First post. I am tired of postholing off trail in snowshoes and joined this forum for the wealth of knowledge here re finding some BIG snowshoes or wide ski solutions. Suggestions? Cautions? Mistakes you learned that I can avoid? Info on my intended use below.
I'm 225 lbs. and often carry a 20 lb. pack for a 250 lb. total. As I age my snowshoeing consists of short forays off of plowed logging roads in Interior and coastal BC, often only a few hundred yards but in deep soft snow usually on steep ground. My longest trek in the past 2 years was 5 km, and most are under 500 metres distance.
I have an old pair of wooden/rawhide longish bearpaws 11x30†that I put a lot of miles on when I was younger and currently am using a pair of Yukon Charlie 930's that were a gift to me.
From reading archives it looks like the GV Wide Trail 12x42 is the largest mass produced snowshoe available that has aggressive snow teeth, which I like. Maybe I should buy a pair of the magnesium military surplus and put my own bindings with crampons on them.
What is the quality of Bigfoot snowshoes? They have a 40â€x 11†on sale for $199 CDN right now.
On a long day of winter game tracking up and down over small ridges decades ago I designed in my mind a wide short ski with retractable crampons, to climb hills and slide down. I have never found such an item and wonder if any here know of something similar. I have looked at the Altai Hoks online, and wish that they had more aggressive climbing traction but have never tried them.
Two recent anecdotes:
1. Climbing a hill in waist deep snow I fell through the top of snow covered brush. I was armpit deep in snow, snowshoes tangled in brush.

2. In waist deep snow with a light crust under two inches of fresh snow, I punched through on a slope and found myself head down hill on my back, with hefty day pack, snowshoes extended under the crust, and any attempt to push up merely plunged my arm into the snow up to my shoulder.
