Snowshoeing: Humble Snow Steps in Canada’s Vastness and History

The first time I had heard of and even seen snowshoes, was when I was 12 years old. A father of a boy in my class, occasionally took business trips to Frobisher Bay in the Canadian Arctic. Remember, this was in the early 1970’s when the Canadian Arctic was still a whited-out blizzard blank slate to many southern Canadians. And the Canadian

Snowshoes as transportation for several millennia among the First Nations (native Indians) in North America. Royal Museum of Alberta. Edmonton 2013.

government just 15 years ago, had relocated some Inuit in the far Arctic to supposedly better locations for them.

Nowadays at the end of Frobisher Bay, is Iqualuit on Baffin Island, capital city of Nunavut, Canadian’s third territory as of 1991.

Snowshoeing 10 km. to our inn near Lake Louise, Alberta 2012. I’m backpacking only clothing that I need for 5 days.

Tom, the classmate, did bring in snowshoes and even tramped around in them with his parka on, once or twice. The snowshoes were made aboriginal- style of traditional wood and animal hide strappings.

Snowshoeing Hobbled by Lack of Movie Star, Olympic Glamour
Now, in a small city in southern Ontario, snowshoes were pretty foreign to most of us. Skating, hockey and skiing were the reigning sports for us.

However even now, snowshoeing is still probably lacks the cache of glamour, cool and speed, compared to skiing or snowboarding. Who sees paparrazi gossip magazines featuring movie stars kicking up snow in snowshoes?

Snowshoeing hasn’t even made the Winter Olympics yet.

Gerard Cote’s snowshoeing medal who held world snowshoeing speed record for several years. Cote was a former Quebec marathoner who won the Boston Marathon 3 times in the 1940’s. Canada’s Sport Hall of Fame. Calgary, Alberta.

But running in snowshoes up a mountain slope or in deep snow, will convince anyone, that it can be serious work-out, enough to knock out your breath and your legs, if you aren’t careful.

Strapping into snowshoes. Kimberley, British Columbia Dec. 2013. Photo by J.Chong

Sport Simplicity of Snowshoeing: Like Walking
In the past 20 yrs., snowshoeing in some North American corners with lots of snow, has gained traction in leaps and bounds. Some fitness fans want to maintain their running, cycling or warm weather fitness but want sport simplicity and lower winter sport costs.

Montreal 1843: North America’s First Snowshoe Club
The first snowshoe club in North America was in Montreal 1843. There in snowshoeing clubs in Eastern Canada and Northeastern U.S. late 19th century into the 1930’s. Then the clubs melted away for a few decades. Frame material innovations in snowshoe design helped make the snowshoe more long-lasting and make the sport more broadly accessible with a revival in the early 1980’s onward.

Snowshoeing will invigorate your winter fitness. Yes, true you can go tramping about along the golf course snowy hills and across the fields. In a terrible winter snowstorm

On Horse Trail, approx. 1760 metres up near Lake Louise, AB. Dec. 2013.

when snow plows have not reached your neighbourhood, you’re probably more mobile in snowshoes, not in skis, in a highly urban environment with sidewalks, roads and building corners.

I started snowshoeing in 1992 when I first moved to Vancouver. The city has mountains nearly in our backyard. Back then, there was less choice of snowshoe models. I paid over $300.00 for my MSR Evo pair. Now there seems to be 2 different Evo pairs, with the one model I have,  but now 50% lower at rack price compared to mine.

On Snowbird Trail, a groomed Nordic skiing area managed by local cross-country ski club. Kimberley, British Columbia Dec. 2013. Photo by J.Chong

Snow Steps: Humble Reminders of Canada’s Vastness and History
Unlike skiing, snowshoeing does mean traversing slower. When I’m ploughing up the mountain slope or through an evergreen forested glade drooping with snowy boughs, I feel like trudging in the traditional snow steps of the Canadian aboriginal Indians centuries ago.  Even in  recent memory, they and others may have to snowshoe to hunt and do other chores in deep snow.

Dogsledding teams for visiting tourists while we were snowshoeing on Continental Divide route , shared with also cross-country skiers at British Columbian border near Kicking Horse Pass after snowshoeing from Lake Louise, Alberta. 2012. Photo by J.Chong.

When I snowshoe across white deep snow and that’s all I see for many kilometres: I am humbly reminded how enormous tracts of Canada are like this in winter.  Canada is so friggin’ vast!   Huge hunks of our land are still in wilderness and often, uninhabitable. It has been argued that large areas of Canada were explored by snowshoeing since horses cannot nor skis (did not appear in North America from Scandinavia until 1800’s) can penetrate some areas.

My first snowshoeing foray on rented Atlas snowshoes. Manning Park, British Columbia 2004.

Different Snowshoe Shapes for Varied Snow Conditions
Snowshoes are believed to originate in central Asia 6,000 years ago and were brought over by tribes migrating across what is now Bering Strait, into Alaska and across the continent. There are 4 main styles of snowshoes shaped by different native Indian groups in various regions because of different snow conditions: Bearpaw, Huron, Objiway and Alaskan.

On a snowshoe trail that we broke since last night’s snowfall. Horse Trail, Lake Louise AB Dec. 2013. Photo by J.Chong. This area is in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

I thinking my MSR snowshoes are based on Bearpaw. They are squat and broad. Not long tapered elegance for snowshoe running or racing.

Men shaped the wood snowshoe frames while women created the babiche, the lacing made from untanned caribou, moose, or deer hide strips, to provide snowshoe flotation over the snow. Native Indians in Labrador and Eastern Quebec made far tighter and finer meshes for the dry, deep snow there. Looser weaves were for slushier, warm snows by the coast and early spring.

Snows starts falling in the mountains, while snowshoeing. Revelstoke National Park, British Columbia 2006. Photo by J.Chong

I can vouch that the drier powder snow in prairies is noticeable compared to more softer snow on the coastal and interior mountains in British Columbia where it’s a touch warmer  –that is if you consider -10 degrees C warmer than -24 degrees C in Albertan Rocky Mountains.

Moon glows through morning sky while we’re snowshoeing. Kimberley Nordic Ski Park, British Columbia. Dec. 2013. Photo by J.Chong

So layer up, and tramp upward along gentle mountain slopes on snowshoes. You will plumb into winter’s magical soul.

More Stories and Photos
Chong, J. More Snowshoeing for Snow Mountain Addicts and the Vertigo-Inclined. In Cycle Write Blog. Feb. 12, 2011.

Gillespie, C. From Bear Paws to Beavertails: The History of Snowshoes. In Snowshoe Magazine. Jan. 1, 2007.

GV Snowshoes.  Snowshoe History.

Snowshoeing through Revelstoke National Park, British Columbia 2006. Photo by J. Chong