Walking on air and snow A PRIMER ON SNOWSHOES AND SNOWSHOEING BY DARREN BUSH
Once upon a time in Central Asia, some prehistoric inventor watched his friends trudge through deep snow in hot pursuit of a tasty mammoth. A snowshoe hare went bounding by and the neolithic equivalent of a light bulb went off. Homo ingenious slapped a few pieces of wood on the snow and tied them on his feet. Rudimentary, but he got to the mammoth first and ate well. For thousands of years, native people in North America have been using snowshoes as fourwheel drive for their feet. For these people, snowshoes were critical to survival. The Inuit didn’t use snowshoes, as many people think – they mostly walked on
were won by the British during the Seven Years War due to their superior snowshoes. Some troops were issued both skis and snowshoes during the Second World War and their effectiveness as a fighting force was enhanced by their ability to go where others
ice. Snowshoes came into use further south where deep snow made travel impossible without flotation. Voyageurs and trappers learned quickly from the indigenous people the benefits of traveling by snowshoe. Later, the effectiveness of snowshoes wasn’t lost on the military. Decisive victories
couldn’t. Today’s trappers use smaller, more manoeuvrable shoes on their trap lines. In Scandinavia some letter carriers still deliver mail by snowshoe. As I build and repair traditional shoes, I’ve become a bit of a magnet for people who find an old pair in the family garage. Here’s what I’ve learned.
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SNOWSHOE CONSTRUCTION 101 The purpose of this section is not to teach you how to build a pair of shoes but to make you aware of the basics, so you understand your equipment better and maybe be inspired to make your own. Snowshoes are a simple concept. Weight distributed over a larger area doesn’t sink as much into the snow. All things being equal, where I might sink to my knees in my boots, I would sink only to my ankles as the snowshoes compress the snow. The traditional wood for snowshoe frames has always been ash – it’s durable and easy to shape. Ash staves are split out of a log and worked down to size with a drawknife or crooked knife, following the grain so the frame doesn’t crack when it bends. After the staves are shaped, the wood is steamed to soften the lignin, the stuff which acts as a glue holding together the wood fibers. Steam it too much and you cook out the lignin; too little and it won’t bend. It takes a practised hand and a few ruined frames to learn how to do it. Here’s a chair created by U.K. design students (next page). Yes, it is wood. Amazing. www.ottawaoutdoors.ca
