the snow got over 4', most of the fences were buried; so livestock could just wander out of the pastures and go wherever they wanted. The good part of that was that they usually wanted to be close to where they were being fed; so they mostly didn't stray very far away from the barn.

 

That's the whole point of having snowshoes - you don't go in up to your hip. But - it is still challenging and you get a good workout - especially your ankles. The deep snow allows one to make snow shelters (quinzee) and places to camp. The following are not mine but I have done this.

 

I did a project once in school on survival techniques in extreme cold weather. I made a small scale model of a snow den out of Styrofoam that looked similar to that. LOL. I was not aware they were called Quinzee, I always known them as a snow den. Thanks for that bit of information.

 

The word Quinzee is an Athabaskan word that entered English usage in 1984. It is in contrast to the igloo that is made with snow blocks. I tried making an igloo and the only thing that I learned was there is far more skill to making an igloo than I have. Thus - the Quinzee. You can dig it out of a snow bank or generate enough energy to make a snow mound; easily done when you have a crew to help. The best one I've seen was one with a layer about two feet off the ground that served as sleeping quarters.

 

It seems like we made a kind of similar thing in the winter; but the one we made also had fir or pine boughs in it . We would take the boughs and mound them up and layer them until they looked like kind of a little sleeping-size teepee. Then, we carefully layered snow over the top of that. if the fir part underneath was built right, then you could put enough snow on the whole thing to get inside and it kept the winnd out.
We never slept in one; but I think it would have helped to keep a person warm if you did have to sleep out in the snow and cold.
We also put a good layer of fir boughs on the bottom to lay on, and that was almost like insulation to keep thecold seeping up from the ground ind into your body.

 

I've slept in one - very quiet and certainly out of the wind and snow. BUT I also felt a little claustrophobic and I only did it once. The group made one and there were six guys who slept in it.

 

I've done that too and you are right about the snow collapse. The quinzee is specifically made to prevent that sort of thing from happening. I suppose that was the source of my anxiety; I just never felt really secure sleeping. But, I did it and I can say I did it.

 

Actually right now I live in Northern Nevada. I used to live in LA, but even here it does not snow enough for snow shoeing. I have taken to wearing cleets though, not falling on my bum!

 

I've not used a cleat boot but I use strap on cleats that I attach to the bottom of my boots. They can be really handy especially with nasty ice conditions.

 

You are right of course, there are few times that you really use them. Thought they do give one extra grip even when you are going through the trails. Crossing rivers, streams, covered with solid ice the the cleats will help. The price range is about $25.00

 

That's my thinking too - I just can't see me using any kind of cleats other than those. Sports people will use them for their trade.