rasgoat wrote:As far as the previous post of being able to use any crampon for summits, I disagree with this even more as I have been on trips where some of us had MSR and others had Tubbs. The MSR people summited and the Tubbs did not. The amount of effort that the Tubbs people had to put forth due to lack of traction put them out of the game come summit time. And as far as trails being broken, maybe on Algonquin but certainly not everywhere in the Dack's.

Read the post a bit more carefully.

I also ascended Gothics in winter twice, Slide twice, Basin, and quite a few others. When I got to truly icy stretches, I put on real crampons.

People climbed the 46 in winter long before the advent of fancy snowshoes.

Catamount wrote:

MoapaPk wrote:So after all this wordiness: I don't think it matters too much to have all the features designed for climbing steep snow chutes and so forth. Much of your travel will be on trails, and the travel off-trail will be through thick understory.[/b]

Perhaps, but a good part of my concern is about my not-so-tiny self as well as the terrain. I weigh about 200 and carry a 20-30 pound winter pack. That's close to double the recommended load weight for the MSR Denalis. Throw in some trailbreaking and uneven terrain and that's asking a lot of those little plastic guys.

Exactly. Get the shoes that will support you weight.

I hear about people being afriad of breaking the plastic in the Denali, but has anyone hear really broken, or ever heard of someone break a pair of the MSR Denali? I haven't heard stories...

Hotoven wrote:I hear about people being afriad of breaking the plastic in the Denali, but has anyone hear really broken, or ever heard of someone break a pair of the MSR Denali? I haven't heard stories...

Not I. I mainly use my Denalis for moderate temps (it gets a lot colder in the Adirondacks) and steep slopes off-trail, in unpacked dry snow in Nevada. I also have two pairs of older (1982) neoprene-and-aluminum shoes, each with small metal teeth under the toe.

When I first bought the MSR shoes, I read the weight limit. I weigh 150 lbs and usually have about 20 lbs of pack and clothes in winter, so I bought the tails. One of the tails fell off and was lost, so I took the other one off, and immediately found that I had more control. I've never used tails since.

My first use of the Denalis was to snowshoe up Griffith Peak (11050'), gaining about 3300' over 4 miles in unbroken snow, averaging 5-6' deep, powder for the top 2'; 10' of snow near the summit. I lent my old neoprene-and-aluminum shoes to my two friends. In this type of snow, the older shoes actually did better. The Denalis didn't show an advantage till we were nearly back to the car, and walked across an icy (illegal) sledding area.

I have used the Denalis on a mix of class 3 rock and very steep packed snow, and there is no question the large crampons helped there. One guy actually went all the way up that slope in MSRs, but he had the MSRs with heel lifts. Half-way up, I took off the Denalis and put on real crampons. This section was steeper than the N face of Gothics; we used a handline to get down later in the day.

I've never used the Denalis in temps less than 10F.

Catamount wrote:Every year on the Northeast hiking boards, it seems there are various threads that pop up regarding breaking plastic-based snowshoes. Having said that, it is usually always Tubbs that has issues and they replace them at no cost. I remember one guy a couple of winters ago that went through 2 or 3 pair in the same year.

There is one current thread on VFTT regarding the failure of the "televator" on the MSR Denalis. Of course, there is going to be a certain fail ratio on pretty much any type of snowshoes.

http://www.viewsfromthetop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28333

I am the author of the "Televator Failure" thread - it was totally random and unexpected as I had used snowshoes for maybe 100 miles or so of trail and the televators for just a fraction of that. Fortunately, televator failure doesn't equate to snowshoe failure and I was able to finish out the winter without the televators and just got them replaced for free, no questions asked. I'm sticking w/the Denali Ascents until they die and will then shop around for something new. If I was starting from scratch... I'm not positive what I'd get - the noise of plastic shoes is a bit loud, but the traction is amazing.

Any of the MSR snowshoes are very good.

Their ability to grip on a sidehill due to their patented knife-edge design is the ticket!

Once I wore MSR Lightning Ascents on sidehills, I instantly bought a pair and retired my two pairs of Tubbs snowshoes.

Best price I've seen on the new Tubbs Flex Alp 24 - 197.96. (Says free shipping, too!)

Hotoven wrote:I hear about people being afriad of breaking the plastic in the Denali, but has anyone hear really broken, or ever heard of someone break a pair of the MSR Denali? I haven't heard stories...

The plastic on my Denalis have gotten rough around the edges but are holding up fine. I really like them.

OK, I've looked here and here and SPers agree on the MSR Denali Ascent EVO.

Per REI, they are rated for weight of 90-120 lbs. I weigh more than that, especially with a backpack.

Is the plastic weak? or is it the size? (22x8" vs 30x8")

Bigger shoes include various Atlas or Tubbs models. Does anyone have experience with those?

MSR Denali classic. They are$100 dollars right now at REI. You don't need any of the fancy crap they have on the other models. If I recall the heel elevators break on anything under 30 degrees and if you can't walk up a 30 degree hill without a heel elevator you shouldn't be there and anything steeper than that is probably time for crampons or is avalanche prone.

norco17 wrote:MSR Denali classic.

I second that suggestion. I have used mine, TONS...and they are still in great shape.

Many of our partners also use them...and love them....

I like the Heel lifters

Arthur Digbee wrote:Per REI, they are rated for weight of 90-120 lbs. I weigh more than that, especially with a backpack.

Obviously snow conditions are a huge part of that. Check out this chart:

http://cascadedesigns.com/selection_sno ... tatic.aspx

Arthur Digbee wrote:OK, I've looked here and here and SPers agree on the MSR Denali Ascent EVO.

What are the differences between the Denali Ascent and the Evo Ascent?

Arthur Digbee wrote:OK, I've looked here and here and SPers agree on the MSR Denali Ascent EVO.

To be fair, not 100% SPers agree that MSRs are the best for all conditions. For example, I don't like them: heavy for such a small flotation, not enough support for deep snow IMHO. I often see those MSRs used on bare slopes where normal crampons would be much better. See my comment on page 1 of this thread about Northern Lites.