Reviews > Snow Gear > Snowshoes > Tubbs Pinnacle Series Snowshoes > Cora Hussey > Long Term Report

Field Use Summary I continued to use the snowshoes into the spring last season, and briefly had a few day opportunities to use them this season. Their flotation continues to be spot-on. My forward stride with them feels very balanced and natural, and the binding rotates evenly and freely. The terrain I took the Pinnacles into was mostly mountainous, and involved late and early season hard snow as well as warm and mid-season soft snow. Temperatures hovered right around freezing on all trips, and the Pinnacles did not see temperatures above 50 F (10 C) after the Field Report. The decking and cleats are superb. The decking sheds snow like it is liquid water, and the cleats have excellent grip. I used the Pinnacles mostly in hard snow for their grip, and was never disappointed. The one place I had trouble was during traversing because the decking tended to not tilt enough to get purchase with the cleats, but this was not a problem with the cleats themselves. When in powder snow, the Pinnacles also performed well. I have had limited snowshoe experience before (I mostly travel on skis) and the other snowshoes I have used feel much softer and more adaptable to changing terrain. The Pinnacles felt dependably stiff, which was nice and natural feeling on hard snow for purchase, and sometimes wobbly on variable terrain in soft snow. I never understand weight ratings for snowshoes. For the Pinnacles, I consider the weight rating to be accurate for up to about a layer of foot (0.3 m) deep maritime soft snow with a loaded pack. (For me, this is about 200 lb / 91 kg.) With powder snow any deeper, I sink enough to call it 'wallowing', and desire a snowshoe with more flotation. I feel that the snowshoe rating that Tubbs lists (just the weight range) is not enough to give the full picture. In other words, in five feet of powder, will they still float 200 lbs (91 kg)? Of course not. Here, I would give a 'full picture' rating for the Pinnacle 25 snowshoes as 120-200 lb (54-91 kg) for 0-1 ft (0-0.3 m) powder. Overall, my biggest problem with the Pinnacles continued to be the bindings. First, I realized that I had not tried soft boots with the snowshoes, and had only used my big hard snow and ice plastic and leather boots. With soft shoes, I had to cinch the single strap on the Bear Hug so tightly that it pinched my feet such that they hurt! And my shoes still kept sliding around because the binding sides and straps were too soft to conform to lightweight hiking boots or tennis shoes. Thank goodness I was only trying it on a short trip. Also, the boots and shoes must match the angle of the sides of the Bear Hug to fit well. I used some larger, moderately stiff boots with large toes and narrow heels. The heels would always slide around because the one strap would tighten the flaps around the toe, but tons of air would be around the heel. With other snowshoes with multiple top straps, I have been more likely to get a better fit over my range of boots. Oh well. One other little nitpick I had was their packability. After a while, I got the sides of the Bear Hug binding all flattened out and worn in so they packed a little flatter, but I think having to wear in (or, wear out) a binding in order for the snowshoes to pack well is silly. But as long as my boots fit, and I had the patience to strap them in with the fiddly adjustment and locking mechanism (which is difficult to adjust to a new set of boots in the field with gloves on -- I learned to do it at home beforehand if possible) then the Pinnacles were great. My favorite part is certainly their great cleat design which works very well.

Long Term Opinions Care and Maintenance: Overall, the Pinnacles have needed no maintenance. I shake them out and let them dry after each trip, and any dirt just shakes right off. The cleats are clean and shiny and sharp still, even after walking a good bit over rocky parts of snow. The rotation of the foot and binding is not as smooth as it once was, but with my other snowshoes some sewing machine oil solves that issue, so I am not too worried about the binding gumming up in the future. I consider it to be a natural part of snowshoeing. Durability: The Pinnacles have been quite durable. The foam around the Bear Hug is still intact, much to my surprise. I have always carefully packed the bindings in toward my pack to protect them when bushwhacking, however. The decking has a number of scratches from endless bushwhacking (including a lot of over-my-head willow groves) on my way to late-season snow approaches. But functionally, the Pinnacles are very much intact and performing well after a great deal of abuse.

Summary Overall, the Pinnacles are very nice snowshoes with grippy cleats and decent flotation. However, this is only true as long as the binding fits the shoes I am wearing. Some pairs of shoes get squashed, some have the heel slide around, and some fit just fine. The Pinnacles performed best on harder snow when the cleats were needed along with some flotation. Likes Dislikes Natural, easy stride Binding squashes soft shoes Solid decking Difficult to pack Sharp, dependable, and grippy cleats Binding is very fiddly and grips inconsistently on differently shaped boots

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Reviews > Snow Gear > Snowshoes > Tubbs Pinnacle Series Snowshoes > Cora Hussey > Long Term Report