Snowshoes, Private Collection. Photo NVMA.

Backpack

Gear

Floating on Snow

Seas of powdery snow often surround the untouched peaks and ridges sought by mountaineers. These conditions can be traversed quickly, but only if one wears snowshoes. They spread weight across the snow and allow trekkers to ‘float’ on the snow, rather than sink. Howard Rode used to tramp over Mount Seymour wearing the snowshoes pictured, bought in the 1950s. Today, aluminum tubing, neoprene and nylon have replaced wood, gut and leather, but snowshoes, invented by First Nations for backcountry travel, function the same.

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