Choose the right snowshoes

Snowshoes were born from necessity: to get around more easily on snow, without sinking in with every step. Particularly widely used in frequently snowy areas, in the Far North, snowshoes were traditionally made from wood, the only material able to withstand temperatures of less than 0°. In Canada, wooden snowshoes are still used.

There are a much wider range of snowshoes available today! There are aluminium snowshoes, which are known as "tubular snowshoes". They’re light, perfect for wide, flat spaces and very deep layers of fresh snow. They also come in plastic, more durable, perfect for more rugged terrain, hilly and steep, like the Alps here in France. These are the most widely used.

Snowshoes can be classified according to the following three materials:

To fully understand your snowshoes, and therefore choose the right ones, it’s important to get to know them properly. Here are the components of a snowshoe:

1. the deck

The deck is the part under your foot. It's like an extension of the sole of your shoe, but designed for snow-covered ground. Its purpose is to provide you with grip. The more you weigh, the wider the deck will be to keep you on the surface of the snow and prevent your feet from sinking.

2. the heel lift

The heel lift is a removable part that raises your heel so that it is more or less horizontal when you are going up a slope. It’s used in steep climbs to reduce the effect of the slope and thus reduce the effort required. Snowshoes fitted with a heel lift make walking up slopes easier and more comfortable. So you'll need one if you're taking paths that require a lot of climbing, and you don't want to be completely exhausted at the end of your outing.

3. the crampons

There are several types of crampon. As their name suggests, toe crampons are located at the front of your foot, underneath your toes. They provide good grip in snow when climbing. Some snowshoes also have them under the decking, to grip when the terrain is steeper or the snow harder. Side rails, which can be added to certain snowshoe models but are included with Quechua snowshoes, provide extra stability on slopes and downhill runs.

4. the bindings

Oh, the bindings! Without it, there’d be no snowshoeing outings. The bindings are an essential part of your snowshoes. They will enable you to become one with your snowshoe (a bit like the bindings on downhill skis, cross-country skis or snowboards). This is where you'll find the straps that you can use to adjust the snowshoes so that they fit to your shoes. When they are well adjusted, you can walk naturally and feel at ease on both fresh and hard snow.

Snowshoes are designed so that everyone can use them and have fun. So women's models generally have a thinner decking and lighter frame to adapt to the female body shape. The bindings are also suited to thinner, smaller feet. Children's snowshoes have lighter bindings, are a suitable length and generally have more of a fun, cool look.

In any case, even if snowshoe models differ according to weight and morphology, they are designed to be used by different people because they have adjustable and easy-to-use bindings.

Just like adult’s snowshoes, children’s snowshoes must provide good grip. But they also need to accommodate children's boundless energy and tendency to run absolutely everywhere! Children's snowshoes have lighter bindings, are a suitable length and generally have more of a fun, cool look.

Quechua has designed some really clever, innovative and easy-to-use snowshoes to cope with children's high energy levels and to make sure they feel really comfortable while walking.

Children’s snowshoes need to be lightweight if they are going to be able to walk on snow as well as on solid ground (they don't want to feel like they’re wearing lead boots!). That’s why the Easy JR snowshoes (and the equivalent model for adults!) have an EVA-foam deck. This material is used in the soles of sports shoes. The spikes are integrated into the sole, and you can add four metal tips to them. It's a single piece of foam that's both super-strong and super-flexible so that you can walk naturally (and kids can be kids and run around).

The tightening mechanism is also child friendly. Made up of two hook and loop straps, the tightening system couldn't be simpler or more fun for children to use! What's more, this tightening system has a preset buckle, making it easier to adjust the back strap.

Also, this model doesn’t have any steel toe crampons, so it is safe for children to handle them and learn to put them on on their own.

Finally, to help your children to become independent and to do everything like the older ones do, the designers and engineers on the Quechua design team have added markings to the front of the snowshoe so that your child can position their foot in the snowshoe quickly and easily.

The Quechua Easy snowshoes have been adapted for adults, with three hook and look fastenings and larger sizes. They're an excellent choice for beginners who are looking for an easy way of enjoying the snow and who’d like to go for simple walks in the snow.

Snowshoes are generally available in a range of sizes, meaning that one snowshoe will fit several shoe sizes. They’re also adjustable. This means they fit to the many different models of hiking boots on the market! And above all, two shoes that are the same size but that have different designs may take up a different amount of space in the snowshoe depending on the model.

In general, you'll find snowshoes that fit a range of between 7 and 11 sizes, for example snowshoes in sizes 35 to 41, or 36 to 46, depending on the brand. If the deck is larger, the snowshoes will be able to accommodate larger shoe sizes. Some brands also use the well-known sizing system: "S" for "small", "M" for "medium" and "L" for "large".""

Finally, snowshoes labelled "junior" or "child" come in very small sizes, such as 30, which corresponds more or less to the average shoe size of children aged around seven years old.

Beginner snowshoers often forget them but poles are an invaluable aid on uneven terrain. They give you greater stability and prevent you from falling downhill and ending up as a snowman at the bottom of the slope.

If you already own a pair of poles for hiking on snow-free terrain, you'll be able to use them on snow as long as you change the washers for a wider model. Otherwise, you won't have poles but a probe that will cut through the snow until it hits a harder obstacle. And that’s not the goal.

If you don't have any yet, take a look at our article <link href="/contents/09c68c0f-86de-443c-a58c-0eb11c66623b" target="_blank">on choosing your hiking poles.