By Dave Brown, The Ottawa Citizen, link to original post
It really doesn’t matter how you got here. The situation you’re in is now about survival, and the worst kind, winter wilderness survival — where everything you do is harder, more dire, and more urgent in nature.
Maybe you took a shortcut home late at night, your car broke down, you’re out of cellphone range, the temperature is perilously low, the blizzard is just beginning, and you saw a house back aways. Should you go across the field for help?
This column is about one aspect of winter wilderness survival — how to make emergency snowshoes. It’s true that in the majority of scenarios you may never require this knowledge. However, for the one time you when you wish you did …
THE BASICS
The fact a pair of snowshoes will allow you to travel over deep snow 10 times faster with one-tenth the effort is motivation to invest in this potentially life-saving skill.
In an emergency where you have no snowshoes, but have decided you have to make a pair, it’s really quite easy. You can make the most basic pair with just a bootlace, or build a better pair if you have essentials like a knife, duct tape, emergency kit etc.
EVERGREEN SNOWSHOE BOUGH
To start with the easiest, tear down a bough of evergreen branches from a nearby tree. If you have string, rope or wire, or can cut or create some kind of twine for binding, then use it to tie one or two evergreen branches together. Ideally look for fir tree boughs as their needles are more dense and the twigs and branches thicker. If they’re not handy, cedar, spruce or pine branches will do the trick.
Each should be approximately one metre in length. Be sure to remove any small twigs or branches from the bottom to prevent them from interfering with your step. Always lay branches with the curved parts pointing upwards like a ski tip.
Lash the boughs to your boots with the wide section pointing forward. For best results, tie the binding twine or rope through your boot shoelaces to help keep the makeshift snowshoe attached to your foot. Just like regular snowshoes, your heel should lift freely when you walk.
SAPLING BEARPAW SNOWS HOE
To build a frame for each snowshoe, commonly found ash or maple saplings work best. The advantage this type of snowshoe construction over the evergreen boughs is its lighter weight and durability in deep snow.
Select a branch about two centimetres at its thinnest, strip it of stubs and twigs, and bend into a tight circular or teardrop shape. Then tie the ends together as in the illustration.
Tie the crosspieces of wood tightly, laying one over top the other. Wind the twine around the pieces two or three times on each side to secure branches to each other and to the outer frame.
Next, add crosspieces. The first and largest crosspiece should be where you place your foot when taking a step, or about two-thirds up from the tail. The toes of your foot need to be able to swivel with each step, using this crosspiece as a kind of fulcrum.
The other two pieces are tied at intervals several centimetres down from the first. These serve to hold your weight as you step down onto the snowshoe with each stride. Once you have secured all crosspieces you can weave in smaller branches, and tie them or let the pressure of the tight weave hold them in place.
If you have duct tape, or durable cloth, you can use them to build a solid base to the snowshoes as well.
Don’t make your snowshoe too large for your height and weight. A 90kg man could make do with a pair about 60-70cm in length and 35cm in width. If you’re lighter in weight, you can make smaller snowshoes.
Making these bearpaw snowshoes — from gathering materials to actual construction — can take hours. It may still be worth it depending on the terrain and direness of your situation. Practise at home, a winter cottage or while winter camping. It’s nice to know that in an emergency you have learned a new survival technique to take from trouble to safety.
TIPS
Whichever pair you make, look for two sturdy, long branches to be used as poles to help support you. When walking, lift your feet clearly with every step. No shuffling. On hills, walk side-step.
