Snowshoeing

[Haudlady]

Yippee!!!

I have TONS of comp time right now, so I'm taking tomorrow off to celebrate the big snow (I just hope we get it)!

With any luck, me and Zaboo (my faithful dog) will be FINALLY going out to do the first snowshoeing of the winter!

I'll be thinking of you, Lisa!

[PAP103]

Yesterday they predicted a good amount of snow here in NE for today and tonight so I went and bought myself a pair of Tubbs snowshoes! Great time to buy them, they were on sale at EMS.

Its snowing right now so I'm hoping that it stays snow and doesn't turn to rain. I'm planning my first snowshoe stomp for Saturday! Can't wait.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

FINALLY!!!!!!!!
Got everything strapped on and bundled up and went all around the village boundaries for an hour and a half (about 2 1/2 miles). I kept pretty warm and dry except for my face- it was nasty sleeting/snowing right into my face most of the time and it was only 8 degreesF (with wind chill it must have been about 0). But I had all the right layers on and stayed snug. Lots of wool base layers and topped off by waterproof biking pants, windbreaker, balaclava, ski gloves, and gaiters. Would have stayed out longer but wanted to do a lot more tomorrow so I took it easy this first day.
My Tubbs "Odyssey" women's shoes worked very nicely- it was EASY!!! I only stepped on my other shoe once when I was turning to look behind me while walking (quickly learned to stop to look back), but i didn't fall. I didn't have the dreaded "snow flip" effect at all. Our village was pretty deserted with the falling snow and only plows were out, waving at me. I did see one male friend I know XC skiing along the same street I was shoeing. Another lady was walking her dog in the snow and using hiking poles.
I got up and down our steep hill very easily with my crampons, and soon i just stowed my poles in my backpack as I found I didn't need them much.
I was surprised to see that one doesn't stay on TOP of the snow completely in snowshoes- you do sink a few inches down, but that's normal, right? On some snow I sank up to 6", in other snow I only sank 2" or so. Is 6" normal too?
Holy cow but I had FUN. Tomorrow should have a few more fresh inches of snow and I'll be going out again for sure, want to go at least 3 miles tomorrow and maybe shoe the woodland conservancy trail near my house too.

[DebW]

I'm jealous - haven't been out snowshoeing yet this year. Sounds like you all are having fun. A few tips: on uphills, keep you foot flat on the snowshoe so that the crampons fully engage (this builds a flexible achilles) and provide good traction. On well-packed trails, the toe crampon may be enough, but on loose snow you really need the whole shoe to get good grip. For steep uphills on loose snow, you can sort of kick in to the snow and create a flat platform for your shoe like making stairsteps. For downhills, keep weight on your heels and shift your weight back and forth from one foot to the other so the tips of your snowshoes don't get buried. It can be a rather fun ski/slide/run downhill.

[Lifesgreat]

DH and I went up on the Squaw Peak road in Provo Canyon today. It is used by runners, snowmobilers, mountain bikers (yes in the snow) and xc skiers as well. The road is pretty packed down. It was sunny and I am guessing in the 20s. It is ALL uphill until the turnaround. I hate going uphill, but REALLY like going downhill. We saw some interesting sights:
1. Man running with his three chocolate labs. He was wearing a t-shirt, gloves, bike shorts, long gaiters and snowshoes.
2. A group of snowshoeing teenagers. DH commented they look like a big caterpillar. We discovered the reason for the "caterpillarness" was their being strung together through their side belt loops by a thin, black cord. There were two college age kids bringing up the rear, not hooked to them. If I were to guess, it was a group from a local group home or something.
3. An ATV coming up the snow packed road towing two older wood/metal runner sleds with adults my age (early 40s) on them. They were grinning away. I am guessing teenage son and daughter were letting Mom and Dad have a turn.
4. Snowmobilers-all were polite.
5. A herd of elk, but they went over the ridge before we got close.
6. A man running w/o snowshoes-now that would be a workout.

I still haven't taken the time to learn how to shrink pictures, so I won't post what I have.

Fun! Fun! Fun! Lots more snow predicted in the coming week!

[Crankin]

After 3 days of pretty strenuous x country skiing, my husband and I decided to snow shoe on our last afternoon. We were at a place called the Highland Lodge, which has its own trails. This isn't actually in Craftsbury, where we had skied at the outdoor center the previous days. In the morning I had done my first black diamond ski trail (no falling!) and the conditions were excellent; packed powder. So the person at the lodge showed us how to access the trail, through someone's driveway. She said after a little ways, we would see an old snow shoe tacked to a tree and that was the start of the trail. Well, we saw the snow shoe and turned at the intersection of the trails. Up we went. The trail was narrow and beautiful, with snow covered pines and other trees. I could only look ahead, since there was a steep drop off on my left. It was challenging to say the least. Finally, we saw we were getting above the tree line and we ended up on an open field that looked familiar. We had skied UP this trail in the morning. My husband had his GPS watch on and was insisting we go right, but I knew we had to go left. I said if he didn't go that way, I was going to follow the snow shoe trail back the way we came! We started walking down the side of the ski trail, which was about 8 inches of powder. Hard to break trail here. I also realized how much we had climbed on our skies that morning as we started going down. As we got further down the trail nearer to the lodge, we saw a skier coming up, who confirmed that we were headed in the right direction. Then, we saw a sign with the name of the snow shoe trail we thought we had been on and it looked like it also headed back. After about a mile of slight uphill, the trail turned toward the lodge and started heading down. And lo and behold, we came to the intersection with the snow shoe and realized that we had been on a different and much more challenging climb. The GPS wasn't recording our mileage right (but it did work to get us back in the right direction), but I think it must have been about 4 miles, about 2,000 feet up.
It was really fun, but I have to get over my fear of being lost in the woods.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Sniff sniff....still no snow here.

