Reviews & Ratings for MSR LAscent Snowshoes - Men's — 19 reviews — Page 1

Great backcountry snowshoes for Pacific Northwest snow conditions (Cascades, Olympics). Work well in deep powder, hardpack and crust. Can traverse steep slopes with them. Binding straps sometimes come loose unless they're tight.

Great traction, stable,and durable. Catch my toe under the heel of my rear show occasionally. Need strong hip flexors for powder.

Had my first winter storm in Utah 2 weeks ago since moving from Texas. Got these babies out immediately and was walking casually over hill and dale. One cross country skier along side the road and little else.

These have been great. The gnarley bottom traction holds great on surfaces that have become icy due to sunny days and freezing nights.
The 30" shoes only sink about 7" into 3' of soft snow so I can still walk comfortably (I'm 240# with gear). The bindings work good, and I trust them more than ratchets in the backcountry. I do wish the straps had 2 retainers each instead of one because they are so long they tend to flap around.

MSR Lightning Ascent snowshoes will get you any place you have business being, and back again. They're lightweight, attach securely to any kind of boot, and provide unparalleled traction. This will be my 3rd season using them, and they've become my go-to snowshoes even for deep powder despite the fact that they give less flotation than my 36" Tubbs. You're going to sink regardless, and I found that having smaller snowshoes to pull OUT of the snow (within reason) offsets the loss of flotation.

The first thing you notice about these snowshoes is the frame. It's made of bent and welded aluminum bar instead of aluminum tube, with teeth and notches on the bottom for traction. They call it the 360 Degree Traction frame, and that's exactly what it gives you. Crusty snow, the occasional bare rock, fallen trees, the frame teeth grab whatever you step onto and stay there until you step off. They work to a limited degree on ice, but for extended ice travel you should really be using crampons or spikes.

Depending on the length of the snowshoe, there are 2 or 3 transverse toothed braking bars connecting the sides of the frame together and providing rigidity as well as traction. One is directly under the ball of the foot, another under the heel, and on the 30" models there's a third bar about 5 inches behind the second.

At the front of the binding there are 2 large toe crampons for punching through ice and crusty snow, and levering your way uphill. Behind the binding and attached to t...
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Received the item quickly. They are much more sturdy and manly appearing than what is perceived from the website. More manly appearing = more massively awesome mountaineering = more awesomeness. Men.

Great aggressive shoe, perfect traction on deep powder or sloping ice. Crampons aggressive enough for steep pitches, televators take all the calf strain away on the unrelenting ups.

At this point I am still waiting to use the snowshoes for the first time. The quality is excellent and MSR truely makes a next generation snowshoe for today's hiker. The best part was that I had been watching for sales of one model when Campsaver placed the higher model on clearance for less than I expected to spend. I hesitated for a couple of days until I received a 30% of coupon to the alread

The trails we use are at high altitude and the light weight is less taxing. The area is wooded and has hills and gullys. These work so much better than our old snowshoes. They are on the expensive side but well worth the price!

Ease of entry is fair. I must have my gate as natural as possible and it took a few adjustments to get the pivot point and foot position correct. Shoes pivot on a traction bar and do not have the lateral flex you get from the Atlas shoes, but is not too hard on the ankles while traversing. Handles all conditions, last trip I went from soft deep snow to wind blown hard pack on a single ascent wi