Snowshoeing – My Second Love, by Andrew Nugara

      My first love in the mountains was the activity we now call Scrambling – getting to the top of a mountain without the use of climbing equipment, such as ropes. However, as much as I love summer and fall scrambling, I yearn for the snow to arrive, as the cold months approach, and snowshoeing takes the place of scrambling. There is something so magical and invigorating about the mountains and the land when snows covers everything. T.S. Elliot had it right when he wrote,

“Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, ...”
 (The Waste Land, 1922)

       My brother, Mark and I started snowshoeing in 2002, simply because we didn’t want our trips to the mountains to end when the snow fell. Snowshoeing seemed to be a logical mode of winter travel. We immediately took to the activity. In winter, the Canadian Rockies offer endless kilometres of exquisite, pristine, snow-covered terrain and innumerable mountains that are possible to ascend. Snowshoes gave us the freedom to explore the mountains year-round. And the scenery and views truly are breath-taking in winter. Ascending a mountain on snowshoes was a completely different experience to the same trip in the summer. Snowshoeing really opened up a whole new world to us.

 

Later we would also try ski mountaineering but Mark is legally blind and therefore the fast moving, downhill aspect of that activity was infinitely more challenging and often unnerving for him. We were more than happy is stick with the slower moving pastime of snowshoeing. It certainly gives you more time to enjoy the scenery!

 

I found the physical, emotional, social, and even spiritual benefits of snowshoeing to be undeniable. The stresses of city life, of work and of other pressures are completely absent when you are in the mountains. There is nowhere I’d rather be on a cold, crisp, clear January day than snowshoeing amid the grandeur and majestic peaks of the Rockies; and there is nothing that keeps me as grounded, humble and appreciative of life as being out there. The mountains are perfect therapy!

Snowshoeing is also inexpensive and you can master basic techniques within minutes of trying it. Perhaps it has been said too often, but it is true: “If you can walk, you can snowshoe!”    

By 2008, Mark and I had completed quite a number of interesting snowshoe routes. When he suggested I write a snowshoe guidebook I really couldn’t say no. Here’s a guy who holds a full time job, has raised three children, paints, takes great photographs, travels the world, and has climbed hundreds of mountains, all with about 10% of his vision remaining. Given I have 100% of my vision, I didn’t have any excuse not to write a simple guidebook. Plus, I never argue with Big Brother!

My first snowshoeing guidebook, Snowshoeing in the Canadian Rockies, was published in 2011, by RMB (Rocky Mountain Books). It may not have been what most people were expecting, full of somewhat extreme trips – long routes, up steep terrain, and sometimes in avalanche areas. Mark and I have always been “summit driven” and so the focus of the book was getting to the top of a mountain using snowshoes and other climbing techniques and less so on summit-less routes. I called it a more of a “Snowshoe Mountaineering” guidebook. To fill in the gaps, I immediately wrote A Beginner’sGuide to Snowshoeing in the Canadian Rockies, published one year later; shorter trips that are not necessarily to the top of a mountain and none that are in avalanche areas. At present I am in the process of updating and adding to both books. They should be available by late November of 2016.

       Snowshoeing has enabled me to see and experience the world in a completely different way. Like all worthwhile activities, I would say that snowshoeing “feeds my soul”. But don’t take my word for it – get a pair of snowshoes and try it for yourself – you have everything to gain!