Do you like to snowshoe / wear snowshoes?

[Pig Pen]

Call me a girlie-man, but I find the going much easier with snowshoes even if things are fairly well packed down.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

This is the part I don’t understand. For me the effort is less with snowshoes on than the effort without which is often like walking on a sandy beach.

As I said before, I think it depends on the individual. Am not an exercise physiologist, but it probably has to do with differences in how each of us push off with our feet. But, have done so much snowshoeing I know where the cutover point is for me.

How we leave the trail for others is important, though. Like so many other things (such of LNT), each of us has a responsibility/obligation to our fellow hikers. Sometimes, when we're solo hiking and it's snowing it may feel like we're the only person who's been on that particular trail, so it won't matter what we do, but ... that's not the case, of course.

I realize I'm preaching to the choir here.

 

[w7xman]

I just went for a walk in them and loved every minute of it. XY

 

[peakn]

Love being out on a trail in the winter, with or without. I just seem to enjoy the experience a little more with them on. Living in Waterville Valley, I can be at a trailhead or the ski lift in under 15 minutes so have to choose- snowshoe/ski. I like to include at least 1 day of snowshoeing in the week to break up the downhill skiing and to exercise a slightly different set of muscles.
It's also the only way I get my "better half" out on a trail in the winter so for that reason alone, I prefer to use them.

 

[Rols]

Put me down for snowshoes any time I can. They offer in new snow conditions more traction for the ascent. Descents when snow is right can be far more effortless on snowshoes.

 

[Mohamed Ellozy]

Descents when snow is right can be far more effortless on snowshoes.

Going down in winter is great fun. Steve Smith, in his wonderful Snowshoe Hikes in the White Mountains, writes:

Descent times are often much faster than in summer, especially if you have a softly packed snowshoe track. A joyful swoop down in these conditions can take half as long as picking your way down a rocky, rooty trail in summer.

 

[Paradox]

Real men like snoeshoes!

 

[KevCon223]

I put them on first chance I get.


Kevin

 

[Chip]

Me thinks you need another option, but I voted #2. I'd prefer to bare boot but will mount shoes when it seems appropriate. "Seems Appropriate" is different in the White's vs the 'Dacks, too.

 

[Bobby]

I just got new ones and had them on today in the driveway while shoveling. I'll put them on at the first opportunity.

 

[grog]

I only hike Mt. Wachusetts and Mt. Monadnock in the winter and I like to wear sneakers all year round. I agree it's much easier to wear snowshoes but I'm out for an all around workout.

I find wearing sneakers keeps my feet warmer because I'm using more of my foot muscles to keep my balance, burning calories creates heat. The foot has a lot of muscles and I like to work them all. I don't like using aid to walking.

My main thing is to get exercise, be outside and have fun and I accomplish all that without snowshoes or crampons, although I always bring crampons. I've been hiking with sneakers year round for 6 years now and my feet keep getting stronger, my back and knees feel great and my balance is even getting better.

grog

 

[dudley]

I'll use snowshoes when absolutelt necessary, but for the most part, when I have them on I can't help but think I'd be having much more fun if I was X-C skiing instead

 

[skiguy]

I like to include at least 1 day of snowshoeing in the week to break up the downhill skiing and to exercise a slightly different set of muscles.

I concur with this weather downhill or cross-country skiing. For the cyclists on the board there is a big camp that theorizes snowshoing is an excellent off season training tool as similar muscles are used in both sports.

 

[skiguy]

Where are all the xx snowshoe people ?

 

[RoySwkr]

I didn't answer because the poll leaves out the most obvious response (which applies to me): I wear them when I think it is easier.

There is some inertia here: if I start up a packed trail and the snow gets deeper I may delay putting them on due to the loss of rhythm and time to take off pack etc., similarly I will leave them on to walk on bare ground across the parking lot to save the trouble of carrying them the last few steps.

I try to go on at least one real snowshoeing trip per year, where I find a woods road or something with over a foot of real snow and break it out in my big snowshoes (some years this is harder than others). I don't consider wearing snowshoes for traction on icy packed trails to be real snowshoeing although I do it when required.

Some days when I hike a trail that I think is well packed I will leave the snowshoes at home to save the weight, if the tracks stop halfway up then I will quit too as I just don't have the energy to posthole very far.

 

[spider solo]

Yes I wear them most any time I can.
I'm the type that will wander off the trail if I think it is packed down to much.

If on a hike I procrastinate putting them on I will certainly wear them on the down hill. No way am I going to carry them all the way up a mountain and then not use them.
and, of course, different shoes for different snow ...and snowshoes for friends to borrow .....

 

[Peakbagr]

"I didn't answer because the poll leaves out the most obvious response (which applies to me): I wear them when I think it is easier.
There is some inertia here: if I start up a packed trail and the snow gets deeper I may delay putting them on due to the loss of rhythm and time to take off pack etc., similarly I will leave them on to walk on bare ground across the parking lot to save the trouble of carrying them the last few steps."

My thoughts exactly. For me, snowshoes are just another tool. I prefer booting it, but depending on conditions and snow depth, will wear or carry them.

 

[erugs]

I used to think I should hike as long as I could without them (maybe the Yankee in me didn't want to wear them out?) but then finally saw the difference it made to the trail. Sure I could save the snowshoes from being worn out, but I made a mess of the trail with my postholing. And too, I love the way a completely snowshoed trail looks as it winds its way through the woods. For me, that's part of the magic of winter hiking. It warms my heart, somehow.

 

[Nutsosa]

Where's the "skis" option?

 

[giggy]

It really depends. I am losing interest in hiking more and more each passing winter and more into alpine, mountaineerring, climbing, whatever you want to call it. This winter I am finding it real tough to get motivate to hike so......Seems like I am hiking more now to spend time with freinds that hike - rather for me to hike a peak... I donno - maybe I am just losing interest in the whole hobby.....

but....

I would rather be in the windblown alpine zone with my crampons on than below the trees using snowshoes.

If it makes the job easier - then I wear them, but when I put my crampons on at the base of a snow gully or an ice climb - I get an excited feeling of energy - that feeling that you wouldn't want to be anywhere else - when I do the the same for snowshoes - I don't get anything close to that feeling...

guess that means I don't like using them....