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When the blizzard has passed, the sun is out, and you’re tired of being cooped up indoors, a pair of snowshoes will let you hike your favorite trail or stroll in your backyard without sinking knee-deep in a couple of feet of snow. By spreading your weight over their greater surface area, snowshoes keep your feet from punching through the snowpack. So if you’d like to be more active in the wintertime, either in spite of—or because of—the snow, we recommend the MSR Evo Trail Snowshoes, which are short enough and light enough for you to strap to your bag if and when the terrain changes and you no longer need them. (And this happens a lot.)
In 2021, we saw a huge surge in interest in snowshoes, but they were so hard to come by, we weren’t able to get any to test. Because our staff has worn almost every relevant pair out there, though, we decided to publish a guide based on our personal experience. We’ll update this guide with additional hard testing as soon as snowshoes are easier to find. Even if all our picks are out of stock, we hope that the How we picked and tested section will help you assess whatever snowshoes you may be able to find.
Well-built and lightweight, the Evo pair can take a lot of abuse and doesn't cost a fortune.
For most people looking to take a winter walk in snowy landscapes, the MSR Evo Trail Snowshoes are a fantastic choice. They fit a wide range of footwear thanks to heavy-duty straps that keep boots securely attached, and they’re more durable than any cheaper option. These work best on snow that is firm or already packed down, and that’s the terrain we think the majority of people will be using their snowshoes on.
The Tubbs snowshoes are available in lengths that support a larger range of weights and float easier on softer snow.
May be out of stock
*At the time of publishing, the price was $130.
The Tubbs snowshoes are available in lengths that support a larger range of weights and float easier on softer snow.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $135.
If you weigh more than 180 pounds, a longer snowshoe will give you better float, and the Tubbs Xplore comes in several lengths—21 and 25 inches in the women’s sizes and 25 and 30 inches in the men’s sizes—specifically for that purpose. (Our top pick, in comparison, is 22 inches long.) Additionally, if you are the type who enjoys a leg-burning slog in freshly fallen powder (we see you), a longer shoeshoe is a better design for traversing fluffy, untouched flakes. Much like a boat on water, longer shoes do a better job of keeping you afloat on top of the snowpack.
Well-built and lightweight, the Evo pair can take a lot of abuse and doesn't cost a fortune.
The Tubbs snowshoes are available in lengths that support a larger range of weights and float easier on softer snow.
May be out of stock
*At the time of publishing, the price was $130.
The Tubbs snowshoes are available in lengths that support a larger range of weights and float easier on softer snow.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $135.
My main experience with snowshoes started in 2014, when I began attempting winter ascents of California fourteeners—that is, mountains that are at least 14,000 feet tall—which captured my imagination for years and required lots of spiked footwear. And also, sometimes, snowshoes.
One way you can get dangerously trapped on a mountain is if you hike early in the morning, when the snow is hard, but then fail to get down before the sun softens the snowpack. You can’t walk back over it if it’s soft, and occasionally people trap themselves above huge drifts of impassable, neck-deep snow that just hours earlier was rock solid.
The only way to get out of this horrible situation is 1) don’t get into it in the first place—I know that sounds smug, but it’s the first thing any decent mentor will teach you—or 2) bring snowshoes. I didn’t always need snowshoes for these long ascents, but I always took them, and they saved me at least once, when I got trapped up top due to wind and had to dig into a snow cave and wait it out.
I would take winter hiking over summer hiking any day. Unspeakably crisp air. Empty trails. No bugs. Hiking in the off-season is an absolute pleasure and something I’d recommend to anyone, even if you’ve never tried it. If you’re lucky enough to live where snow falls and you want to get out there, though, you need some footwear.
Specifically, you need snowshoes, which prevent postholing—when you step on top of snow and your leg punches ankle-, knee-, or waist-deep into the drift, trapping you, stifling all movement. It’s the most morally defeating, frustrating state of being for anyone trying to get anywhere in the snow.
Snowshoes help with this. They create a broad, flat base that distributes your weight over a greater surface area and prevents your foot from punching through. We specifically chose as our top pick a snowshoe that works on hardpack snow because we think that’s what most people will encounter, but snowshoes provide so many advantages in other conditions, as well. Your boots won’t slip around in the soft slush of the afternoon, and you’ll have something that can get you over soft banks that may have been sitting in the shade all day and haven’t hardened enough to walk on. (However, if you’ll be walking a lot on hard, icy surfaces, you might consider using ice cleats, which attach to your regular winter boots, instead.)
Basically, snowshoes get you over the widely varied terrain you’re likely to encounter when you’re walking through snow, with a degree of competence and grace that boots alone simply can’t provide.
