Kahtoola Step-In Snowshoes - 2010 BCS

It has great grip on steep stuff. The relatively narrow snowshoe makes it easy to walk in without banging the snowshoes together. They also glide a bit on the downhill if you lean back on them a bit....make the downhills more pleasant. It takes a little practice to get into the crampons but it's pretty easy to get good at it. The best snowshoe I've had so far and I've tried quite a few.

My first outing with these snow shoes was fantatastic... easy and smooth. Getting into them just takes a little shove and in the boot goes. I think they are great snowshoes.

Don't get these just yet! I bought a pair because of the concept of crampons/snowshoe combo. I couldn't get my boot into the crampon. The rigid plastic part of the crampon was only 3.5" wide and my boot at the ball of the foot was 5" (size 12 boot). I even tried my summer hiking boots (size 11), still no go. I could only wear them barefoot, hardly practical for snowshoeing. I contaced Backcountry and was told they fit up to size 12.5 boots. I asked them to try and fit a boot into some of their stock and send me a replacement. The replacements arrived and they were exactly the same as the original, wouldn't fit. I contacted Katoola and was told to ship them the crampons and they would make a pair that fit my boots. I decided to return both pairs to Backcountry for a refund and I'll order new ones next fall. They should have this problem solved by then. So unless you have a very small foot, hold off on purchasing these snowshoes.