mountaineer snowshoes

[sierra]

I used MSR ascents last year, replacing my Sherpa's. I have not had any defects yet and like the overall performence, the televators being thier best feature. That being said, my Sherpa's with the full crampon binding, while inferior on edging, excelled on flotation and ease of trail breaking. Given what Ive heard of the MSR's durabilty in time, if someone offered to buy them from me, I'd let them go, besides they are yellow.. yuck......

 

[peakbagger]

I will note that fish and game only use Sherpa's (large size) whenever I have seen them out on rescues.

 

[JoeCedar]

The width of the toe space on MSR evo and Lightning snowshoes is 5 inches. The maximum width of the evo snowshoe is 8.25 inches. This is adequate for a 4 inch boot plus the binding, but may not be enough for a superwide boot or pac boot. I am interested to hear from Tubbs flex alp owners what the width is for that model. My old 8"X25" Tubbs Katahdins also have a 5" opening, but the 9"X30" Tubbs Sierras have a 5.5 inch opening. Obviously, there are design constraints with how wide the toe space can be compared to the total width of the snowshoe.

 

[sierra]

I will note that fish and game only use Sherpa's (large size) whenever I have seen them out on rescues.

Thats interesting, yet I'm not surprised. I dont even remember when I bought them, but it was along time ago. They still are just as good today. The only malfunction Ive had is two of the clips on the binding broke off. But if you take a leather punch and make a hole. You just thread the webbing through the hole and your good to go.

 

[John H Swanson]

. Most have abandoned Sherpa's (long out of business) and gone to lighter shoes

Some of us ol' timers still swear by them. I bought my last few pairs on eBay. After all "real" winter hikers own multiple pairs of snowshoes and select by the conditions and agenda

I think there is some thing to be said about the skills of the hiker vs the shoe. I think learning how to snowshoe affects performance more than the shoe used. If you can't kick and pack steps in loose powder you can have the best shoes un the world and it won't matter

Durability is probably most correlated to weight and impact loading. Heavy people that do a lot of jumping should expect shorter life for their shoes (and knees)

 

[sierra]

Some of us ol' timers still swear by them. I bought my last few pairs on eBay. After all "real" winter hikers own multiple pairs of snowshoes and select by the conditions and agenda

I think there is some thing to be said about the skills of the hiker vs the shoe. I think learning how to snowshoe affects performance more than the shoe used. If you can't kick and pack steps in loose powder you can have the best shoes un the world and it won't matter

Durability is probably most correlated to weight and impact loading. Heavy people that do a lot of jumping should expect shorter life for their shoes (and knees)

MY first pair of shoes where the Wooden style. They met thier demise when I discovered jumping off cliffbands, oh to be young.

 

[DougPaul]

The width of the toe space on MSR evo and Lightning snowshoes is 5 inches.

The issue with my MSR Denalis was the length of the toe hole, not the width. I just measured the toe hole of my current Evo Ascents (which are ok): 3.5 inches long by 5 inches wide.

I don't have the Denalis any more, so I can't measure the toe hole length, but it must have been less than 3.5 inches long. My boots are 4 inches wide (maybe 3.5 inches wide where it descended into the toe hole) so the width was probably not much narrower 5 inches.

Doug

 

[sardog1]

Some of us ol' timers still swear by them.

Who you callin' old?

Many of the snowshoes worn on Northeastern trails lack sufficient surface area for breaking trail efficiently in deep snow. As a semi-heavy guy with a semi-heavy pack, I will resort to my "OLD" Sherpas when I find my Denali Ascents inadequate for the task. In such conditions, the superior traction of the latter is usually unneeded. (And they're damn noisy.)

 

[peakbagger]

The major down side with Sherpas compared to newer shoes (along with the Tubbs version) was very poor lateral traction. Even with the optional heel cleat, on an crusty side slope they were a handful and wanted to slide sidewards. The claw would catch and the resulting gait would be with the shoes at a 45 degree angle to the direction of travel. It was quite tiring. The new MSR shoes made a big difference with the plastic rails molded into the base and the MSR ascents are even better.

Fish and Game uses the longer style sherpas, They are about either 9 by 34 or 10 by 37 long.

If its real deep powder, I switch over to my US army surplus magnesium snow shoes with a retrofit Iverson binding. Great shoes but the original military bindings were junk. They have great flotation and make a great toboggan track afterwards. I expect the footprint of one of these is about the footprint left by two modern shoes.

I have seen some Canadian deep powder shoes for boreal forests, they are at least 5' long.

 

[Lawn Sale]

If its real deep powder, I switch over to my US army surplus magnesium snow shoes with a retrofit Iverson binding. Great shoes but the original military bindings were junk. They have great flotation and make a great toboggan track afterwards. I expect the footprint of one of these is about the footprint left by two modern shoes.

I was thinking of those snowshoes when I read this earlier:

He opined that not many manufacturers would be able to build a pair that would survive his abuse which included climbing up trees in snowshoes and jumping off.

I have a few sets of those snowshoes, and in addition to being magnesium, they have aircraft stainless cable for webbing. My brother used to parachute into WY and MT with them for training in the Army. I have yet to see a pair fail under any conditions. I usually find them in the summer for $5 to $15 a set, at lawn sales of course.

But back to the OP.

Don't get sucked into the snobbish-gear trap, hike your own hike. I never had an issue over many years and at least all of the NH48 peaks with my dump-sourced and home-repaired women's Atlas 1025 snowshoes, pre-televator. They are still sitting on the wall ready for use and I consider them one of the best snowshoes ever made. I actually prefer the women's model (besides that they were free) due to their narrow profile which fits down the packed trails better. The traction was great and I abused them greatly over the years with them suffering little to no damage. My wife since bought me Atlas 1225's (men's this time) and I love them even more. I still own some Tubb's models, including those with the Viper crampon, but they are reserved for packing trails (30") and I find the crampons balls up snow very easily...too easily. The 36" models I have are good for flat terrain only and the other 25" models I just loan to other people (along with the military ones above). Yes, I have a lot of snowshoes. I owned two sets of the Denali's once and just did not like them since they were loud and did not provide great traction or floatation, even with the tails. I think I consigned them at IME and Ragged years ago. I don't miss them.

I bought the wife some Atlas 1227's and she loves them despite not having a lot of time on them last year due to not getting out that much. They will be used a lot this winter.

Hike your own hike and enjoy it. If you want new snowshoes, by all means get them, but not because someone else thinks you should have them.

 

[Quietman]

I usually find them in the summer for $5 to $15 a set, at lawn sales of course.

Or you can buy a set here Sportsman's Guide

 

[peakbagger]

I think I got my pair from Sportsman guide. I repeat "throw away the bindings that come with them". I and others use Iverson Bindings that will look familiar to old Sherpa users. http://iversonssnowshoes.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=39. They don't have the front binding strip and hook that Sherpas use to keep the foot from sliding forward but I haven't found it to be an issue in the conditions I normally use them in. Iversons also work well with any older style snowshoe.

I have run into other folks with this design snowshoe and they have cut the tails shorter. In powder they aren't bad uphill but they definitely aren't as good as crampon equipped mountaineering snowshoes in packed/set up snow.

I have not tried to see if I can use scrapings from the frame to start a fire

 

[Lawn Sale]

Or you can buy a set here Sportsman's Guide

That was the link I included in my post.