Snowshoeing

Snowshoeing is a recreational activity and sport involving walking or running over snow wearing snowshoes. Participants may engage in snowshoeing for winter hiking, mountaineering and racing. Though decreasingly so, snowshoes continue to be used for hunting, trapping and transport, especially among some groups of Indigienous people, from whom traditional snowshoeing originates. Snowshoes are designed so that one can trek, or “float”, over deep snow without sinking into it. Early traditional snowshoes are made with wooden frames, lattice work and rawhide bindings. Modern snowshoes are made with plastic, lightweight metal or other synthetic materials. Casual snowshoers hike through trails for pleasure and exercise, while snowshoe races cover various distances from short sprints to long distance races.

Snowshoeing dates back thousands of years. Traditional snowshoes originated from various North American Indigenous groups, who used snowshoes to aid with trapping and transportation. Beginning in the 15th Century, Europeans colonialists relied on the knowledge and crafts of Indigenous groups for survival, for their fur trade business, and eventually used snowshoes for waging winter warfare in their continued efforts to colonize North America. Beginning in the 17th Century, snowshoeing developed into a popular recreational activity among French Canadians in Quebec. The Montreal Snow Shoe Club was founded in 1840, and numerous clubs were founded across Canada by the turn of the 20th Century.

Snowshoeing is a winter sport, as it requires large amounts of snow on the ground.

Males and female of diverse ages and ethnocultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.