ironraven;

Hope I didn't come across as sounding snotty or anything like that. As I said, I've only snowshoed once in my life (although I've tried to go several times in the past couple of years, but couldn't find anyone to go with and didn't feel comfortable doing it on my own), but the one time I did it, I honestly don't remember it being very strenuous, and we were in very deep snow at one point (as I discovered when I took my snowshoes off and sank to my waist). That was about the only time on the trip I sweated <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

I think a lot of people feel they need to carry a heavy backpack in winter, but that's really the whole point of snowshoeing - you don't have to carry anything on your back, you just drag it behind you on a toboggan.

What kind of snowshoes do you use, if you don't mind my asking? I used the Canadian military (white aluminium with aircraft cable mesh). I bought a pair of them a few years back, with visions of going out snow-camping, and they've been sitting in my storage locker ever since. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

I personally have my suspicions about the "modern" style which don't use the traditional mesh; I've heard (probably from purists) that snow tends to pile up on top of them and you then have to shake it loose every couple of steps, so walking is a little like lifting a shoveful of snow and shaking it off with each step; whereas, with the traditional mesh snowshoes, the snow just sifts through the mesh with every step and so it's really not much different from a leisurely walk. But I've never used the "modern" style of snowshoes and so am not qualified to comment on this.