After reading dozens of snowshoe buyer reviews, doing online research, and factoring in over a decade of my own personal experience hiking with snowshoes, we outlined the following criteria:
Terrain: Packed snow, fluffy snow, deep fluffy snow, ice—there’s a different type of shoe for each of these conditions. Add in the angle of the slope you’re hiking, and things get even more variable.
Since fluffy snow doesn’t last long, and deep fluffy snow is really hard to hike in (even with snowshoes), we looked for a pair that was more suited for use on packed snow, which we think most recreational hikers are interested in.
Length: Your shoe shouldn’t be longer than necessary, because carrying extra weight on your feet gets tiring. Generally speaking, long, wide snowshoes are for staying on top of fresh powder, exactly the way a boat floats on water. Shorter shoes are more beneficial for hiking on packed snow, when the challenge is less about floating on top and more about keeping your boot from punching through the hardpack.
The length of a snowshoe also correlates to the weight of the wearer: Longer shoes keep heavier hikers up and out of the snow.
Materials: The least expensive snowshoes are typically made with aluminum and plastic; the most expensive, with nylon and steel.
For the casual hiker, the thing to pay attention to is what the spikes under your foot are made of. Cheap shoes have aluminum rails and spikes. The rails are the metal frame underfoot, and the spikes are often integrated into that frame (though not always). Eventually, without care, those components can wear down, warp, and fall apart. Steel rails and spikes underfoot generally indicate a higher-quality shoe that can take more of a beating.
The trade-off for using steel, as always, is weight. So it’s not uncommon to see aluminum used for snowshoe frames (not the spikes)—especially long frames, the kind you need to stay afloat in deep, fluffy snow.
Boot-attachment system: A snowshoe typically attaches to your boot in the most low-tech way, using plastic straps. This is a good thing. Hardy, robust straps are what can withstand the strain from your boot pulling on the shoe over and over again.
Sometimes they have a ratchet system, sometimes they have buckles. Sometimes the straps are made of nylon or even metal cables. Putting the snowshoes on is basically the same, though: You slide your foot in between the straps and tighten them down.
The most important thing is that your foot is secure in the shoe, as you’ll be putting your snowshoes through a surprising amount of abuse, whether you’re clomping endlessly through the snow, making casual missteps, or simply banging them around on the pavement before or after your hike.
Well-built and lightweight, the Evo pair can take a lot of abuse and doesn't cost a fortune.
Designed for hiking rolling hills on packed snow, the MSR Evo Trail Snowshoes are the most hardy snowshoes you can get for the price.
Snowshoes take a real beating, maybe more than you might imagine if you haven’t tried snowshoeing before. The platforms get stepped on, the binding system gets strained, the bottoms get scraped along pavement, rocks, and debris. For that reason, we like the Evo design, which has a robust and comfortable attachment system, a platform made out of rigid plastic, and steel rails and spikes underfoot. (That last detail is one of the main differences between cheap snowshoes and more expensive ones: Steel rails and spikes are stronger than parts made of aluminum, so the frame and teeth of the Evo shoe will hold up to more scraping.) Thanks to this combination of features, these snowshoes are burly enough to take the abuse, sans extras that would end up being overkill and therefore cause them to cost a lot more.
These snowshoes don’t have a heel lift, which is a small piece of metal under the heel that is designed to help take pressure off your calves if you are hiking up a steep hill. Heel lifts are available on more expensive models, including mountaineering-specific snowshoes, but unless you have plans to tackle steep, wintry slopes in particular, we don’t think you’ll miss them.
A heel lift isn’t always active; the small metal riser lies flat in the shoe until you need it, and then you flip it up manually. For short uphills, they’re often more of a hassle to lift than they’re worth. (They often freeze to the base of the snowshoe, forcing you to get down there to chip them free. Then all your friends are standing around waiting for you, and frustration sets in.)
The Evo Trail Snowshoes are 22 inches long, shorter than many other options. That makes them easier to pack and easier to maneuver, and the shorter length presents little downside if you’re out on packed trails. However, the major drawback of that shorter length is that it lowers their weight capacity, as these snowshoes top out at 180 pounds. If you weigh more than that, take a look at our recommendation below for a longer shoe, which gives you more float.
MSR does sell an optional flotation tail for the Evo pair that is supposed to serve two purposes: It increases the weight rating so that the snowshoe can accommodate a hiker up to 250 pounds, and it allows this snowshoe to work in fluffier, deeper powder (which is what longer snowshoes are for).
But in fluffy powder we noticed that the tail was sorta meh, performance wise. And the bottom line is that no one should have to pay extra just for a snowshoe to accommodate their size.
The Tubbs snowshoes are available in lengths that support a larger range of weights and float easier on softer snow.
May be out of stock
*At the time of publishing, the price was $130.
The Tubbs snowshoes are available in lengths that support a larger range of weights and float easier on softer snow.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $135.
