Testing TSL snowshoes

Prehistory.

It just so happens in Ukraine that winter ski trips are not common here. Firstly, no one has suitable skis, and secondly, the nature of the snow cover is not entirely suitable. In Crimea, snow is scattered across the mountains in random order - huge snow fields give way to grassy slopes and rocky cliffs. There is a lot of snow in the Carpathians, but dense thickets of dwarf trees and windbreaks prevent you from using skis effectively. As a result, a tradition arose of using snowshoes, mostly homemade, for winter hiking. They are much more affordable than expensive and rare ski tours, very maneuverable and compact. A couple of years ago I also made simple homemade snowshoes (for a winter hike in the Carpathians).

Overall, I liked “snowshoeing.” But it was very far from ideal. A huge number of shortcomings forced us to look for other options. Actually, one of them was literally lying on the surface. More precisely on the shelves of tourist shops.

Bourgeois plastic snowshoes at exorbitant prices. It took me two years to get around to buying them...

How we tested.

In all fashion publications that test household appliances and other crap, they always write about the testing methodology and the equipment used for this. Why are we worse? So, the Goloseevsky forest, covered with 20 centimeters of wet snow, was chosen as a testing ground. Adhering to the chosen terminology, I will say that the test setup was assembled based on myself. In short, I put on snowshoes and went for a walk through the forest.

We put on snowshoes.

The snowshoes were not pre-tuned. I just threw them on the snow and started fitting my size 45 slippers to them. The slippers fit in easily, but if they were a couple of sizes larger, nothing would have worked out for me. The thrust bearing was extended to the maximum, which, by the way, did not take long to have an effect.

When the heel support is extended all the way, it is very difficult to snap off the heel lock. You can’t do this with mittened hands; you have to grab it with the tip of a ski pole. But if your shoes are even slightly smaller than the mentioned size 45, all this will not threaten you.

The belt that pulls the toe of the boot to the platform must be adjusted in advance so that the buckle does not get caught when moving under the platform. It is almost impossible to do this when the boot is already in the stirrup; you will have to remove the snowshoe.

The second belt, at the rear of the platform, is more convenient to use. There were no problems with him. I was pleased that the fastex (trident-shaped clasp) was made without unnecessary intermediate cuts. Snow would certainly get stuck in these, making it difficult to snap into place.

Important! The right and left snowshoes appear identical in appearance. But there is a difference. The trample shoes must be worn so that the buckles and latches are on the outside. Otherwise, you risk crushing them by hitting them with a second snowshoe.

It should be noted that describing all the preparations took me ten times longer than the process of dressing itself, which lasted at most 3 minutes. Compared to the 15 minutes it took to swaddle homemade snowshoes, this is nothing at all.

Tanks rumbled on the field.

I'm finally going! And unlike steel homemade products, it did not at all resemble a rumbling tank. It’s easy to walk, you simply don’t notice the snowshoes on your feet. The loose heel is just lovely. Thanks to her, the huge length of the snowshoe does not interfere at all. The legs move naturally, and not as if walking with fins (the main problem with snowshoes without a free heel). Snowshoes do not cling to each other - the figure-eight shape and small width help with this.

I walked straight through the forest, “at azimuth,” making my way through bushes and small windbreaks to test the maneuverability of my snowmobiles. Everything worked out well except for the reverse. To back away, you need to cleverly drag your feet or fix your heel.

Crossing the concrete fence, I still took off my snowshoes and put them on on the other side. Both operations took less than a minute. Customized snowshoes put on very quickly.

When I accelerated at one of the sections, I felt something loose in my boot. The snowshoe seemed to be pulling the shoes off my feet. The thing is that I only wore one pair of socks (and those were thin ones) and clearly didn’t lace my shoes tightly enough.

Through the valleys and over the hills.

It was time to move on to the second part of the test - to test the operation of snowshoes on the slopes. I found a fairly deep ravine with a slope of about 35 degrees. To begin with, I went down, moving stupidly down without any zigzags. The nature of the snow cover was not very suitable for this method of descent - a thin and wet layer of snow slid over wet leaves and I skied a couple of times.

As I climbed up, I decided to use the heel support. It turned out that this simple device really helps on climbs. The calf muscles and ligaments stretch less and become less tired.

The next stage is traversing the slope and descending in zigzags. To make it easier to maneuver, I fixed the heel and hit the road. Due to the insufficiently thick snow cover, we had to place our feet at an angle and it was not very comfortable to walk. But overall everything is fine.