Dwight Peck's personal website

Snowshoe tangles in the Jura

This could be you.

Snowshoeing's fun and easy, but there can temporarily be a down side.

You will not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

Anyone can get tangled up in her or his snowshoes and end up on the deck, especially Profs. Durham and Pirri, as in these chilling scenes from winter 2001-2002.

But these are not isolated incidents -- these same participants have been practicing up for some time and have got good at this.

For example, this is the top of Mont de Bière Devant on a cold sunny day in February 2000.

And here (left) are Profs Durham and Pirri beaming on the windy summit, as the narrator tries to caution them against undue exuberance in the use of snowshoes.

Scoffing at well-meant warnings, Profs Durham and Pirri dash along with not a care in the world for their snowshoes.

Until whoops, down they go in a great heap . . .

as the narrator hurries to memorialize the event.

Not all Jura snowshoe tangles are coordinated group efforts. Some require a sense of individual elegance, as here . . .

"Get ready. Here I come."

"How was that one?"

Lessons for snowshoers

When posing for photographs near snowcovered trees and shrubs, don't stand too close -- they're likely hollow underneath.

Avoid snow-covered piles of forestry debris. They're also hollow underneath.

Try to stay out of holes in the limestone forest floor.

Snowshoes go on the bottom of the feet.

Your horses will need their own showshoes as well.

Your showshoes do you no good on the back of your head!

Go around, not through, impenetrable thickets.

What WAS this snowshoer thinking about? Leave them at the door!

Don't leave your snowshoes just anywhere.

Lewd behavior has no place on snowshoes.

Don't be afraid to ask for directions if you've got horribly lost.

When angels appear to give you special directions, listen to them.

There are some situations in which large snowshoes are just out of place.

Don't forget to check the weather report before starting out

Very bad technique

Not letting your snowshoes work FOR you.
(the narrator on Tour de Mayen (Leysin, Switzerland), 1980)

Snowshoes are not meant for all types of terrain, I
(Tour de Mayen, 1980)

Snowshoes are not meant for all types of terrain, II.
(Dr Joe attempting to snowshoe over a stone wall, December 2002)

Preferred technique for crossing stone walls

Kristin demonstrates her preferred way of crossing walls (2 January 2004).
Doubts begin to intervene . . .	But all's well that ends well.

But most importantly for snowshoers, when once in a while it's all come undone, just pick yourself up, if you can, and carry on with it.

For more snowshoeing, see the snowshoeing index

Mind the Step.

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Feedback and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative, . All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 14 August 2002, revised 30 November 2013 21 January 2020.

Jura snowshoeing

Snow camping