The Tubbs Xplore Snowshoes are a recreational model similar to the MSR Evo Trail Snowshoes in many ways, including a robust and secure boot-attachment system and steel spikes underfoot (though the rails and deck are aluminum and nylon, respectively, in order to save weight).
The main difference is that their sizing is a lot more sophisticated. They come in men’s and women’s sizes, which should promote a more tailored and comfortable boot fit. You can also choose the length of the snowshoe, selecting 21, 25, or 30 inches, and the 30-inch shoe accommodates a human weighing up to 250 pounds, which is 70 pounds more than the weight capacity of the MSR Evo pair. (People who weigh between 250 and 300 pounds might want to investigate the Tubbs Wilderness, another snowshoe we like for use in deep, fresh snow.)
Likewise, if you’re more interested in longer snowshoes, which work better on light, fluffy snow, you can choose a pair of longer Xplore shoes (that would be the 25- or 30-inch version), and they will do just that. Just keep in mind that you’ll be carrying more weight on each foot.
Finally, these shoes are also available as part of men’s and women’s kits, which each include poles and gaiters. However, you don’t need special trekking poles for snowshoeing, so if you already have some, they’ll work fine.
We didn’t like the fit system that attaches the Tubbs snowshoe to your boot as much as we did the system on the MSR Evo design, which is popular with everyone we’ve ever spoken to, but unless you’re putting in a lot of time hiking in your snowshoes, we don’t think you’d be likely to notice a difference. These snowshoes also lack a heel lift, a feature often found on more expensive models, but as we said earlier, heel lifts are often more trouble than they’re worth.
If you want to go up and down steep slopes and ice: Consider the MSR Lightning Ascent Snowshoes, which come in men’s and women’s sizes (unlike the Evo Trail shoes) and have more tiny spikes underfoot than sharks have teeth. These are widely regarded as some of the best snowshoes around—this is the pair I own—and they’re light for how durable they are. However, they’re expensive and built for bigger mountaineering objectives, so unless you plan on hiking up steep, icy slopes with regularity, you simply don’t have to pay this much for a pair of snowshoes.
If you need a budget option: Consider the Alps snowshoes, which are the least expensive snowshoes we found and are stocked at my local Costco for about $70. I have a pair that I bought for guests to use when they visit me in the mountains, and my dental hygienist happens to own a pair, as well; she informed me over a routine teeth cleaning that she used hers for about two years before something broke, and that she was generally happy with them. They’re built with aluminum, like all inexpensive snowshoes, but if you need the least expensive thing that works, we think these will do. No other cheaper model is an upgrade from this; if you want higher build quality, the step up from this pair is our top pick from MSR.
If you specifically want to hike in fresh snow, deep snow, or powder: We suggest the Tubbs Wilderness Snowshoes (available in men’s and women’s sizing). They come in three longer lengths than our pick—25, 30, and 36 inches—which is important when your main consideration is how to stay afloat atop fluffy snow. (The women’s version is also available in a 21-inch length.) The frame is aluminum to help reduce some of the weight added by the extra length, but the spikes underfoot are carbon steel. The 36-inch pair is rated for carrying 300 pounds; we have yet to find any snowshoes good for people heavier than that.
The Tubbs Flex VRT, Tubbs Mountaineer, and TSL Symbioz Hyperflex Original are all mountaineering snowshoes, and therefore they’re expensive and possibly over-equipped for the average hiker.
The Tubbs Panoramic snowshoe has a Boa lacing system, which consists of a dial that you twist to tighten the steel-cable laces. I have broken three pairs of Boa laces on snowshoes. In a casual survey of friends who also do a lot of backcountry travel, the verdict seemed split down the middle, as about half said they hadn’t had problems with Boa laces, while the other half said they kept breaking them. Bottom line: Boa lacing can work on other types of footwear (cycling shoes, say), but on snowshoes I don’t trust it.
The Atlas Helium Trail is a pair of recreational snowshoes that is very similar to our picks, but our decision to eliminate it from contention came down to the attachment system, which we don’t like as much as the dead-simple straps on the MSR Evo pair.
The G2 snowshoes that come in this snowshoeing package available on Amazon are similar to the inexpensive Alps snowshoes we mentioned above, but they cost more.
Recently, while trying to take my dog out for his morning business, I found myself postholing through snow and muck and wishing for a pair of simple, lightweight snowshoes for our daily morning excursions. So we’re testing the Crescent Moon EVA Foam Snowshoes now, and we’ll report back.
This article was edited by Christine Ryan.
Eve O'Neill is a former senior staff writer reporting on travel and outdoors at Wirecutter. She can remember the titles on her childhood bookshelf that set her in this direction: Into Thin Air, On The Road, The Call of the Wild. She has always been drawn to ideas about how to relate to, and play in, the wilderness.
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