Best Snowshoes for Beginners

Snowshoes are classic northern accessories, whether they are a necessity or for recreation. When snowfalls are thick and soft, normal shoes just don’t work because you will end up to your knees in the snow and walking around becomes impossible!

They were traditionally handmade with wood and hide, beautifully crafted from nature for nature. This skill is still kept alive today in the remote parts of the arctic.

Snowshoeing has become a great pastime for the whole family and it really keeps you fit as well. It gets the family active in the coldest months of the year and especially for kids who are getting bored from being indoors during snow season.

These products have also evolved and are now manufactured from modern materials making them very user friendly for beginners. We’ve carefully reviewed the best snowshoes for beginners that will be perfect to get everyone started out when the first snow falls.

Top Rated Snow Shoes for Beginners

Chinook Trekker

The Chinook Trekker is perfect for beginners because of their simple and user friendly design.

They have been expertly manufactured from lightweight aluminium alloy with a UV resistant polyethylene deck to offer the best traction and weight distribution on the snow. This is important so that you can maintain balance and stability while trekking across the snow.

Take a quick look at the features of the Chinook:

Lightweight aluminium frame
UV resistant polyethylene deck
Ratchet bindings to keep the shoe attached to your boots.
Adjustable heel strap
Central crampon freely rotates to bite into the snow
Heel crampon is sturdy and maintains grip on steep descents

The Chinook Trekker is the perfect way to get the whole family out onto the snow this winter, whether it’s to mission around the local park after the first heavy snowfalls in Idaho or to tackle a trek across a snow covered Appalachian trail; the chinook will get you there.

They come in 5 different sizes to fit each member of the family from kids to adults, perfect for getting started.

ALPS Adult All Terrain Snowshoes

The ALPS All Terrain is a high performance snow shoe made with the very best materials to ensure the ultimate snowshoeing experience for everyone. This kit will get you up and going in no time as it comes with a handy carry bag and the walking poles.

Take a look:

Frame is made of Easton 6000 aluminium , superlight and strong
Lightweight Nytex deck
Heavy duty aluminium crampons
Adjustable ratchet bindings
2 telescopic walking poles which come with additional bungs for snow traction
Carrybag
The ALPS comes in 4 different adult sizes with different weight capacities noted for each size.

Make sure that when you choose a size that you take into account that the weight carrying capacity indicated, includes not only your weight but the weight of your clothing and other equipment too.

The ALPS All Terrain is a heavy duty product, perfect for that next trip to Oregon’s mountainous regions.

Heavy Duty MSR Evo 22

MSR is renowned for its cutting edge outdoor gear. They are leaders in outdoor camping and hiking utilities such as cookware, tents and yes…. Snowshoes.

The Evo 22 has a unique design compared to the others in our list, revolutionizing the traditional shape of the shoe with this completely integrated system.

The deck and frame are now combined into a single molded unit which can withstand the rigors of all-terrain snowshoeing.

Here are the specs:

Unibody molded deck
Traction rails and crampons
Side brake bars
Duo-fit bindings fit a wide array of footwear from boots to shoes
Optional modular floatation tails (sold separately)
Super lightweight at 3 pounds and 10 ounces.

The design of the Evo 22 allows the trekker to traverse uneven and rolling, snow covered terrain with ease. The steel brake bars which are located along the length of the frame are brilliant additions and make the Evo 22 the most versatile in our list. They help when going down steeper slopes by biting into the snow to prevent slipping or stumbling.

The smaller size and unique features of the Evo 22 makes it a great in mountainous and rugged areas.

Lucky Bums Youth

The Lucky Bums Youth is the ideal kid’s snowshoe. They are super light and very easy to use thanks to the basic design.

These hassle-free and will make any kid happy to get out there onto the snow.

The light aluminium tube frame and polyethylene deck offers maximum floatation on the snow and the sturdy aluminium crampons give sufficient grip and traction on rolling terrain. Lucky Bums is perfect for kids 6 – 12 years old.

Take a quick look at the features:

Aluminium frame
Kid friendly bindings with a toe stop binding at the front
Capacity of 65 pounds

It’s definitely designed for beginners and won’t be suitable for traversing deep powder snow or heavier terrain, rather for an afternoon playing in the snow and getting the kids outdoors.

Beginners Guide

Firstly, these work great with waterproof duck boots and winter socks so layer up!

How To

Basic Beginners

The Chinook Trekker is perfect for starting out. It has all the basic features and comes in 5 sizes to fit people of all ages and sizes, making them the number one choice to get started.

Heavy Duty Snowshoes

The ALPS is versatile enough to get taken across rougher terrain and powder snow but is also easy enough to use by the uninitiated. They’re definitely a great choice if you are planning to do a lot of snowshoeing.

Revolutionary Design

The MSR Evo 22 has a revolutionary design with a compact hardcore product that makes traditional snowshoeing possible on rugged and uneven terrain. This is perfect for beginners because they are not large or cumbersome and their smaller size makes it a breeze to get used to floating the snow.