Does Anyone esle hike fastrer in snowshoes?

[Bobcat]

The last snowshoes/ no-snowshoes thread got me thinking about my own personal preference for wearing the snowshoes.

I hike a bit faster with snowshoes on. I would say probably 20-30 percent faster uphill and on flats. Much fasterdownhill for obvious reasons. I think the increased speed comes from a longer stride. I noticed that my natural stride is much longer on snowshoes than with barebboots. I initially thought the lengthened stride was due to the better footing from the crampon on the snowshoe, but now I'm questioning that theoroy because I don't see the same increase in stride while wearing just crampons.

Does anyone else out there share a similar experience, or is this just peculiar to me?



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[jbreen]

not faster, but the ground being more level speeds me up some. Then it's negated when I have to go up snow covered scrambles or loop back to find the trail I lost.

 

[DougPaul]

As the one who may have prompted this thread...

Picture yourself walking on 2 or 3 inches of medium density powder over hardpack. The surface of the hardpack may be somewhat uneven.
* If you are barebooting, your boot can slip some, is operating on somewhat uneven surface, and energy is being consumed compressing snow. All of these factors will slow you somewhat.
* If cramponing, the slippage will be gone (assuming the snow does not hold the crampons off the hardpack), but you still have to worry about the uneven surface and are still wasting energy compressing snow.
* On snowshoes, the snowshoe crampon will prevent slippage and the broad platform will make the footing predictable. You can now take longer strides and need not waste energy protecting aginst a misstep. The snowshoe also reduces the energy consumed in compressing snow.

Another viewpoint about the energy consumed compressing snow is that you have to step up on each step to compensate for the loss of altitude caused by the snow compressing under your foot.

At least for me, the snowshoe allows me to travel faster in these conditions.

Also reduces the chance of a posthole or two...

Doug