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Reviews > Snow Gear > Snowshoes > TSL Walk in the Park Snowshoes > Test Report by Kathryn DoironTSL Walk in the Park SnowshoesTest series by Kathryn Doiron Initial Report: Dec 16, 2008 Field Report: Feb 17, 2009 Long Term Report: Apr 14, 2009 Personal Information: Name: Kathryn Doiron Age: 32 Gender: Female Height: 5' 8" (1.7 m) Weight: 150 lb (68 kg) Email: kdoiron 'at' gmail 'dot' com Location: Washington DC, USA Brief Background: I started backpacking and hiking seriously almost four years ago. Most of my miles have been logged in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. I have recently finished 1200+ miles (2000+ km) of the Appalachian Trail. My style is to be as light as possible while not spending a fortune. My pack weight tends to hover around 25 lbs (11 kg) with two days of food and 16 oz (0.5 L) of water. I have recently started getting into winter hiking, snowshoeing and kayaking. Product Information:Manufacturer: TSL Outdoors Website: http://www.tsloutdoor.com/ MSRP: N/A Model Year: 2008 Weight: (stated) 2.05 lb (920 g) each Weight: (actual) 1.79 lb (812 g) each Measurements: (stated) 30 in. x 7.9 in. (76 cm x 20 cm) Measurements: (actual) 30.3 in. 7.9 in. (77 cm x 20 cm) Size received: 30 Materials: aluminum frame Initial Report: December 16th, 2008
The Walk in the Park snowshoes from TSL are designed to be a straightforward, comfortable snowshoe system for walking around in winter. The crampons look aggressive enough to handle hilly terrain but not necessarily mountainous terrain. The decking covers most of the frame nicely with a generous opening for the toe to pivot through. The woman's model comes as a powder blue decking with a white floral, leafy design on the toe portion of the decking and a white logo on the back. The decking is attached to a tubular aluminum frame at several wrap points. There does not seem to be much difference between the women's and men's models other then colour. The women's size 30 is rated to accommodate between 154 lb (70 kg) to 265 (120 kg). The straps have a telescoping system to allow the straps to accommodate a variety of boot and shoe sizes. The straps offer a three point binding system with a toe basket, an arch strap and a heel strap. The toe fits into the toe basket while the other straps wrap around and tie down to hold the foot in place. The toe part of the snowshoe is attached to the frame with a strap and not a metal pivot pin. The heel strike is a large plastic section of the decking with a wide inverted-v section of crampon underneath.
My initial impressions of the snowshoes were that they were not as wide as I expected. I am actually pleased with this as I hope this means I will not have to focus too much on widening my stance with them on. I was also impressed by how long they are. I was initially unsure of what size snowshoe to go with as I fell between two weight ranges, the 25 and 30. I opted for the size 30 as I will be doing some backpacking with these snowshoes on and I wanted to not push the upper range of the snowshoes too closely. I will be interested to see how much the extra length affects maneuverability and how the extra weight effects the flotation. The snowshoes came in a nice bag with little plastic tabs on the crampons. The bag has a handle on the long edge and the top making it easy to carry the snowshoes, or to hang them up for storage. I wasn't sure what type of pivot system the snowshoes would use as the main picture shows a strap pivot, but the smaller picture showing the crampons shows a D-ring system. I have in the past used a pair of snowshoes that had a similar pivot strap system and the snow kick-up was awesome, at least half way up my backside. I will be interested in seeing how much kick up of snow these snowshoes have in powdery conditions. I traditionally snowshoe with poles and will try the snowshoes with and without poles to see how stable the snowshoes are alone. I have two different styles of boot that I plan to test with the snowshoes, plus trail runners if the conditions allow. One pair of boots has narrow toes while the other pair has wider toes. I will look into how well the memory strap system works to remember the last pair of boots I had the straps tightened to. This will also allow me to see how well the straps can accommodate different boot shapes.
I found the adjustable footplate relatively easy to work without having referred to the instructions. It is a simple ratchet type system in that, I have to release the teeth from the ratchet to move the plate back, but I could simply push the plate back in to tighten the system and the teeth would push past the ratchet and catch. The toe was a little tight to get my boot in all the way, but I was simply holding the boot and trying to press it in. I will check to see if stepping into the snowshoe makes it easier to press the toe in completely. The straps were easy to work and smooth to tighten this first use without snow or ice in the way. I will be interested in see how well the straps work once caked in ice and/or snow. Field Report: February 17th, 2009 So far I have only been able to get the snowshoes out once in the field testing period, and it wasn't for lack of trying. There simply was no snow when I was out in West Virginia in January and nothing in Pennsylvania in February due to a strange warm spell. I did manage to take the snowshoes out on one trip and still have a big trip planned out in the White Mountains in March that should have the snowshoes seeing plenty of snow. Trips:
Impressions and Comments:
Long Term Report: April 14th, 2009 I managed to get another two trips out of the snowshoes, a nice day hike and a more involved long weekend trip. Read on to see how they performed. Trips:
The next trip out was a three day two night backpacking trip up in the White Mountains in New Hampshire. The weather was around the freezing point most of the time and the base layer of snow was granular and about 3-4 ft (about 1 m) deep depending on altitude, possibly deeper. I had about 30 lb (13.6 kg) in my pack. The trip began at about 500 ft (152 m) and went up to 1500 ft (457 m) then up to 2000 ft (610 m) over the course of the three days. The weather was sunny the first two days then rained the third day out. The snowshoes really came in handy on the first day as a group of us pretty much broke tracks hiking around a lake. Due to a combination of no sleep for more than 24 hours, beautiful sunny weather, and almost pristine snow, we ended up goofing off and jumping and running all around the lake making fresh tracks. The snow was about 3 ft (1 m) deep here and had a few little stream crossings. Saturday saw a climb up over the ridge to get to the next camping point, then Sunday we backtracked to the parking area in the rain.
Impressions and Comments:
The crampons on the snowshoes are not nearly as aggressive as I would have liked given the challenging terrain found in the White Mountains. I was able to walk well on flat surfaces but when it came to climbing, the toe grips were only okay at gripping, while there was little side to side gripping available. I found when the trail angled to the side, I didn't have as secure a grip as I would have liked. There was also not as aggressive a grip in the down direction and I found I slipped a little on the downward trip. The crampons are also not very durable and are already showing signs of wear as well as at least two of the teeth are bent. The bend is not substantial, but it is noticeably out of alignment with the rest of the teeth.
The bag that the snowshoes arrived in has continued to be used as a storage bag and this has kept the crampons of the snowshoes from getting caught on anything while I am storing or otherwise moving the snowshoes around. This has especially come in handy when I noticed the hook and look enclosure along one edge of the storage bag could accommodate poles. This makes carrying the snowshoes much easier while they are contained within the storage bag and keeps my poles together in a pinch too.
The decking material is still in very good shape as are the frames for the snowshoes. The straps still are in excellent condition although I have not managed to open the back strap at all since beginning the test. I have since been loosening the toe cup to remove my feet from the snowshoes as the back plastic band has not been cooperative in cold weather no matter what I have on my hands. I found the decking material is very tight to the frames, which did make it difficult to strap the snowshoes to the outside of my pack. I was able to slip the strap between the decking and frame eventually but it was more work than I expected. I later strapped the snowshoes on sideways to avoid passing the strap through the snowshoes. Wrap up:
Pros:
Cons:
This concludes my long term report on the TSL Walk in the Park Snowshoes. I hope you have enjoyed reading this report series and found it useful. I wish to thank BackpackGearTest.org and TSL for allowing me to play with these snowshoes.
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