I know this question has more than likely come up, but......
I plan on doing most of my snowshoeing in South Central Ontario. Breaking trails through Forests as well as some open area treks. I'm Looking at either the Bear Claw, Elongated Bear claw or the tear drop......... Can someone throw me shoe here????????

Too much research and not enough experience, it's drivin' me mad.

Thanks.

ooops! I meant Bear paw, not CLAW........

I like Good Ol' traditional snowshoes myself and I have three different sizes of them. The newer ones are something I haven't used much, but they do have there advantage around packed trails and when your a busy body around camp and still need your snowshoes.

Bear Paws are the ones to allow you to turn quicker in the bush but their bulkiness is not my style of shoeing. You have to lift the shoe more compared to a Traditional, IMO. A Traditional you kinda shoo sh just raising the shoe over the opposite side so if you looked back at your pattern you see a line from your back part of the shoe dragging in the snow.

The thing to remember when picking up a pair is that your snow conditions will be different and your snowshoe may be good for one style of shoeing but not good in another. Like super fluffy power is just no fun no matter what shoe you have on, but the big traditional tennis rackets at least allow you to sink half that of today's typical shoe.

So the longer the shoe the better off you are in powder type snow
the shorter the shoe the better you can walk zig zags in the bush.
Again , if their thin you can do straight well and if they are wider you can have some buoyancy against the light fluffy stuff.

As a matter of weight, wider is better , so for me at 200lbs , I feel comfortable with a 16" wide shoe on and if the snow pack is heavier than fluff I can use a 14" wide shoe or even 12".

Its all dependant on what your comfortable with.

Hope some of that helps.

A quick ADD.

I don't have cleats or crampons under any of the shoes and I had about just as much trouble going uphill as the next guy in hilly terrain like Killarney's la cloche trail.

You'll find out that whatever pair you buy is just like a canoe, it's all good and all but sooner or later you want another one , then maybe another, or even make your own, you might even want to make an ultralight pair to make Light Jay envious?!

It becomes addicting!

the aluminum frame / neoprene decking modern ones with cleats under the foot are excellent in the terrain they were designed for (dense windpacked snow above treeline in New England mountains) but useless for soft fluffy snow elsewhere

for pattern, buy whatever style was used by native people in your area, they spent hundreds of years refining whatever worked in their kind of terrain and snow - you mentioned central Ontario, so the Huron pattern would be appropriate

for size, base the decision on your body weight - if you are going to be wearing a backpack, take this into account - same with pulling a toboggan, it adds a lot to the downward thrust of your foot into the snow

if you explore the Faber website

http://www.fabersnowshoes.com/vitrine/f ... e=generic1

you will find recommended weight ranges for the most common patterns and sizes - the most versatile size will be the biggest ones you can walk in

for quality, if all you can find is Fabers, keep in mind that they have two lines - the cheap ones with split hide babiche are junk - for better quality, look for snowshoes made by Avery & Sons in Whitney - they are available from retailers in the area like Algonquin Outfitters, or from Craig MacDonald in Dwight

Well, its, 5 AM, just gettin up to go out trout fishin, up on the maitland, and/or Nine mile.......... I'll tell ya how it went tonight.

thanks for the reply guys, i went through the Fabere website, (good explanations for use and style) and after a few long hours of studying and studying, I think I will pick up a pair of Huron (tear drop style Shoes)

Cheers,
we'll see each other along the way, I'm sure.......

Snowshoes are a compromise (like a canoe), because you need to do different things with them at different times.

If you're hiking all day, going the distance, in unpacked snow, the longest, skinniest ones you can find are the best -- paticularly if you're punching through brush or crusty snow. You want something shaped more like a ski than anything. And a pointed tip helps a lot.

I use a set like these for breaking trail, though mine are a bit skinnier.



But for campwork, like when you're setting up the tent in 3 ft of soft snow, or cutting poles, or getting firewood, a set of roundish bearpaws is best because it is so easy to turn around in them. See below:

You have to balance weight vs utility. If you want less weight, accept a compromise pair like these, and only take the one: [see bottom]


On a trip where I feel I can afford the weight of 2 sets, or if there are several people in the party and a spare pair is judged a good idea, I take along the first 2 types mentioned above. It's very nice to use the shoe that best does the job.

Pat I don't want to change your mind. But here are my thoughts, I use a pair of Faber elongated bear paws 11"x40" I like them as they have alot of float and are alot easier to maneuver in the bush and narrow trails. There is a little more drag while walking but I would rather be able to back up without turning around and move around easier. Acually I take in two pairs of snowshoes when winter camping, a small pair of allumunium 8"x21" for camp work and walkiing semi packed trails, alot of other campers do this as well.

another thought or two

the Huron pattern you selected is a good all-round choice - the difference between them and the Ojibway pattern shown in the pictures in Dave Hadfield's post is a rounded toe vs pointy - both are appropriate for Ontario terrain and snow, and either will do the job for you - just make sure you get them big enough to support you while hauling a toboggan or carrying a pack in the fluffiest snow you are likely to encounter

don't worry about the wider ones being awkward to walk in - I'm not tall, and for extreme conditions I use 19x39 without difficulty - at the other end of the spectrum, around camp on packed snow, I use little 14x30 bear paws

I take 2 pairs on trips:

Hauling sled, breaking trail, and day trip bushwhacking: 16x48 teardrop style. Don't even think of anything smaller for deep snow. The long ski-like design I think would be even better for hauling (never used them), but I like the yin-yang overlap for packing a flat toboggan trail of the wider designs (see below).

In camp: round bearpaws 14x30. I could not conceive of camping in deep snow without bearpaws. I should have bought 16x30.

Unless you are using packed trails and campsites, i.e. you are using virgin deep snow areas, I cannot stress enough the need to go big. Forget about the weight ratings of the manufactures. I weight only 150 lb's, and I need the big snowshoes to stay afloat in deep snow.

Bill P: I like that narrow elongated design too since it combines the best of many features. However in early season deep soft powder snow when packing a snowshoe trail and hauling sled, they don't overlap. On my very first hot tent trip, my buddies had those 10-11 inch models and I had 14 inch teardrops. When they were breaking trail they left a ridged center in the trail that caused the toboggans to tip over. I ended up having to break trail for the entire trip since my snowshoes with my gait produced enough overlap to keep it reasonably flat. There is a ridge but it zig-zags.

Just like canoes and paddles, I don't think it is unreasonable, nor gear gluttony, to eventually assemble many pairs for many different snow, trail and campsite conditions throughout the season. I have 4 pairs so far.

For hard crusty icy late winter conditions, I really like the synthetic Faber's I bought, "Mountainexperts", largest size, with the wicked cleats. I did a one week trip which involved daily day-trip (no sled) treks of ultimate bush crashing through horrible blowdown, and scrambling up and down serous hills covered in glazed icy snow. Bridging logs on blowdown piles like we did all day, all week, would have snapped wooden shoes. But this was ultra extreme (I was doing caribou surveys in boreal forest blowdown from hell). I much prefer the traditional babiche for deep soft snow.

well, thanks again for all the info. Seems like the smart thing to do is, buy one pair untill I realize I need another....!!!!!!

Anyways, if any of you were interested i got out to the Nine mile on Saturday, hit up a little hole near the lake, than moved on to the Maitland as well as bayfield, but to no avail, it just wasn't my day.......... not even a bite.

I here it might be raining on Monday............I guess I won't be needing my snowshoes for a little while.
Thanks again
PAT