A few little points

By Oliver Ranked #1165 - Backcountry Snowboarding May 25, 2004

I have enjoyed a number of hikes using these snowshoes. Being new to snowshoeing I can't comparatively rate them but I have a couple of observations that may merit this review. I came into two problems using these. First I had a problem of loosening, and then losing straps. This wasn't a loosening from the buckle end of the strap but from the inadequate tethering of its other end. This problem may have been sorted out in the latest MSR models. Second, there were unforeseen dangers in its use! These nearly caused serious injury and I was left wishing the relevant cautionary information had featured in the instruction booklet!
I wasn't warned about the need to take flotation tails off for descent. Neither was I warned about the limit of the snowshoes capabilities going UP a certain inclination! The limits of this snowshoe was somewhere around 40 degrees in the soft and wet spring conditions I used them. Finally, I just wonder if there wasn't too little nose flotation provided by these - the cost of having un-'Frankenstein'ing snowshoes perhaps? Sometimes the toes would sink deep and so I was forced put my weight back, walking with my feet out in front of me, pulling my way up the mountain (using my hamstrings instead of my quadriceps to climb). As I mentioned earlier, I'm new to this lark so this problem may merely be due to my ineptitude!

View Details: MSR Evo Ascent Snowshoe

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