Need a new pair of snowshoes?
November 3rd, 2009I just finished an article at my day job highlighting all the new ones out this year.
You might be amazed that this is all I have to show for the several weeks since I started my new job. Well, writing about groovy new gear is a mere fraction of my responsibilities. Job No. 1 is maintaining Trailspace’s massive gear catalog so users looking for a new pair of gloves or boots can see prices, reviews and descriptions of stuff combined in a single Web page. Part of it is automated, but each of the more than 34,000 items in the DB had to be double-checked by a human to minimize garbage in/garbage out. Six thousand new items were added in the past three months; I did almost all of them on a free-lance contract that put me on the path to full-time.
One nifty detail about snowshoes: many good ones are still built in the United States — Redfeather, Crescent Moon and Northern Lites among them. Then there’s Yukon Charlie’s, which builds all its shoes overseas but sells them here cheap enough to get hooked on the sport and perhaps trade up to the premium shoes down the road.
Memorable take-aways from my snowshoe assignment:
- Crescent Moon founder/president Jake Thamm demonstrating his shoes’ bindings on video with the Colorado mountains rising behind him.
- A snowshoe shop in Vermont has an amazing array of snowshoe videos demonstrating how to get into and out of the models it sells.
- As a professional courtesy I decline comment on Outside Online’s Gear of the Year Gal. (Though I am grateful for the awards: they give you something to say about at least one product in the line-up).
Next on the agenda: winter backpacks. Try to contain your enthusiasm.
November 4th, 2009 at 6:46 am
I have been checking out the Tahoe area web cams every other day to see if there are enough snow flakes on the ground to support my snowshoes. I haven’t done this before, so am a bit paranoid about safe snowshoe routes and practices …
November 4th, 2009 at 7:19 am
Hi Tom:
I can’t find your email address. So I’m just letting you know that I included your blog in an article for the Mountain Xpress http://www.mountainx.com/outdoors/2009/110409outdoors
on outdoor blogs.
You probably can’t get the printed version in W-S but you got a lot of coverage in WNC.
Danny
November 11th, 2009 at 5:15 am
Thanks- useful information! Love snowshoeing- such a great way to get out there without the need for skis etc The Dolomites is a particularly brilliant place to do it in.