A Trailside Guide: Snowshoeing (Trailside Guides) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "When you're born, you first learn to crawl, then to walk..." (more)
Key Phrases: snow shelters, New Hampshire, Mount Washington, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Colorfully illustrated with good how-to directions and art, the books--which have durable plastic covers and water-resistant pages--cut to the chase of a given activity. The fly-fishing manual, for instance, is one of the best guides to be written in years, as is "Kayaking" and "Snowshoeing". -- New Star-Ledger, 6 December 1998

Product Description

The ancient, elegantly useful snowshoe has taken the outdoor sports scene by storm. With sales of snowshoes more than doubling every year this decade, snowshoeing rivals its trendy cousin snowboarding as the fastest growing winter sport in the United States. In this indispensable guide, avid snowshoer Larry Olmsted enumerates the many reasons for snowshoeing's meteoric rise. Advances in design and construction--including quick-entry, high-performance bindings--have made snowshoes even easier and more enjoyable to use. Scores of enthusiasts are hitting groomed cross-country ski and snowmobile trails across the snowbelt, running on scaled-down versions of traditional 'shoes. Snowshoeing explains how to experience this recent evolution of the sport. Even greater numbers of snowshoers come from the ranks of America's hikers and backpackers, who have discovered that wintertime can be the best time to hit the trail: no bugs, no mud, no crowds. And backcountry Alpine skiers and snowboarders climb to their summits on snowshoes, the most reliable, versatile mode of travel across snow. No new use or technique is left untreated in this, the first guide to snowshoeing since snowshoeing has come of age.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.; 1st edition (January 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039331720X
• ISBN-13: 978-0393317206
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #690,713 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Concise, accurate and beautifully written, December 16, 2002

By	"trailseeker" (Foster City, CA USA) - See all my reviews

The best outdoor guides I've ever read. This book targets the recreational snowshoer who might do strenuous day hikes, but doesn't attempt to be a detailed manual for the fanatic spending a week snow camping. IMHO, the book succeeds admirably in meeting the needs of its target audience. It covers all the basics - gear, clothing, the few elements of technique required for snowshoeing, and safety. The prose is very accessible, the pictures add a lot of warmth to the text, and there's even a chapter on snowshoe running. The author captures the feel of the snowshoes rather well and I often found myself nodding my head in agreement with the tips for climbing, descending and traversing that I had to learn by hard experience. I live in California and usually snowshoe in much warmer weather (mid-30s F) than the northeast or midwest, so the clothing suggestions are way too conservative for me - but that's the only fault I could find with the book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Concise, accurate and beautifully written, December 16, 2002

By	"trailseeker" (Foster City, CA USA) - See all my reviews

The best outdoor guides I've ever read. This book targets the recreational snowshoer who might do strenuous day hikes, but doesn't attempt to be a detailed manual for the fanatic spending a week snow camping. IMHO, the book succeeds admirably in meeting the needs of its target audience. It covers all the basics - gear, clothing, the few elements of technique required for snowshoeing, and safety. The prose is very accessible, the pictures add a lot of warmth to the text, and there's even a chapter on snowshoe running. The author captures the feel of the snowshoes rather well and I often found myself nodding my head in agreement with the tips for climbing, descending and traversing that I had to learn by hard experience. I live in California and usually snowshoe in much warmer weather (mid-30s F) than the northeast or midwest, so the clothing suggestions are way too conservative for me - but that's the only fault I could find with the book.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars There Are Better Snowshoe Books Out There, October 26, 2000

By	Jerry (Idaho) - See all my reviews

You can lump most of the newer snowshoe books together, and they are, ho hum, all about the same, that is not very good. They seem to be written by people that claim to be experts about everything to do with the outdoors, but I am not impressed with their knowledge of snowshoes or snowshoeing. "Hey everybody, lets go out and spend $300 on little dinky plastic and aluminum snowshoes, because it is THE thing to do", seems to be the battle cry of all these people. They always fill their books with lots of pictures of people climbing mountains, in attempt to impress us I guess. This is really impractical for a beginner, who is the real targeted audience for these books. The exception to this is the snowshoe book, "The Essential Snowshoer" recently written by Zwosta and even better the oldie "The Snowshoe Book" by Osgood and Hurley. These are better books, that explain the sport better, both past and present.