Ellie & I recently did some snowshoeing in Rjukan, Norway. We had arrived one and a half days early for our ice climbing beginners course, with some time to kill. For a long time we had been planning to give snowshoeing a try, but every time an opportunity seemed to arise, it never worked out. During our trip to Spitsbergen there was not enough snow. Another time, in Austria, the gear rental place didn’t have any snowshoes left for hire.
OLD SCHOOL
We felt lucky when the Old School (Dale Skole) in Rjukan, the ski school cum hostel where we were staying, had two brand new pairs of snowshoes available. We paid the hiring fee of €25 per person, walked to the snow-covered hilly area behind the building, then put the snowshoes on.
OUR FIRST FEW STEPS
A few minutes later we were casually walking around and gradually becoming more confident on the snow. Going up or down hills felt a bit awkward at first. But once you understand how much grip the snowshoes have, you start putting your full trust in them and simply get on with things. In hindsight, it would have been good to prepare and look up a suitable three-hour hiking route or something. We didn’t make it more than a few hundred metres away from the hostel.
INVENTED 6,000 YEARS AGO IN CENTRAL ASIA
Snowshoeing was invented around 6,000 years ago in Central Asia. The shoes became an essential part of the kit for trappers, hunters and traders traversing the wilderness during the cold months or at high altitude.
TODAY’S SNOWSHOEING CRAZE
Ten years ago, snowshoeing was something that the rural population in the far north of Scandinavia or North America would resort to if the weather conditions would turn extremely harsh for a few days in winter. Only in recent years has this mode of transport turned into a recreational activity for the more adventurous type of folk. You can now hire the equipment in almost every winter resort for relatively little money. In some regions the activity has turned into an outright craze.
SNOWSHOEING IS VERY SIMILAR TO HIKING
Snowshoeing is very similar to hiking. You basically just wear an additional type of outer footwear with a wide frame. This frame distributes the weight of the person over a larger area. The result is something called ‘floatation.’ In essence, it prevents the boot from sinking into the snow, thus making it almost effortless to walk across deep snow. Mind you, the activity is still a lot more energy-consuming than walking in hiking boots over hard ground.
TECHNOLOGY HAS IMPROVED
For millennia the shoes were made of wood and animal hides. Nowadays, snowshoes are ultra lightweight and mainly consist of aluminium, plastic, and Velcro straps. The front ends of modern shoes are also pointing upwards.
SNOWSHOEING IS EASY TO LEARN
It is very easy to pick up on the basic technique. The most important thing to bear in mind is that your shoes need to be further apart than usual to account for the greater width of the snowshoes. The rest mainly has to do with a good sense of balance and learning by doing. I would highly recommend using hiking poles with wide pole baskets near the tip end. (We didn’t.)
SOMETIMES A BIT OF KICKING IS REQUIRED
For unusually steep straight ascents (not in switchbacks) it is common to kick the front of the snowshoes into the snow with force to create steps. We never saw a need for that, despite going up fairly steep hills. There are plenty of useful YouTube videos out there.
RUNNING WITH SNOWSHOES
You can also find some cool videos about running with snowshoes. Running snowshoes are shorter and narrower. When you see experienced snowshoe runners, their movements looks almost like normal running movements. That’s definitely an activity I’ll try soon.
Looking for more outdoor activities? Check out my blog posts about bobsleighing, skeleton, canyoning, mountain biking, rally driving, motocross, swimming, running, kayaking, canoeing, and ocean rowing.
