The raquette racket
I had the great opportunity to go snowshoeing in Val-David this weekend with a couple of friends. It was a lot of fun but it was also the first time that my army issue “old school” snowshoes let me down. The trail was packed hard and my snowshoes had no grip on the steep mountain we climbed. Fortunately we only had about 300m to climb, so I persevered, but when you contrast my struggle to those who were running around me I felt like a dinosaur gasping in a bog.
I tried to figure out how my shoes would be so inadequate in this sort of situation and it dawned on me that my snowshoes are a throwback to when the point of snowshoeing was something to get from point A to point B. People didn’t make detours to climb mountains in snowshoes 300 years ago, they weren’t even doing it 30 years ago. They were in the bush to get to their trapping lines, following a river to a lake so they could ice fish…there was no need to climb hills in the snow.
So although I’ve tried bear-claw snowshoes before and didn’t enjoy them (albeit in deep snow), I think I’m going to have to break down and get a pair if I want to keep up with my friends. Of course, once that 40cm of powder comes down, we’ll see who’s laughing last.
What’s all that white crap?