SNOWSHOE HISTORY:

To snowshoe in the most beautiful winter surroundings gives the body and soul tremendous well-being. The simplicity of practicing this sport makes it the easiest of all winter sports, because if you can walk, you can snowshoe.   Of all inventions, because this is one, created by mankind to move in the snow, no other object can be as simple and efficient at the same time. That is probably why we had to wait 8,000 years for a significant technological revolution that is the arrival of aluminum and composite snowshoes, equipped with crampons in the 1980s.   The historical account of this phenomenal invention will be based on the North American history, mostly located in Eastern Canada, thus richly documented. It will be interesting to notice that we had to wait several thousands of years for this object to finally become a sport accessory.   No research on prehistoric origins specifies with exactness who invented the snowshoe, not even what people or culture created it first. "The snowshoe seems to have appeared at an earlier period than the wheel. The earliest documents date the advent of the wheel around 3,500 B.C., whereas the ski already existed in quite a sophisticated state around 6,000 B.C., as proven by this engraving of the stone age found in Norway".

From the sophisticated aspect of the ski, it is logical to think that the "snowshoe" was invented first, in order to make the natural movement of walking on snow easier without sinking in, even before thinking of sliding on it. It is also plausible to think that man inspired himself with the active fauna in winter in order to observe how the animals were able to move around efficiently on the snow without sinking into it. Then, he must have tested various materials and various forms in order to optimize his floating.