Modern and traditional snowshoes

I have research different types of snowshoes modern and traditional and have found many different designs, shapes and sizes.

plastic snowshoe

swiss snowshoes

inflatable snowshoes 

leather snowshoes

inflatable snowshoe

History of Snowshoes

It is believed that the snowshoes were invented in northern Asia about 4000 to 6000 years ago but there is no concrete evidence that this was true as the materials they would have used would not have lasted long.

It is found to be mainly the Native Americans that mastered the making of the snowshoes. They made hundreds of different shapes and varieties, suitable for many different terrains. For the Native Americans snowshoes were essential for hunting and gathering materials during the winter. They used a variety of different material in making the snowshoes such as: hard wood of the white ash, hide of the caribou or moose and also their intestines or tendons.  

After looking at the materials the Native Americans used it just comes to show that they used anything that they could find that would be durable and strong enough. This has given be inspiration as to how the variety of things you can use to create such an item, and how versatile certain materials can be.

I have also found that there have been many different designs of snowshoes over the years; this may have been due to new materials on offer but mainly due to the snow conditions and how best different designs suited certain conditions. Here is a photo of the range of designs the tribes used and created themselves:

Snowshoes

What is a Snowshoe?


A snowshoe is an item of footwear that has been adapted for people to walk on snow. They distribute weight so that the walker does not sink into soft snow, and enable people to travel through landscapes that are usually impossible with only ordinary footwear. Snowshoes of the twenty-first century are most often made of lightweight metal and other manmade materials.