Item #67 in Snowshoeing

The following review received 11 helpful votes out of 11 total votes:
Review Date: 2007-05-12
"Excellent performance despite odd appearance"

I bought the MSR Denali snowshoes after trying out a pair belonging to a friend. They perform very well in all sorts of conditions: deep snow, shallow snow, steep hills and icy, rocky mountains, climbing over icy logs, pulling sleds full of winter camping gear. The best feature of these snowshoes is the binding, which is extremely quick and easy to put on and take off, even when you are wearing gloves or mittens. It securely fits a wide range of boot styles and sizes and never comes loose unexpectedly. The steel crampons under the toes allow you to climb and descend very steep hills and mountains, even if they are icy or there is rock under the snow. The full-length serrated steel rails along the edges make it much easier to balance on icy logs when you are bushwacking. They seem to be much more durable than my previous snowshoes, (some aluminum-frame Yukon Charlies which broke after an hour of use). I used these MSR snowshoes this spring in Minnesota and Colorado, and my friend has used his for several years in Minnesota, including several multi-day winter-camping trips in the Boundary Waters. Another nice feature of these snowshoes compared to more conventional designs is that they are modular. You can add flotation tails of different lengths, depending on conditions. The basic snowshoes are 22" long, but I also purchased 4" and 8" tails on sale for about $15 each. I can use the basic snowshoes in shallow snow or for more maneuverability in thick brush or forest. I can add the longest tails for deep snow or when I'm carrying a heavy pack. The only downside to these snowshoes is that they are slightly more noisy than aluminum/wood/webbing/fabric snowshoes when you walk on a hard surface like bare ice or rocks or very hard crusty snow. But the difference isn't that much from aluminum snowshoes, and I don't generally walk on surfaces like that very often or for very long when I am wearing soowshoes. 5 stars

MSR Denali Classic Red Snowshoe

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