In the previous article about snowshoe history, we saw that the traditional North American snowshoe was brought back to France by settlers who adapted it to the terrain. We can find today two main types of snowshoes coming from both origins. I’ll discuss both of these models and their specifics.

North American vs French snowshoes

In North America where the terrain is almost flat or hilly and snow cold and deep, snowshoes were long and large to prevent sinking in. In the 1960s manufacturers used new material to develop a modern snowshoe made of an aluminum tubing structure and a neoprene decking.

In France snowshoes were used in mountain areas, on a more uneven terrain, with steep slopes and different snow conditions depending on solar exposition (powder, hard or melting snow…). Snowshoes need to be narrower and have a good grip. In the 1990s French manufacturers designed the composite snowshoe, made of a plastic frame, a foot plate, and crampons under the frame.

Different snowshoes for a different usage

In other words snowshoes with an aluminum tubing structure and a neoprene decking are made for what they have been designed for, walking in mainly flat areas with a lot of snow.

The structure of composite snowshoes offers a grip that obviously tubing doesn’t have. With crampons under it you have a good grip even when traversing icy snow slopes. They are made to be used in mountain.

You will probably argue that some aluminum tubing snowshoes have enough crampons under to be used in mountain terrain. My experience is that crampons don’t do everything. I’ve seen many people in Japan (where mountains are steep) trying to use such snowshoes. They didn’t had a good grip and their snowshoes were sliding on mountain terrain. It is not just a question of preference or comfort but of security. MSR with their LIGHTNING ASCENT^TM gets around the problem by replacing the tube by a vertical blade.

It still doesn’t solve the other issue: used repeatedly in mountain terrain such snowshoes won’t last as long as composite ones. The neoprene decking and the aluminum frame (tubing or blade) are attached to each other while a composite snowshoe frame is made of one single block. When walking on a mountain terrain a lot of traction and tension forces will be repeated on the fixations of the decking on the aluminum tube; after a while they will break. You don’t have such a problem on composite snowshoes. Some will complain that as their structure is rigid, when crossing slopes, heels get twisted. I would answer that in mountain, whatever the activity the problem is the same. In mountaineering, you need to have the 12 points of your crampons in the snow, which means that your heel get twisted too. There’s no way to go around it and still have a good grip on snow.

Which one to choose?

My point is not that French snowshoes are better than North American one, but that both types are made for different purpose:

• You are doing snowshoeing in an almost flat environment with a lot of snow: you should go for aluminum snowshoes for comfort.
• You are doing snowshoeing in a mountain terrain: you should go for composite snowshoes, not just for comfort but also for your security.

If composite snowshoes can be used in the first case with probably less comfort and more burden, I won’t recommend the contrary (use aluminum snowshoes in a mountain terrain) except for the ones with a vertical blade structure (but remember they won’t last as long as composite ones). So to my opinion composite snowshoe are more versatile than aluminum tubing ones.