Snow travel demands a delicate balance between warmth, traction, and weight. In this expert-led webinar, you’ll be guided through the science and strategy behind selecting footwear and traction gear that keeps you safe, warm, and efficient in snow environments of all types, in all seasons, with a special emphasis on winter conditions and snow travel for early-season backpackers.
What You’ll Learn:
✅ How to choose lightweight hiking boots and shoes for snow travel
✅ The best traction systems for ice, packed snow, and deep powder
✅ Layering strategies to manage warmth and avoid cold feet
✅ The impact of materials, weight, and design on winter performance
✅ How to balance durability, comfort, and efficiency for ultralight travel
These skills help backpackers, hikers, and mountaineers looking to optimize both their winter gear setup and their summer snow-hiking setup (and everything in between) while reducing weight without sacrificing performance.
Sponsorship Information: Backpacking Light provides trusted education to highly-engaged user communities of backcountry enthusiasts, industry professionals, land management agency staff, trail advocacy groups, and more. If you are interested in sponsoring this online education and gaining access to these communities to increase your brand awareness or reach please complete our partnership intake form.
Course Curriculum
Module 1
Live Stream (Footwear & Traction) – February 12, 2025 @ 12 PM MST
Meet Your Instructor
Instructor
Ryan Jordan
Ryan Jordan is the founder of Backpacking Light and a recognized expert in ultralight wilderness travel. With decades of experience in winter backcountry trekking and a background in engineering and materials science, Ryan specializes in evaluating lightweight gear for extreme environments. As an educator, he integrates scientific rigor with practical field experience to help adventurers make informed decisions about their gear. In this webinar, Ryan shares his expertise on selecting and optimizing lightweight footwear and traction systems for snow travel in all seasons.
Reviews
Very professionally done. Methodical, easy to follow.
- Jim L.
I did enjoy the webinar because it gave a good overview of current gear available for travel in snow. Gear is always evolving and it's impractical for anyone of us to acquire all of it for evaluation purposes. It's good to have some experienced people separate the hype from reality...very well done.
- Bruce N.
I am a complete novice winter hiker but I don't want to stop backpacking during the winter months. I wanted to learn about winter footwear to keep my feet warm and stay safe, so for me the class was spot-on. The class was very helpful.
- Keith C.
Actually my favorite and most informative class - lightweight footwear & traction systems for hiking and backpacking in the snow - Bravo, very interesting to see your ideas and thoughts on the different possibilities to fit certain unique situations.
- Charles L.
I enjoyed it - particularly the focus on foot warmth.
- Steve T.
I did enjoy the webinar, particularly how thoroughly you covered traction systems.
- Pieter K.
Really enjoyed the webinar.
- Alex F.
Stay safe, warm, and comfortable when trekking on snow.
Get expert insights on choosing the best footwear and traction system for snow travel - without unnecessary weight.
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