A Trailside Guide: Snowshoeing

The ancient, elegantly useful snowshoe has taken the outdoor sports scene by storm. With sales of snowshoes more than doubling every year this decade, snowshoeing rivals its trendy cousin snowboarding as the fastest growing winter sport in the United States.

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In this indispensable guide, avid snowshoer Larry Olmsted enumerates the many reasons for snowshoeing's meteoric rise. Advances in design and construction-including quick-entry, high-performance bindings-have made snowshoes even easier and more enjoyable to use. Scores of enthusiasts are hitting groomed cross-country ski and snowmobile trails across the snowbelt, running on scaled-down versions of traditional 'shoes. Snowshoeing explains how to experience this recent evolution of the sport.

Even greater numbers of snowshoers come from the ranks of America's hikers and backpackers, who have discovered that wintertime can be the best time to hit the trail: no bugs, no mud, no crowds. And backcountry Alpine skiers and snowboarders climb to their summits on snowshoes, the most reliable, versatile mode of travel across snow. No new use or technique is left untreated in this, the first guide to snowshoeing since snowshoeing has come of age.