MYOG snowshoes in 2003

[jason quick]

I was cleaning out my very feral shed before Christmas, and came across an early MYOG pair of snowshoes.

Ok, they're on the heavy side, but they saved my a** after camping on the summit of Mt Bogong here in Victoria. We got stuck in a storm and had some real sphincter clenching moments between 2am to sunrise (we had to wait until dawn to descend), with wind gusts reaching approx. 95mph or 150kph.

The basic design was taken from MSR Evo Ascents. Every tooth on the side rails was individually cut with a hack saw (now that was dedication). The plastic is 7mm thick, and purchased from a plastics manufacturer here in Melbourne. It's the same type of plastic used for chopping boards. All the webbing and fastenings were purchased from our local hardware store. The bindings worked like cr*p, but these puppies saved our butts descending over sheet ice during that memorable storm.

Ok, so they weigh 1.8kg each….yep. Despite fulfilling their purpose (by saving our butts), they were only ever used once….on that trip….funny that!

I think I went out the next week and purchased some real snow shoes. :-)

…just thought I'd share.

EDIT: Typo with wind speed conversion.

[David Scheidt]

that's a HDPE deck with aluminum angle rails? Cutting those theeth would have driven me to buy some power tools, if I didn't already have suitable ones!

Looks nice, though, and clearly they work. Light's nice, functional is essential. Were you to try it again now, what would you do differently? (I know essentially nothing about snowshoes, I've only used them once.)

[jason quick]

@ David

Thanks for that! :-) Yeah, it's HDPE plastic with Aluminium angle for rails. We were meant to use power tools to make them, however my mate left them at his house…and the drive back was over an hour away…so we started with the hack saw.

They worked. The flex in the plastic, along with the softness of the aluminium caused the aluminium rails to crack at the bottom of the teeth – this occurred at the point of greatest flex, next to the aluminium cross bar. The cracks worked their way down to the right angle, but it was no biggy for me….they worked when needed.

I'm really not sure what I'd do next time…I vowed to never strap these heavy contraptions on to my pack again (they would now contribute to nearly two thirds of my overall base pack weight).

To me, MYOG snow shoes would have to be a passion – they are an item that is exposed to extreme forces, extreme conditions, and need to rate 10/10 for reliability and functionality, otherwise they would be dangerous and a wasted exercise. So, on that note, I probably wouldn't do it again due to the cost and time required to master this product.

[Andrew Bishop]

Jason

They look functional if not totally practical due to the weight. To reduce weight perhaps sections of the solid plate could be replaced with a wire mesh or even just cut out.

I have snowshoed on Mt Bogong – great fun!

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