# Snowshoes for travel in socal



## hikeswithdogs (Sep 23, 2011)

Damaged said:


> Hey guys, I am currently in the process of getting my Avalanche level 1. Still need to do the field stuff though. Anyway, I need a means of travel for the field sessions and beyond. Obviously, being a snowboarder a split is the obvious choice but getting a whole new setup including bindings and board, in addition to beacon, probe, shovel is quite a lot of money. Not sure how dedicated I am to doing backcountry since my main motivation for doing this is so I can snowboard more once the resorts close down here. At least if I get snowshoes I can just use my current solid setup. anybody else do this and have advice for best snowshoes. my local mountains are the socal mountains if that makes any difference.


Snowshoes suck, find an old snowboard and make a home made splitboard with a table saw.......the plates and voile parts(pucks, sliders ect) for home made splitboards are dirt cheap on ebay these days.


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## deagol (Mar 26, 2014)

I don't know.. snowshoes *can* suck, but they don't always. It depends on the type of snow. In super deep light pow, they do, but in spring heavy snow, they can actually be better than a splitboard in certain conditions IMO. I've done both and I have ridden in CA and the snow is different for sure. Given all the expense of getting splitboard gear (specific bindings, skins, the splitboard itself), snowshoes might very well make sense, especially for someone in Southern California. Not exactly the land of deep powder.

as far as good snowshoes: MSR Lightning Ascent. I did a climb of a 14er here on them and was able to just basically walk straight up the face like it was a giant staircase (this was in spring snow) when using the climbing bars on them. The skiers had to zig+zag up. Their skins didn't have the bite in that snow that the MSRs did (they have a crampon-type edge around the entire perimeter and one on the toes.


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## Alonzo (Dec 30, 2015)

deagol said:


> I don't know.. snowshoes *can* suck, but they don't always. It depends on the type of snow. In super deep light pow, they do, but in spring heavy snow, they can actually be better than a splitboard in certain conditions IMO. I've done both and I have ridden in CA and the snow is different for sure. Given all the expense of getting splitboard gear (specific bindings, skins, the splitboard itself), snowshoes might very well make sense, especially for someone in Southern California. Not exactly the land of deep powder.
> 
> as far as good snowshoes: MSR Lightning Ascent. I did a climb of a 14er here on them and was able to just basically walk straight up the face like it was a giant staircase (this was in spring snow) when using the climbing bars on them. The skiers had to zig+zag up. Their skins didn't have the bite in that snow that the MSRs did (they have a crampon-type edge around the entire perimeter and one on the toes.


I agree, those snowshoes are bad ass. There are lots of different snowshoes out there that are good, just make sure they are light, have decent crampons and have heel risers and you'll be fine.


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## Damaged (Feb 23, 2013)

hey guys thanks for the advice. I checked out those snowshoes online and they seem like a good deal. There's a backcountry demo/clinic day next month in Snow Valley. I'm gonna go test out a few of the gear there and see if I can somehow get a deal or something. I'll probably make my decision after that.


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## Crasho (Oct 19, 2017)

Damaged said:


> Hey guys, I am currently in the process of getting my Avalanche level 1. Still need to do the field stuff though. Anyway, I need a means of travel for the field sessions and beyond. Obviously, being a snowboarder a split is the obvious choice but getting a whole new setup including bindings and board, in addition to beacon, probe, shovel is quite a lot of money. Not sure how dedicated I am to doing backcountry since my main motivation for doing this is so I can snowboard more once the resorts close down here. At least if I get snowshoes I can just use my current solid setup. anybody else do this and have advice for best snowshoes. my local mountains are the socal mountains if that makes any difference.


I don't know what you've decided to do but look at these - smallfoot.eu/small-foot-revolution/
I use the first version of it for 2 years now and these snowshoes are outstanding. 
Even Joel Lambert used them in some of his previous journeys and he knows stuff - check out his video in Youtube called "Undiscovered country"


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

Damaged said:


> Not sure how dedicated I am to doing backcountry since my main motivation for doing this is so I can snowboard more once the resorts close down here.


Motivation is the essential question, how to is secondary and cost is last. Years ago in my mind...yea cool, in reality still getting my toes wet...and cost wise frick'n insanity for merely dipping my toes. However have mitigated alot of cost buying off season and used. I'd say BC gear is still evolving and thus buying some slightly dated but functional diy splits, volies, probes, shovels and etc. its a fairly low cost of entry and consider that you won't have to update every year. Thus, its kind of once and done...unless ur a G-whore. So the point is, if looking to go BC...imo its a multi-year long range project and thus ur spreading out the cost over several years.


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