Snowshoe Racing. Encyclopedia of World Sport

Informal racing is probably as old as the snowshoe itself, serious racing has only emerged within the past 30
years. Races are held either on groomed trails, as for
most Nordic ski events, or on unbroken snow.
History
The best evidence suggests that snowshoes have been
used for the past 6,000 years, primarily by Amerindian
peoples. Possibly also developed in Central Asia, the
snowshoe never gained any real popularity there.
Snowshoe clubs popularized recreational snowshoeing in Canada. These clubs, some of them 200
years old, were popular among both French- and
English-speaking populations, but more so among
French Canadians. These and their counterparts in the
United States never tried to formalize snowshoe racing.
Rules and Play
The traditional snowshoe was primarily a snow flotation device and, as such, not suited for high speed. In
the 1970s, the snowshoe was drastically redesigned,
which reduced size and weight and allowed for the use
of a real racing stride. At the same time, athletes from
other sports began to look for new ways to cross-train,
keep fit, or enjoy themselves in winter. Snowshoeing
was a natural option.
For racing, generally, a shoe can be no less than 20
centimeters (8 inches) wide and no shorter than 64
centimeters (25 inches) long. This size allows considerable flotation, yet it is small enough to accommodate a
stride that is more like that of a modern runner than
that of a heavily laden trapper.
The deck of the racing shoe is no longer webbed but
solid, and generally made from rubberized or other
treated nylon; it is no longer attached to the frame with
rawhide lacing, but riveted or clipped to it. This preserves some of the flotation qualities of snowshoes
while reducing overall size. Most modern shoes also
feature a cleat at the toe or ball of the foot, and some are
also cleated at the heel. The overall result is a much
lighter and smaller shoe, with improved climbing ability, that still allows a certain amount of controlled
downslope sliding.
The long tradition of “social snowshoeing” continues in Quebec and New England, and racing in the east
has taken on a more competitive edge since 1988, when
the first “North American Snowshoe Classic” was run.
The newest centers of snowshoe racing, though, are in
Wisconsin and Minnesota and in Colorado and the
neighboring mountain states.
Several dozen races are held in Colorado every year,
most sponsored by local running clubs or by snowshoe
manufacturers. Course conditions are one of the key issues in racing today. Initially, many races were run on
groomed tracks. This led to the feeling, and not only
among “traditionalists,” that snowshoe racing might
lose all its distinctiveness and become merely a sort of
handicapped running activity.
On the other hand, races through unbroken snow were also problematic. When such races were staged, a
typical strategy was simply to “hang back” while the
leaders broke a more manageable path through the
snow and then to capitalize on this in a sprint at the end.
However, in an attempt to do away with this sort of “laggard’s advantage,” some recent races have featured a sequence of “primes,” rather like in cycling races, to improve the ambitions of the pack.
At a recent conference held near Lake Saranac, New
York, enthusiasts considered an Olympic future for
their activity. Thus far, little progress has been made in
bringing together any sort of international campaign to
popularize this as yet minor form of winter racing. On
the other hand, American snowshoe companies report
that sales of new-style shoes are picking up, not only in
North America but also in Scandinavia and Japan.
—ALAN TREVITHICK

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