Snowshoeing on New Year's Day 2023 near Pilcher Creek Reservoir, west of North Powder.

What if you don’t like skiing but you’d like to get up in the mountains and get some exercise? Have you ever considered snowshoeing? The good deal about snowshoeing is you don’t have to pay for a lift ticket and ski rental fees. Just grab your shoes and head out.

Like with all of our activities, you have a lot of options. The most fun snowshoeing trips to me are when you invite a group of friends to go on a hike. The gear is pretty simple — snowshoes! (I’ll talk more about snowshoes in a second). Of course, layer your clothing as with any of your mountain activities.

But one thing you have to throw in your backpack for sure is a coffee pot so you can build a fire and heat up some hot chocolate and roast marshmallows. At the end of your hike to wherever your destination is, you need to set up some kind of a little reward for everyone and a cup of steaming hot chocolate with marshmallows is just the ticket that everyone will enjoy. Throw in a gallon of water or at least a half-gallon and supplement it with snow.

If someone toots out, no big deal. Just stop, build a fire and kick back and let them rest up. You’re not on a hardcore elk hunt. If you have something like an Alps Mountaineering backpacking chair that will make it more comfortable.

Snowshoeing has been around for hundreds of years. In the old days it was how the trappers and people up north got around other than with dog sleds. They didn’t have snowmobiles. Katy bought me my first pair over 35 years ago. Back then all that was available were rawhide shoes which I still think are the coolest.

There are different designs of snowshoes. They make long narrow ones that are called trail shoes that are good for shoeing across wide open prairies. For hiking in the brush, they have short fatter ones called bear claws. Long ones would get tangled up in the brush.

Now all that I see for sale are the aluminum-framed shoes with plastic netting. Like I say, though, I still think the rawhide ones are the coolest. The nice thing is, you can rent a pair so you can test out different models before you spend your hard-earned money on a pair that you might not be happy with (Katy and I were once staying at the Geiser Grand Hotel in Baker City and rented some from the hotel).

Who snowshoes? Ha, that’s like asking who runs. You see old people, skinny people, fat people and then fanatics like Katy who have run marathons. The same is true with snowshoers. I was at a management/survival type deal in Colorado once and one of the instructors competed in snowshoeing competitions. Gee, he averaged better times per mile than I could do on flat ground in tennis shoes.

What’s not to like about snowshoeing? You’re up high in a winter wonderland where the air is crisp and clean and the scenery is absolutely beautiful. The sky is the limit on what you do. A lot of people hike in and rent a yurt. Or you can go all out and do some winter camping which we’ll cover sometime in a future article. Or even throw in a rifle and try calling a few varmints.

On one trip I got back to our rigs and the bottoms of my old school rawhide snowshoes gave out literally right when I got to the truck. Talk about perfect timing. The whole bottom had rotted out. I love the old school snowshoes but it would cost more to repair them than it would to buy a new set so I bought some of the new aluminum ones. They’re lighter and cost less. Katy and I bought a pair made by Northern Lites.

My old rawhide bear claw shoes were wide so I could snowshoe in powder. A lot of the aluminum shoes are pretty short and not too wide so you can’t do too good on them in waist-deep powder. They’re better on a trail.

So like I said above, there are different styles available according to what your activities are going to be. In the woods you’ll want the shorter bear claw type. For out on the prairies, you want to look at the longer thinner ones. Some of the advanced models have a brace that pops up under your heel to provide support when climbing hills.

The bindings will be like what they use for cross country skiing. Your foot can tilt up as you walk. On my old rawhide ones I had stout rubber bindings that I stuck my toe in and the back pressed against the back of my heel. Now I believe most of them strap on your feet.

You’ll probably find it helpful to use a pair of ski poles to keep your balance. Especially if you’re snowshoeing in steeper mountains or where you’ll be encountering uneven surfaces.

So why sit around and whine? Grab a pair of snowshoes and hit the snow. It’s a good excuse to get outdoors and it may just help you lose a couple of those unwanted pounds.

Just don’t forget to pack the hot chocolate!