Template:Short description Template:About Template:More footnotes needed
File:Atlas snowshoes.jpg Modern tubular aluminum-framed, neoprene-decked snowshoes |
File:Snowshoe2.jpg Classic wooden-framed, rawhide-latticed snowshoe (metal frame components and coarse weave) |
Snowshoes are specialized outdoor gear for walking over snow. Their large footprint spreads the user's weight out and allows them to travel largely on top of rather than through snow. Adjustable bindings attach them to appropriate winter footwear.
Traditional snowshoes have a hardwood frame filled in with rawhide latticework. Modern snowshoes are made of lightweight metal, plastic, and other synthetic materials.
In the past, snowshoes were essential equipment for anyone dependent on travel in deep and frequent snowfall, such as fur trappers. They retain that role in areas where motorized vehicles cannot reach or are inconvenient to use. However, their greatest contemporary use is for recreation.
Snowshoeing is easy to learn and in appropriate conditions is a relatively safe and inexpensive recreational activity. However, doing so in icy, steep terrain requires both advanced skill and mountaineering-style pivoting-crampon snowshoes.
DevelopmentEdit
OriginsEdit
Before people built snowshoes, nature provided examples. Several animals, most notably the snowshoe hare, had evolved over the years with oversized feet enabling them to move more quickly through deep snow.Template:Citation needed
The origin and age of snowshoes are not precisely known, although historiansTemplate:Who believe they were invented from 4,000 to 6,000 years ago, probably starting in Central Asia.<ref name="refGvsnowshoes">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> British archaeologist Jacqui Wood hypothesized that the equipment interpreted to be the frame of a backpack of the Chalcolithic mummy Ötzi was actually part of a snowshoe.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Strabo wrote that the inhabitants of the Caucasus used to attach flat surfaces of leather under their feet and that its inhabitants used round wooden surfaces, something akin to blocks, instead. However, the "traditional" webbed snowshoe as used today had direct origins to North American Indigenous people, e.g., the Huron, Cree, and so forth.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Samuel de Champlain wrote, referencing the Huron and Algonquin First Nations, in his travel memoirs (V.III, p. 164), "Winter, when there is much snow, they (the Indians) make a kind of snowshoe that are two to three times larger than those in France, that they tie to their feet, and thus go on the snow, without sinking into it, otherwise they would not be able to hunt or go from one location to the other".
North American Indigenous peoplesEdit
_(cropped).jpg){kind=link}
The Indigenous peoples of North America developed the most advanced and diverse snowshoes prior to the 20th century. Different shapes were adapted to the different conditions in each region.<ref name=back>Template:Cite news</ref> Despite their great diversity in form, snowshoes were, in fact, one of the few cultural elements common to all tribes that lived where the winters were snowy, in particular, the Northern regions. Nearly every Indigenous peoples of the Americas culture developed its own particular shape of shoe, the simplest being those of the far north.<ref>"Snowshoes" The Museum Journal vol II #4:82-94 (December 1911) Penn Museum</ref>
The Inuit have two styles, one being triangular in shape and about Template:Convert in length, and the other almost circular, both reflecting the need for high flotation in deep, loose and powdery snow. However, contrary to popular perception, the Inuit did not use their snowshoes much since they did most of their foot travel in winter over sea ice or on the tundra, where snow does not pile up deeply.
Southward the shoe becomes gradually narrower and longer, one of the largest being the hunting snowshoe of the Cree, which is nearly Template:Convert long and turned up at the toe.
Athapaskan snowshoes are made for travelling quickly on dry powder over flat, open land in Alaska and the Canadian northwest. They were used for keeping up with dog sleds, and breaking trail for them. They can be over Template:Convert long, and are narrow with an upturned toe.<ref name=back/>
Ojibwa snowshoes were designed for manuverability, and are pointed at both ends, making it easier to step backwards. They are also easier to construct, as the outer frame is made in two pieces.<ref name=back/>
Huron snowshoes are tailheavy, which means they track well but do not turn easily. They are broad enough that the maximum width has to be tucked against the tail of the other snowshoe with each step, or the straddle will be too wide for the wearer. They are also meant for open country, and can carry heavy loads.<ref name=back/>
Snowshoes developed by the Iroquois are narrower and shorter, reflecting the need for maneuverability in forested areas.
The Bearpaw style was widely used in the dense forests of Quebec and Labrador. It has no tail, and turns easily.<ref name=back/>
The Plains Indians wore snowshoes on their winter season bison hunts before horses were introduced.
Use by EuropeansEdit
Pre-contact Eurasian ski-snowshoesEdit
Template:Multiple image In 2016, "the oldest [extant] snowshoe in the world", found in a melting glacier in the Dolomites in Italy, was dated to between 3800 and 3700 BCE. It was a crude frame snowshoe.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Solid-wood "ski-snowshoes", essentially short, wide versions of traditional skis, were used in Eurasia. They were made of light woods such as pine. Slender skis seem to have been more popular. Both types of footwear were lined with furs for climbing.<ref name=prehist/>
In Northwest North America in the early twentieth century, Roald Amundsen compared the solid-wood Norwegian skis he used with the local snowshoes worn by his travelling companions; he judged the skis faster in some conditions and the snowshoes faster in others.<ref>Template:Cite book