Page 296 - The Lost Ways

Crossbars on the frame help to maintain the shape of the shoe, preventing it from
collapsing inward from the pressure of the webbing as well as providing a means of
transferring your weight to the shoe. When properly worn, the ball of the foot is over the
front crossbar.

The webbing is actually the part of the snowshoe that does the work by spreading your
weight over a large area to keep you from sinking in the snow.

Traditionally, snowshoe webbing was made of rawhide, but you can use just about any

sort of cord, such as paracord. In a true emergency, you could tie branches from a pine
tree to the frame as the pine needles would naturally accomplish the same thing.

Making Survival Snowshoes

To make survival snowshoes, you’ve got to start with the frame. This is usually made by
cutting some saplings off to about eight feet rather than using branches. You’ll need to
work over the saplings that you cut, making them a consistent thickness along the whole
length. This step could be omitted in a true emergency, but you’ll end up with lopsided
snowshoes.

To bend the frames, first soak them in water for at least 12 hours, and then heat them

over a fire, being careful to not let them burn. If you are doing this at home, you can do a
better job of bending them by clamping a coffee can in place and putting a torch inside it.

The wood strips could then be bent directly over the hot coffee can. In the woods, you’ll
have to heat the wood and then bend it over a deadfall to shape it.

As you can see from the photo, there is actually less bending required to make the
teardrop shaped snowshoes than there is for the oval ones. Because of this, it’s easier to

make them consistent, which is a real design advantage.

With the frame bent, tie it in place. This is usually done by drilling a series of holes through
the frame and then running the cordage through those holes, “sewing” the two ends
together. If you don’t have a drill, which is a common problem out in the wild, you can
heat a piece of wire, a small screwdriver, or an awl and burn a hole through the wood.

Although the picture does not show it, many people will bend the toe of their snowshoe
upwards about ten degrees, starting from the front crossbar. This helps you to avoid
scooping up snow with your snowshoes as you walk. In order to do this, soak the

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