There are several good snowshoe books out there. The basic stride is different and like riding horses you will feel sore in muscles you didn't know were there. My experience is with strictly traditional wood and rawhide strung models. There are patterns made for different terains and needs; long narrow freighting shoes like the Alaskan and Ojibway ( my fav) are for narrow trails with loads, smaller bear paw types are for heavy brush and a general midsized pattern often called the michigan is a good all around shoe. By far the best lashing is the simplest and most traditional use of lampwicking. It was long thought snowshoes were uniquelly a new world invention. A recent examination of Oetzi's 'backpack' theorises the fragments were in fact snowshoes, the size, surviving strings and drilled holes remarkably similar to the general parameters of traditional examples. It makes sense to me, since a backpack simply wasn't ergonomic with his rain cape. that cape precedes the best snowshoe garment also, the blanket capote of voyageur and mountain man fame. top it with a Toque and you can sneak across the canadian border for all the pharmaceutical bargains <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />