Backpacking Background:
I am from and live in Maine. I have been hiking, backpacking, and canoe camping for over 45 years. I am also an assistant scout master; I average 2 to 3 days a week in the woods year round.

Over the years I've used or tried a variety of different gear. When I joined scouts as a boy, most of the boys my age didn't have backpacking gear, and their families didn't have money enough to buy it. So we had great fun making our own gear.

I can't really say that I have a backpacking style. I take what I need or want, depending upon what I plan to do on the outing. Even before my knees became a problem, I could never see being in a big rush. It is my opinion that camping is part of backpacking, and should be enjoyed at least as much as the hiking. In areas where there is a lot of hiker traffic, I tend to pack heavier in order to minimize impact. I just like being out in the woods, and exploring.

I got my first pair of snowshoes for Christmas when I was 4 years old. They were an old pair of army surplus crust shoes (very small bearpaw snowshoes). That first winter I had great fun in the back yard on my snowshoes hunting pretend rabbits with my wooden rifle. I couldn't walk very far because my legs wouldn't spread far enough. As the winters passed I grew into my snowshoes, and got even more enjoyment from them. By the time I was 11 and entering scouts, I had outgrown my snowshoes for all but crust and hard-pack conditions. Since I didn't have the money to buy a bigger pair, I managed to talk an old fellow that made his living making snowshoes, pack baskets, and trapping, into teaching me how to make my own snowshoes. By the next year, I had a fine pair of snowshoes that are still in use today. Over the years I have used about every style of snowshoe there is, including survival brush snowshoes. In my opinion there is no such thing as the perfect all-around snowshoe. You either have to wait until the conditions are favorable for the snowshoes you have, or you need several pairs and use the pair that matches the conditions. My approach to the problem is multiple pairs of snowshoes. My current preferences are: wood frame rawhide lace 48" (1.22 m) Green Mountain style for bushwhacking and light backpacking, 48" (1.22 m) Michigan style for heavy work, Alaskan (Pickerel) style for open country trail breaking, and the L. L. Bean White Mountain snowshoes as a sort of all-around utility snowshoe. For the duration of this test I will be replacing my White Mountain snowshoes with the Redfeather Hike 36 snowshoes.

I generally prefer not to wear a backpack when snowshoeing. I prefer a fanny pack for essentials and if I'm camping I carry my gear in a Pulk (modified Paris Expedition sled).

Product Information:

Manufacturer:	Redfeather
Web Page URL:	http://www.redfeather.com/
Model	H 36
Year Manufactured:	2003
Listed Weight	4.7 lbs (1.7 kg)*
Weight as Delivered:	4.8 lbs (2.17 kg)

*Redfeather's web site lists the weight as 1.7 kg, but the converted weight should be 2.13 kg.

Product Description:
The Redfeather Hike series are Green Mountain style snowshoes (an elongated oval shape, longer and narrower that bearpaws), with a metal frame, plastic decking, and plastic / nylon webbing bindings with metal cleats.

Frame:
The frame of the Redfeather Hike snowshoe is made of what appears to be 0.75" (1.9 cm) outside diameter aluminum tubing. The Hike 36 model snowshoes are 35.75" (90.8 cm) long. The widest point, at the base of the upturned toe is 9.5" (24.2 cm). They taper to a width of 7.125" (18.1 cm), at the point where the turn for the round tail starts. The bottom of each frame has four holes drilled in them for rivets. Two in the tail for anchoring the decking material and two (one on each side of the frame) where the Live Action Hinge is riveted to the aluminum frame.

Decking:
The deck material is a black laminated plastic fabric about 0.031" (0.78 mm) thick. The decking appears to be quite stretchy, and isn't very tight in the binding area. I will be watching to see if the decking stretches and loosens more in this area. The deck material is wrapper around the tubing frame and is riveted back to itself. The decking is only riveted directly to the tubing frame at the tail where there are two rivets into the frame.

Binding:
Redfeathers All Terrain Binding (ATB) consists of a plastic plate that the ball of the foot rests on, a butterfly shaped piece of flexible plastic, three nylon web straps, a plastic heal plate, heal and toe stainless steel cleats. The butterfly shaped piece of flexible plastic (the wings of the binding) is sandwiched between the plastic foot plate and the live action hinge. The three web straps are attached to the wings of the binding. One strap crosses the top of the toes and is fastened with a plastic buckle. The second strap attaches to the forward portion of the wings and crosses to a plastic loop on the rear wing and then across the foot at the front of the ankle and into another plastic buckle. These two straps form a "Z" across the top of the foot. The third strap is attached to the back wing and passes around the back of the heel to a third buckle. The binding is attached to the Live Action Hinge with four Philips bolts and lock nuts. The two front bolts pass through the foot plate, the butterfly shaped wings of the binging, the Live Action Hinge, the decking material, and the stainless steel toe cleat. The bindings also have a plastic heel plate that is bolted to the heel cleat (heel plate, decking material, heel cleat) with the Philips bolts and lock nuts.

The stainless steel cleats are made of sheet metal about 0.046" (1.16 mm) thick. The bends are crimped (dimpled) such that the bend is stiffened, hopefully this will keep the cleats from flattening out with use. The toe cleat has four teeth which are about 1.625" (4 cm) long across the front and a tooth on each side about 1.125" (2.9 cm) long that is perpendicular to the front teeth. The heel cleat's teeth form sort of an open "V" with the narrow end toward the real of the snowshoe. There are three teeth on each side which are about 1" (2.5 cm) tall.

The Live Action Hinge is made of a rubber-like composite material, about 0.125" (3.2 mm) thick. It is essentially a 1.375" belt that crosses the top of the decking, wraps around the frame and is riveted to itself. There is also one rivet on each side into the bottom of the aluminum frame, which keep the hinge from sliding on the frame. In the middle of the top of the belt, a tongue (or flap) extends under the foot plate of the binding. The hinge action of the binding is provided by the twisting of the Live Action Hinge.

Field Report:

Soon after posting the Initial Report, we got our first major snowfall of the season. The afternoon before the storm started, TV was already posting cancellations for the next day. My son hit me up to go out camping and snowshoeing, assuming school would be canceled the next day. We packed up had supper and had my wife drop us off about 10 miles (16 km) from home assuming we would have about a 15 mile (24 km) bushwhack home. By the time we got into the woods, we had about 2 in (5 cm) on top of about 8 in of frozen base snow. Our gear was carried in sleds. I only carried a small fanny pack and a water bottle. Fully dressed for the trail; I weighed 317.25 lbs (144 kg) and my son weighed 181.75 lbs (82 kg). I wore LL Bean Hunters Boots and my son wore Sorrell Packs.

When we got into the woods I took the lead. We decided to wear aluminum frame snowshoes for the cleats. The cleats on the Redfeather Hike 36 Snowshoes were working well, cutting into the frozen snow base and providing good traction for me. After covering about a 1.5 miles (2.4 km), my son wanted to take the lead and practice his navigational skills. It was snowing hard and hiking at night with headlamps, we were essentially traveling in white-out conditions. I immediately noticed that when walking in my son's trail, I had significantly less traction, the Hike snowshoes' cleats weren't reaching the frozen snow base and it was becoming difficult to handle the hills safely. I had also noticed that the Hike Snowshoes toed in. I stopped several times and attempted to adjust the binding to get them to track straight. Even with the binding loose they still toed in. At this point the slight toe-in was only annoying and not a real hindrance. By the time we had about 8 in (20 cm) of new snow the traction problem was significant enough that it was easier to just pull the snowshoes off and hike without them. By the time we made camp we had covered 5.3 miles (8.53 lm) according to the GPS Track Log and had a little over a foot of new snow.

By the time we got on the trail the next morning, we had close to 30 in (76 cm) of new dry snow (New England powder) on the ground and it was still snowing. My son didn't even try the aluminum framed snowshoes, he stored them on his sled and wore his 48 in (1.22 m) Green Mountain style snowshoes. Since I wanted to try the Redfeather Hike Snowshoes my son broke trail. Even though I was in my sons broken (somewhat packed) track, I was still sinking about a foot deeper than he was. The toe-in problem now became significant. With each step I was plowing with the outside of the snowshoes. Instead of the snowshoes sliding straight forward through and over the snow, the outside of each shoe was trying to push the snow aside much like the wings of a V-plow. Snow was building up on top of the snowshoes and burying them. I again tried to adjust the binding to get the snowshoes to track straight, but was unable to correct the problem. To get the shoes to track straight I had to turn my feet out, which put more stress on my knees. Within about .75 of a mile (1.2 km) I gave up on the Redfeather Hike snowshoes and switched to my 48" (1.22 m) Michigan style snowshoes. Since the Michigans are a lot wider than my son's Green Mountains I moved ahead to break trail. Breaking trail with the Michigans I was sinking into the snow about a foot. Within a short distance my son decided to switch back to the aluminum framed shoes and offered to pull both of our sleds since it wasn't practical for us to switch off breaking trail. I had him try the Redfeather Hikes. During our next break he switched to the other pair of aluminum framed snowshoes because he couldn't get traction enough with the Hike snowshoes. We only made 4.1 miles (6.6 km) the second day before we made camp. After a good meal and some rest we decided to explore around camp and play with the snowshoes. I tried breaking trail with the Redfeather Hike snowshoes. With about 36 in (92 cm) of new snow I was sinking over 2 feet (.6 m) into the snow. My son thought I was funny, he was wearing the Michigans and was only sinking about 4 in (10 cm) into the new snow. Before I tuckered out I wallowed into a drift up to my armpits and gave up on the Redfeathers. I took them off (after digging down to them) and went back to camp without them. Between the lack of flotation and the plowing caused by the toe-in, it was actually easier to travel with no snowshoes than it was wearing the Redfeathers.

The next morning we hit the trail again. I again started out wearing the Redfeathers. I had hoped the snow had settled enough that I would have better results using them with my son breaking trail. Unfortunately they were no better than the day before, and my knees were really bothering me so I went back onto the Michigans and breaking trail again. After lunch I decided I had had enough. We decided to head out to the nearest road and home. By the time we hit the road we had covered 6.5 miles (10.5 km) since breakfast. In all according to our track log, we had only covered 15.9 mi (26.6 km) and still had about a 4 mi road walk before we were home. Fortunately my sister-in-law happened by so we got a ride home to 38 in (96 cm) of new snow in the front yard..

My first hike with the Redfeather Hike Snowshoes didn't go well. After a couple of days of rest for my knees, I decided to give them a try again. Even though the snow had had three days to settle my experience was much the same as during out hike. After about .5 mi (.8 km) I gave up on them, took them off and walked back out to the road and home.

The next weekend we had a lot of rain followed by a drop in temperature. Temps dropped well below 0 F (-18 C) The snow had settled to about 1.5 feet (.45 M) and was frozen solid. I decided to try the Redfeather Hike Snowshoes again. I struck out on a day hike, the temperature was -15 F (-26 C). With these snow conditions the Hikes worked reasonably well. The toe-in problem was annoying but certainly not impossible to live with as it was in the new snow. I noticed on this trip that when climbing even a shallow grade, the Redfeather Hike cleats had an annoying habit of slipping unless I went well up on my toes. I hiked approximately a 6 mi (9.7 km) loop. The All Terrain Bindings worked quite well. They were easy to adjust and stayed tight. The boot portion of the binding worked quite well. I could easily tighten and loosen then with mittens on. The large buckles are really nice. The heel strap isn't as easy to adjust. They can easily be tightened with mittens on, and you can loosen the buckle with the mittens on, but I have to remove my mittens to loosen the strap enough to get the snowshoes off. The heel strap is also too soft to allow me to put the snowshoes on easily. They are soft and limp and usually slide under the heel of my boot when I slide my boot into the binding, requiring me to have to remove my mittens in order to get the strap up back up where it belongs. If the heel strap were stiffer I would be able to easily put the snowshoes on and tighten the binding with mittens on.

About a week later we got another 22 in (55 cm ) of snow. I decided to try the Redfeather Hike snowshoes on a partially packed snowmobile feeder trail. The trail started out downhill from the road, the cleats held reasonably well going downhill and I only slipped a couple of times (though had the hill been any steeper I probably would have elected to slide down on my butt). The hike was going fine until I hit the first uphill. No matter how much I tried to dig the toes in the Hikes slipped. With my knees uphill on the trail was just plain dangerous. I tried getting off-trail in the new snow but the lack of floatation, traction, and toe-in made the going impossible. I turned around and hiked back toward the road. When I got to the hill before the road I pulled the snowshoes and post-holed uphill to the road.

The super cold weather held, so most of my hiking with the Redfeather Hike Snowshoes was limited to well packed snowmobile trails and the groomed packed trails at the local ski area. The Hikes worked quite well in this environment, and I got out on them almost daily. The toe-in problem, heel strap, and need to get up on the toes to climb hills was annoying but certainly didn't make using them terribly unpleasant. They worked especially well on the cross-country snowshoe trails at the ski area because they are groomed and relatively flat.

I coldest temperature I have used the Hikes was -29 F(-34 C). I really don't want to know what the wind chill was cold was good enough for me. The decking material remained flexible and didn't appear to be damaged (cracked) due to the cold.

Recently the temperature warmed up and gave me a chance to try the Redfeather Hike snowshoes in cornmeal snow. The cleats didn't help at all. They were fine on flat ground but no fun at all on even the slightest grade. The deck material is very slippery in these conditions. It was definitely a short hike requiring post-holing even the smallest hills. In these snow conditions I limited my use of the Hikes to the local ski area and used my hiking poles.

Field Information:

Western Maine at elevations from 600 feet (123 m) to about 2800 feet (853 m). Temperature ranged from 30 F (-1 C) to -29 F(-34 C). Snow depth varied from about 2 feet (.6 m) to 6 feet (1.8 m). The snow types I experianced were hard packed and groomed snow, frozen snow, cornmeal, and deep powder.

Likes and Dislikes:

Likes:

I like the buckles on the All Terrain Bindings.
I like the toe portion of the All Terrain Bindings.
I experienced no buildup of ice on the decking material.
They are low maintenance when compared to wood and rawhide snowshoes.
Thus far the aluminum frames have been adequate for my weight. There is no apparent distortion and only a couple of scratches.
There is no apparent wear on the decking material, but the material has stretch about .25 in under the foot area of the snowshoes.
I like the fact that the cleats are stainless steel. Thus far there is no apparent wear or distortion.

Dislikes:

When I applied for this test, Redfeather recommended the Hike 36 snowshoes for weights greater than 220 lbs (100 kg). Upon reviewing the Redfeather web site "Snowshoe Finder", I see that Redfeather no longer recommends these snowshoes for recreational hiking for weights over 220 lbs (100 kg). They now recommend their Sport P36, Powder 30, or Powder 36. Frankly I have to agree, because the Hike 36 snowshoes were inadequate for my son at 181.75 lbs (82 kg).
In my opinion the toe cleat is poorly designed. They require the user to be on his or her toes to climb which can get old real fast on long climbs on moderate grades. This also takes the user's weight off the heel cleat rendering it less effective while climbing. The live action hinge also contributes to the ineffectiveness of the heel cleat when climbing as it takes some of the shoe weight off the heel cleat.
My Hike snowshoes do not track straight.

Test Plan:
I will continue to use the Redfeather Hike 36 snowshoes for my daily walks on the snowmobile trails whenever it is practical. I normally get out almost every week for at least an overnight (I have missed a couple of weeks this year due to severe cold and wind chill) and plan to use the Redfeather Hikes on these outings whenever conditions allow it. When conditions require another pair of shoes, the Hikes will be in the sled ready for when they can be used. If the weather cooperates we have a couple of multi-night outings planned and I will be using the Hikes on these outings also.

Read more reviews of Redfeather gear
Read more gear reviews by Clifford R. Haynes

Field Report

All material on this site is the exclusive property of BackpackGearTest.org.
BackpackGearTest software copyright David Anderson