Homemade snowshoes
Making homemade snowshoes is an easy way to open your door to the world of winter hiking. Not everyone can afford to buy branded snowshoes or tourist skis (ski tours or classic Beskids), so homemade products are still relevant in our 21st century.
Two years ago, in preparation for a winter hike in the Carpathians, I also decided to make homemade snowshoes. This is what came out of it.
Since the hike was mountainous, it was decided to make hard snowshoes. In these you can cut steps in the snow and move along steep slopes.
Taking a break from the Internet, I found several design options for hard snowshoes:
1. Snowshoes from the book by P.I. Lukoyanov "Homemade tourist equipment."
The weight of a pair of snowshoes, depending on the material and its thickness, can reach 1-2 kg.
The technique of walking on snowshoes is reminiscent of moving on mountaineering crampons: you should place the snowshoe with its entire surface, and in compacted areas you should even dig into the snow with its corners.
2. Snowshoes designed by Reznikov.
The snowshoe is made from sheet aluminum alloy 1.5 mm thick (for example, AMG-6, AMC alloys are not recommended; bend D16 alloy sheet with a bend radius of at least 5 mm). The largest dimensions are specified for sheet blanks without bent edges. On three sides (except for the toe) a bend is made at a right angle with a height of 20 mm. Previously, on these sides, you can make a bead-rounding by bending a section of the edge (see section B-B) to increase rigidity and strength.
The snowshoe is rigidly installed between the platforms of the crampon and boot (preferably in a shoe cover), while the straps of the crampon fastenings must pass through the holes of the snowshoe: the fastening must allow this to be done, otherwise the snowshoe cannot be installed! The top platform of the crampons should be flat. It is recommended to use a small carabiner for the rear crampon mount, otherwise it will interfere with the installation of the snowshoe.
To climb steep slopes, the snowshoe is installed with the bent edges down (Fig. 1b). To move on flat snow-covered slopes with the possibility of partially sliding forward (like on skis), snowshoes are swapped (left to right and vice versa) and installed with the protrusions bent upward.
Snowshoes fall into the snow, but much less than boots, because... their area is 4-5 times larger. You should walk with your feet a little wider apart than when walking on crampons: fig. V. When climbing a slope (Fig. d,e), by pressing and loading snowshoes, horizontal steps are made, along which the rest of the participants climb. This is the main advantage of rigid snowshoes. Trekking through deep snow with a backpack is physically difficult and requires frequent changes of leader. The use of snowshoes reduces the risk of falling into a closed crack, but slightly increases the risk of ankle dislocation in the event of an unsuccessful sideways fall or fall.
Snowshoes can also be used for other purposes: as stands for primus stoves, as covers for an impromptu table, as snow shovels and as a snow anchor. It is more convenient to use a snowshoe as a spade (shovel) if you provide a removable U-shaped handle (see Fig. 1a) from a curved tube or two corners with a jumper-grip, and a closed loop of a belt or cord is used as the second handle, threaded through its middle holes (you can also make special small holes in a more convenient place). For transportation in a backpack, it is advisable to pack snowshoes in a rectangular bag made of thick fabric. Snowshoe weight up to 800 g.
Article by E.V.Buyanov from the site http://www.mountain.ru/people/Buyanov/2002/snaryag/
3. Reznikov snowshoes for platform crampons.
Information from the site http://www.tkg.org.ua/travels/2kar03sa-p2.htm#9
Model selection and preparation.
I had little time and no access to a workshop, so the priority selection criterion was the ease of making snowshoes.
Lukoyanov’s snowshoes were no longer needed, as they required the manufacture of a fastening system, which seemed unrealistic to me (in my conditions).
Reznikov's improved snowshoes looked most tempting. They are the easiest to wear, they are light and beautiful. But I had neither boots with welts nor automatic crampons.
All I had to do was make ordinary Reznikov snowshoes for tethered cats.
I borrowed cats from friends (10-tooth Soviet tethered cats of the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions) and began searching for material.
Typically, such snowshoes are made from sheet aluminum alloy with a thickness of about 1.5 mm. The size of one workpiece is 430 by 300 mm. Having looked all over the city, I still haven’t found a single “leaf” like this.
But I found a steel sheet of the right size.
Steel, of course, is much heavier than aluminum, but time was running out and there was no time to sort through grub.
Making snowshoes.
Using a grinder, two sheets of the required size were cut out. Then the sides are bent and riveted. It turned out to be two nice little troughs, without any holes yet.
