they are very limited but if you don't have them when you need them you could be in a real fix."stove pipeing" thru fresh deep snow to get back to the car,camp,help--whatever,would drain your energy fast.i do a fair amount of snow shoeing as a sport,a kind of winter hiking,and once you get the hang of it you can really move right along.i'm sort of down on some of the styles of modern shoes.they don't have a big enough foot print to really hold you up.my wife got a pair of the newer ones and even although she is smaller and light in weight she sinks in more that i do with my bulk on my older style wood frame ones.