BUT....I did have a "snowshoe day" in that I went to a 3 hour snowshoe "class" at a local conservation land and two women spoke about different types of snowshoes, a little about SS (snowshoe) history, and then we all strung the webbing by hand on little 14" bent ash wood frame snowshoes. It was FUN to learn the interesting waffle weave pattern and the knots- it was sort of like caning a chair. We used nylon laces, but once you shellac them when you're done they look amazingly like old sinew ones. One shoe took the whole time up (it was somewhat complicated weaving) but I look forward to lacing up the other little shoe at home here and finishing them and then shellacking them. I want to put them up somewhere on the wall- they are too cute! I'll post a picture when they're all done.

The next conservation-sponsored SS event is not until Feb 19th, and that's an actual outing so everyone is really hoping for some snow cover on the ground by then. Then on Feb 21 is a nightime full moon excursion on conservation land- either snowshoeing or hiking if there is no snow. Cool.

I love hearing about everyone else's SS adventures!

[surgtech1956]

How do you gals that wear glasses keep them from 'fogging' up? I think next time I am going to wear my contacts(don't wear them anymore, since my 'progressive lenses' - I gave up my contacts when my food starting getting too blurry)

[Crankin]

I wear contacts and sunglasses most of the time when I ski or snow shoe. There's stuff called Cat Cr*p (really) that you can buy at just about any sporting goods store that stops the fogging.

On a side note, why don't you just get reading glasses to wear over your contacts? That way, you don't have to have glasses on all of the time. I have a pair of progressives for the rare times I have my contacts out; I don't necessarily keep the prescription up to date, since I only wear them reading in bed.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I wear my glasses all the time. When I'm out biking or snowshoeing I wear some sunglasses that go right over my eyeglasses. They are called "fitovers". They look like regular sunglasses, but i like the way they protect my glasses and also keep them insulated against fogging, pebbles, bugs, wind, etc.
I wear these:
http://www.eagleeyes.com/products/staclips/fitons.lasso

[beccaB]

This is a good but old thread to rejuvinate! DH and I went snowshoeing yesterday on a 2.5 mile hilly trail. I was exhausted! What a workout! I felt like I had done 30 miles on a bike. We got dumped on yesterday, but sometimes there isn't enough base to make it worth putting on snowshoes. We have to drive somewhere to do it, but it was worth it. This was after shoveling the driveway, so I get to eat more today!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Since we had to cancel our weekend travel plans due to the two snowstorms (friday 8" and sunday perhaps 6" more?), I am going to try to get in a snowshoe trek of a couple of miles or so tomorrow after shoveling out.
I have found snowshoeing to be way more concentrated exertion than most bikes rides I do. Shoeing 2 miles is way more tiring to me than biking 30 miles!

Hoping to see a few snowshoeing photos soon.....

[shootingstar]

Snowshoeing is possible in the local mountains here at home. This photo was taken a few years ago, when we were snowshoeing on Grouse Mountain which is a local ski, snowboard and snowshoe area. We can see this mountain plus some other mountains from our home in the city below.

Down below is the City of Vancouver. Grouse Mountain is accessible by a short muncipal bus ride, less than 1/2 hr. after going over Lion's Gate Bridge from Vancouver.

Guess right now it's snowy up there now.
We will be taking a snowhoeing vacation in Jasper, Alberta for this Christmas holidays.

[sgtiger]

Dusted off the old snowshoes today and started for a walk in my neighborhood. Heehee, I never thought I'd need my snowshoes at this elevation. Anyhow after I got warmed up (and the body stopped complaining), I felt like running. So much fun! It reminds me of the feeling of running barefoot on the beach - the only other time that I really enjoy running. I wish I'd taken Dh's snowshoes though. His tapers abit in the back so that it makes it so much easier to run. Maybe he won't notice if we swap gear?!!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Here are a couple of pix from the 10-person shoe trek I did with the Land/Nature Conservancy organization yesterday. High winds the day before had blown most of the deep fluffy snow of the tree branches, but there was about a foot on the ground everywhere.
Unfortunately, their camera ran out of battery power just before we climbed the big hill to the gorgeous panoramic view of the valley. But better a couple of pix than none!
(I am the one in the red hat, red jacket, black pants, and bright yellow backpack)