Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board snow shoes

well it is finally time to buy those long desired snow shoes. looking for feedback on the best deal for the money quality reports. The MSR's that I looked at had plastic bindings. This makes me nervous. Do the bindings fatigue with age - living in the desert, I know what non-use can do to plastic during non-use season. Any and all comments welcome.

Okay, legitimate topic.

I am sincerely interested in this also. I need to buy snowshoes, so any suggestions on brands and/or what to look for? A colleague of mine has MSR's which he seems happy with, but he doesn't get out into the "real" snow as much as most of you folks.

Opinions anyone?

I have the MSR Denali Ascent not the Denali Classics. These are the ones that have the heel lifter for hiking up steep slopes. Depending on snow conditions and total weight, you can also add floatation tails. I'm very happy with them.

I have a bunch of MSR classics, that I use for teaching my snowshoeing classes, as well as using myself.

I find them easy to maintain, sturdy (never had anything break), and user friendly. I find their purchase on hard snow and sidehills to be much better than other brands.

The more advanced models that have the heel lifters and more agressive campons might be more appropriate for serious mountaineering.

We have the MSR Denali Ascent (heel lifter).
We are very,very happy wit them.
I find them very good for Mountaineering.
We used them a lot on Shasta.