Long Term Report

Redfeather Hike Snowshoes Long Term Report

Personal Information
Name: Christine Korhonen
Age: 30
Gender: female
Height: 5’4” (1.6 m)
Weight: 165 lb (75 kg)
Shoe size: women’s 8½ (EU 39)
E-mail: chris@wormguy.com
Location: Western Montana
Date: June 8, 2004

Backpacking Background
I'm in Montana where I’m becoming re-acquainted with winter. Now that I’m back above the snow line, I’m attempting some winter camping and snowshoeing. I’m a lightweight backpacker mentally, if not always in practice. I’ve gotten my summer multi-day pack weight down to 13 lb (6 kg), but winter backpacking is still new to me, and my winter pack weight hovers around 25 lb (11 kg).

Product Information
Manufacturer: Redfeather Snowshoes
URL: http://www.redfeather.com
Model: Hike Series H30
MSRP: US$119
Listed strength: up to 220 lb (100 kg)
Measured weight: 3.8 lb (1.7 kg)
Measured dimensions: 2'6" (76 cm) long, 9" (23 cm) at widest point

Field Test Information
In the past three months, I used the Redfeather Hike snowshoes in Montana at elevations from 4500' to 6600' (1400 to 2000 m) on hard-packed trails and fresh powder snow.

Redfeather Hike Snowshoes
Wear The snowshoes have stood up to wear really well. There are a couple of scratches on the aluminum frame, and the pre-cut hole in the middle of the decking is frayed around the edges. The decking is intact, with no rips or punctures, and the connection points around the rivets don't look like they've experienced much stress so far. The rubber “Live Action Hinge” looks good. Looking at the snowshoes, I can tell they've been used, but they don't look abused.

Using Hiking Shoes I used the snowshoes with both lightweight hiking shoes and with hiking boots. The snowshoes work much better with boots. The snowshoe strap that goes around my heel puts too much pressure on the hiking shoes. My foot nearly slid out of the hiking shoes a couple of times because the strap holds the shoes in place while my heel moves up and down. I had to be conscious of how I walked because I didn't want the shoes to slide off. When I wore the snowshoes with hiking boots, I didn't have this problem. Since the boots were tied around my ankles, they had more support and my foot couldn't slip out. It was also easy for snow to get in through the top of the hiking shoes. In the future, I'll use the snowshoes only with hiking boots.

Using Hiking Poles The snowshoes worked with hiking poles. The width of the snowshoes didn't get in the way of using poles like I was afraid it would. However, I didn't feel that I needed the poles when I used the snowshoes. When hiking, poles help me go up and down hills. Since the center cleat on the snowshoes grips extremely well, I didn't feel that I needed the extra traction from the hiking poles.

Foot Drift In my field report, I mentioned the snowshoes tended to go pigeon-toed when I wore them. At the time, I thought this was a function of uneven tightening of the straps. When I lined up my feet to make them parallel, the snowshoe seemed to turn in. This drift occurred mostly with my right foot. Now that I've used the snowshoes more, I realized it's my foot that's crooked and not the snowshoes. When I walk, the toes of my right foot naturally point out. This happens regardless of whether I'm wearing snowshoes or not. I first noticed this now because the Hikes are large and amplify the drift. Since these snowshoes are so long, the tail of the right snowshoe hit the tail of the left when they were at this angle. In the field report, I tried to compensate by forcing my feet parallel, which resulted in the pigeon-toed problem. There still may be some shift of my foot in the snowshoe bindings, but my main problem is that my feet are crooked. If the snowshoes were shorter, then I wouldn't have as much of a problem from the tails crossing and hitting each other.

This was my first pair of aluminum snowshoes, and I'm a convert. I really like snowshoeing. If I were looking for a pair of snowshoes to buy, I would consider the Hikes, but I would choose a different model since the H30 is, in my opinion, too large for me. I chose the H30 because the next smaller model, the H25, is advertised for use only up to 175 lbs (79 kg). I occasionally exceeded this weight when I carried a large pack, but not often. I feel the H30s are both too long for me and the bindings are too big. Though the snowshoes stayed on my feet, I had to tighten the bindings to their tightest size to fit. Smaller sized snowshoes might fit my feet better and might be easier for me to walk in. As to the other features of the Hikes, I like the large buckles on the bindings, but I needed to use two hands and usually had to take off my gloves or mittens to put the snowshoes on or take them off. I really like the large center crampon, but a minimum depth of snow is needed to accommodate its length. The snowshoes have been pretty durable throughout.

Pros
Held up well to my abuse.
Crampons have great traction.
Yellow buckles on bindings are easy to see and use.

Cons
Sizing chart could be expanded to include shoe sizes that work best with each model of snowshoe instead of relying on weight alone.
Need two hands to put on/take off snowshoes.
Ice accumulates on the heel bed.

Thanks to Redfeather for having BackpackGearTest conduct this test and BGT for letting me be a part.

Read more reviews of Redfeather gear
Read more gear reviews by Christine Korhonen

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