Nakajima Park in winter. There’s numerous plowed thoroughfares for pedestrians passing through going about their day. Yet large swathes of it remained untouched due to a deep blanket of snow several feet deep. It wasn’t this way a week ago, but a dip in temperature and a decent accumulation of snow overnight on this past Thursday officially opened up the snowshoeing season on the greater Sapporo metroplex.

This is the day I have been awaiting since I smuggled my pair of Tubbs Wilderness size 30 snowshoes back from the US in April. A trial run in one of the larger centrally located parks was all that was needed to ensure that my outerwear, gaiters, boots, and snowshoe bindings all work in unison out on the snow. After a few hours putting all that gear through the motions, I am happy to say that they all passed with flying colors. And that’s saying a lot for a guy who is overly finicky about his gear and often subject to buyer’s regret.

Let’s start with the Tubbs Wilderness snowshoe. I was immediately impressed with how easily and comfortably the bindings snapped my boot into place. Just a slight tightening on the front strap and the heel, and I was set. And not once did I have to readjust the bindings! Even the heel binding, which I had read could be a problem when it comes to slippage, held snugly without any concern.

The 180 degree rotational binding allowed me to effortlessly glide atop the deep powder. Since I had never gone snowshoeing before I was wondering about how much time I would need to adjust my gait and re-calibrate my balance. The answer- none – none time needed. I was rolling along at a healthy canter almost immediately. The only time I stumbled was when I crossed up the tail ends on some quick turns, and that was because I literally forgot I was wearing some rather large size 30 snowshoes! That’s how smooth these suckers were.

Which brings me to the most surprising feature, the overall weight. The Wilderness model was far lighter than I could imagine, and although I was mostly working on flat terrain, I experienced very little leg fatigue.

The only drawback is that I noticed some chipping in a few locations on the crampons, but this might have been a factory defect. I am sure they will acquire more chipping as I continue to use them, so just got to ensure I keep them dry after use to avoid rust build up. This might be a common theme of all snowshoe crampons, being just carbon steel with a rust-proof coating, rather than full on stainless steel.

My Sea to Summit Alpine gaiters did there job and kept me completely dry. I was slightly concerned because these particular gaiters run very low towards the bottom of the boot heel, that the snowshoes’ heel bindings might slip when strapped over it. But that absolutely wasn’t a problem and gaiter, boot and snowshoe worked in complete harmony. The only issue I had was getting the front toe lace clip to stay sturdily in place, but with some slight effort I got that squared away (best to put them on before you arrive at the trail head, will save a lot of hassle).

I bought a pair of Vasque Snow Junkies to use specifically with the snowshoes, coming highly recommended for their heel ridges that help to prevent slippage on the heel binding. I sprayed them down with an extra layer of waterproofing, and didn’t experience any leakage issues.Warm, fairly comfortable, and fit smoothly in my patented Tubbs bindings. One minor issue, the stock laces can come undone rather easily, best to keep them double tied. Unfortunately the Snow Junkie seems to have been discontinued from Vasque’s winter line.

All in all a great intro into the fastest growing winter sport worldwide (fact checked). Look forward to getting outside the town and exploring some bigger terrain.

UPDATE: El Nino is a cruel bastard and rained on my snowshoe parade the last few days.  Then it iced over, to make an ice rink out of every sidewalk. Hopefully the snow will pickup before Christmas.