Now it was necessary to somehow mark the holes for attaching the cats. I took the cat in my left hand, a pencil in my right (brilliant, isn’t it?), brought the cat to the trough and traced the projections of the fastening rings with a pencil.
In Reznikov’s drawing they look like 6 small, neat ovals. Apparently the cats have grown up since then - I had to cut 6 huge irregularly shaped holes for the rings.
The only tools at my disposal were a drill, a grinder and a dull file.
With their help I made holes. Wow, the snowshoes didn’t look marketable at all.
But appearance was the last thing that bothered me.
The first tests showed that just getting the cat's rings into the slots takes about 2 minutes. Then I had to snap the heel clamp and thread the sling.
It took another 4 minutes to tie the crampon and snowshoe to the leg. Total about 15 minutes to put on two snowshoes.
I understood that this would be unacceptably long, and trying to somehow improve the situation, I widened the slots even further and replaced the canvas slings with thin synthetics with a three-slot buckle. Well, I trained.
As a result, the time to put on homemade snowshoes was reduced to 9 minutes.
Field tests of snowshoes were carried out - a three-hour walk through a snowy forest. The snowshoes performed well, but made it clear that this hike would not be easy.
Almost 3 kg of weight hung on each leg (Boot + shoe covers + snowshoe + crampon + some snow). The gait resembled the march of Terminator scuba divers. The steps became leisurely and... ponderous.
The awareness of one’s own strength was inspiring, but the prospect of such heroism throughout the entire campaign was, to put it mildly, alarming.
Trek test.
And now, the long-awaited moment - we are in the Carpathians. Snowshoes tied, we set off.
Other members of the group sported aluminum snowshoes with neat cutouts (they had a jigsaw).
Their products did not weigh much lighter (due to their slightly larger area).
It immediately became clear that the difference in the area of the snowshoes has virtually no effect on the depth of falling into the snow. We all crawled knee-deep in snow (there was more than a meter in total). Snowshoes were tied in the morning and removed only in the evening after setting up camp. Without them, even going into the bushes was problematic.
A couple of times I had to take them off and put them on in the middle of the day, on an icy ridge. Then I vividly remembered footage from some historical film:
Bullets whistle overhead, neighbors fall as if killed, and the soldier continues to concentrate on loading his flintlock musket. Pours gunpowder, tamps, wad, tamps, bullet, wad, tamps. And the bullets are still whistling...
So we are: sitting on backpacks under the blows of a hurricane wind and persistently trying to get the line into the ring. We wear fleece gloves on our hands (so as not to freeze to the metal) and this gives the procedure an additional flavor.
There was, however, one happy owner of automatic cats among us. He naturally made snowshoes of the third type (see above) and put them on in 2 minutes.
During the hike, the snowshoes managed to trample on deep, loose snow (you fall a little deeper than your knees) and on light firn hiding dwarf trees (a step or two - failure). There were fast descents and steep ascents. Snowshoes worked wonderfully everywhere, if only we had the strength to move them.
To prevent the snowshoes from falling off at the most crucial moment, I tied them with special diligence.
As a result, by the end of the hike, the slings rubbed several painful drops on my foot (through my boot and two socks) in the most unconventional places - on the upper surface of the foot, above the toes. The already difficult process of moving turned into real torture. At the same time, the snowshoes began to slowly break down - the aluminum ones cracked in several places, the steel ones were severely bent.
Conclusions.
So what do you think?
After all these horrors, I dare to recommend such homemade snowshoes to everyone thirsting for winter exotics at a reasonable price.
You just need to clearly understand all the pros and cons.
Yes, snowshoes are heavy and uncomfortable, but they make it possible to at least somehow move in deep snow (at times we even accelerated to 2 km/h).
Without them, we would not have walked a hundred meters in the snow.
P.S. Now, two years later, I understand how putting on a snowshoe could be significantly simplified. It was enough to make spacious rectangular windows like the 3rd option instead of narrow slots for rings.
Another advantage of such “windows for cats” is the ability to use modern tethered crampons (with two plastic arches and simplified lacing).
Plus less attachment to one specific foot size. After all, snowshoes with a slot system are made to fit a specific boot, and they can only be adjusted to a different foot size with the help of a file and someone’s mother.
If, after reading my opus, you change your mind about making snowshoes with your own hands, I recommend reading my report on the testing of tsl snowshoes.