Great all-terrain snowshoes - Tubbs Mountaineer Snowshoes - Men's

I got the Tubbs Mountaineer 36 snowshoes to replace some Tubbs Wilderness 36 that I'd broken, mainly because the Wilderness weren't quite up to some of the hills I was climbing. The day these showed up, I changed out of my street clothes and headed out to the woods.

The first thing I noticed was that the binding was even more secure than those on my Wilderness 36s, cradling the foot more completely and allowing for amazing control for such a big 'shoe. They allowed me to weave in and out of the trees without any problems, and very precise turns can be made in tight quarters.

The difference in traction was immediately noticeable when I started climbing steep stream beds; the Mountaineer toe crampons are much more aggressive than those on the Wilderness, and really dig in on icy, crusty snow.

The heel crampons provide extra traction on ascents, but don't seem to do a lot on descents. I had to shift my weight forward a little on the downhills so that the toe crampons were loaded, and take some of my weight on my poles, to keep from finding myself on an unplanned gliss. That, and the fact that the tube frames don't really provide much traction on traverses, leads me to classify these as very aggressive day-hiking snowshoes despite the name.

As long as very steep terrain isn't involved these will take you anywhere you want to go. For steep terrain and extensive traverses, I prefer my MSR Lightning Ascents. Those, however, don't have anywhere near as much flotation as the Mountaineers.

If you're looking for sturdy snowshoes with a lot of flotation for deep powder and traction to conquer all but the steepest obstacles, you should definitely give the Tubbs Mountaineer 36 a lot of consideration.

This review was written in the old system and had content requirements that are different than reviews written today.