Snowshoes?

[Skyvalhunter]

Good looking gang you got there Ice!!

[ICEMAN]

Thanks SKY!

Nothing more fun than waking up in the back country, 5 degrees, and it is time for me to make breakfast for everyone, and everyting is frozen solid.   

 Food never tastes so good, the sky is never bluer.

Hope I can go this year! Come on snow!!! 

[bighorns2bushytails]

picked up some snowshoes yesterday and took them out today.... loved them.  cant wait to get some more use out of them in the near future... looks like well have plenty of snow this year to make them worth while.  me and gutpile both got the cabelas pro outfitter 9x30 models i believe.  anyways worked great!  two thumbs up! 

[saylean]

Are poles needed when snowshoeing? I am looking into getting some shoes and wasnt sure. Thanks for the info guys~

[Dansk]

I strongly recommend them if you are in any type of terrain or you are working through brush.  I fell more than once while hunting in 4ft of snow- it's like skiing... once you start falling it's hard to catch yourself without a walking stick or poles.  I thought about getting one of those walking stick mono-pods.  would have been a big help- no fun cleaning out a snow-packed muzzleloader breach.   And definitely not that safe.

[ICEMAN]

Poles can also double as shooting sticks.....

[saylean]

thanks for the input gents.

[Pathfinder101]

This may sound crazy, but I have a pair of GI Issue shoes that I love.  THey are magnesium and cable, so they're virtually indestructable, and they are designed for a 200 lb Special Forces Soldier with 100+ lbs of gear.  Yes, they're long and fairly heavy, but they keep a big guy up, even in deep powder.  I teach a military winter survival class to my recruits every January, and we borrowed some from Fairchild AFB survival school in 2003.  I was so impressed that when we turned them back in, I went on Ebay and bought a used pair.  Oh, and the magnesium they are made out of can be shaved off to start a fire..    

[ICEMAN]

I am over 300lbs and would like to try those mag/cable shoes someday. Still havent broken my Atlas shoes yet....    Have been waiting to see a tear start or some way to get the new pair I have been eyeing at Cabelas....

I sure wish more snow would dump so I can take the family our for our annual overnighter...

[boneaddict]

COol Pics Ice.

[Pathfinder101]

Iceman,
The biggest reason I got them is not because I was afraid I would break them, but because I found with the smaller, sexier ones I really sank into the deep powder when I was carring a rucksack (the first two years I taught the class we borrowed civilian snowshoes from a rental place on Fairchild, but whoever was on point was up to his knees in the powder).
Like I said, check them out on Ebay.  Oh, and don't use the GI Issue bindings (the white canvas straps).  Get a good pair of civilian bindings with ice cleats on them.  I'll post a picture of mine when I get to my work computer.

[Machias]

I have the same pair, LOVE them and I am a big guy.  Pathfinder, I would like to change the bindings on those, so I would be interested in which bindings you changed them into.  Thanks!

[Pathfinder101]

Actually, mine came with civilian bindings when I bought them on ebay.  The only markings on them say "MSR".  I will attach a couple of pictures so you can see the bindings (both the military style white canvas crappy ones, and mine with the rubber black bindings with the ice cleats), the length and the construction of the shoes.  Be forewarned however, they are old-school shoes; heavy, long, and you can forget walking backwards in them...
...I still love 'em.

[Machias]

Sweet, thanks Pathfinder.

I hope the guy on the right cleaned his barrel out before he needed it. 

[Pathfinder101]

Good catch!  We were actually up doing a photo-op in the Blues.  That picture is the local National Guard recruiting advertizment in the movie theater here in Walla Walla (we photo-shopped out the snow in his barrel when we produced the ad).  We harrass the guy about it all the time.  The weapons were actually "rubber-ducks", meaning realistic looking rubber weapons with real barrels.  Usually we use them for bayonet training so we don't f#@! up our real weapons practicing butt-strokes, slashes, etc...