New Winter Sport That Really Isn’t So New

Over the past several years, a seemingly new winter sport has emerged that combines skiing and snowshoeing. It has gained traction (literally) as snowshoes have become more popular and high tech over the last 20 years. It has no official name, so many of us just call it skishoeing. Some of us label the instruments sliding snowshoes or hybrids.

But skishoeing is actually not that new, as a search through patents reveals that inventors have been coming up with myriad designs for many decades. Independent souls have tried to commercialize them along with a few major players. No trade group for skishoeing exists, maybe because no standard design exists like with skis or snowshoes.

Indeed, all skishoes currently out there are different. Some are more like skis, while others are more like snowshoes. They all basically grip while climbing, then glide on flats and coming downhill with varying amounts of turning ability. With a wide platform, they have more flotation for handling powder than most skis. This lets you explore more terrain than you can with cross-country skis, and the gliding makes it more fun than snowshoeing. I guess we should consider the renegade flavor of skishoes a blessing, as winter enthusiasts get to experience a variety of new contraptions on snow. It makes for interesting après ski conversation over a beer.

The development of Trackers Skishoes typifies how skishoes have emerged in the pioneering spirit. As a mechanical engineer, I have worked in many manufacturing industries over the years. At the same time, I have enjoyed skiing, first the downhill variety, then switching to cross-country with age. Along the way, I would invent things to feed my recreational addictions (I also mountain bike).

One day in the fall of 2005, I was in our local hardware store and noticed some cheap plastic snowboards for sale. A light went off. I bought two of them to use as skis, stripped the snowboard bindings off them and mounted 3-pin cross-country ski bindings in their place. When the first snow hit, I took them out in the front yard for a spin. With a layer of frozen rain on top of the snow, I could hardly stand up on my new skis, as they wanted to slip sideways all over the place. I needed a way to make them track. I tried routing grooves in the bottoms, and that helped a little in certain conditions. Then I went to a local surplus store and found a sheet of ½”-thick polyethylene plastic used for cutting boards. We machined skis from this, first trying a series of holes and slots in them. We formed the tips by heating the plastic with a blowtorch and then bending it. They measured 46”long by 5.75” wide, what I calculated to be an average size between a typical ski and snowshoe. The holes added some grip in some snow conditions but not others such as ice.

Next, we tried putting runners on the bottom. At various times, we made them from plastic, aluminum, and stainless steel. At first, they had a straight edge on them, then we tried putting teeth in them. Ultimately, we came up with a design that would keep the skishoe tracking in a straight line and add grip for climbing, while not overly hindering the glide.

Then, at some point, we tried permanently attaching climbing skin material to the bottoms to increase climbing ability. While it worked, we discarded the idea because it added cost and complexity. Instead, we added fish scales, like you see on waxless cross-country skis. Soon after, we shortened the skishoe to 33” long by 6.75” wide to reduce weight and make it more like a snowshoe. That left the option open to add a longer ski later.

We originally designed and built our skishoes with cross-country ski bindings, often purchasing used rental skis from a local cross-country ski center just to get the bindings for prototyping. Later, we started work on a snowshoe binding. We purchased a pair from snowshoe manufacturer Redfeatther and designed a hinge mechanism around them to adapt them to our skishoe and allow them to freeheel. We later went to a standard steel hinge with a custom hole pattern.

All this took place over several years with countless test runs up and down snow-covered slopes. The current Trackers Skishoes design would emerge from this.

But enough about us. To put the skishoeing craze in perspective, we’ve listed ones that are on the market now and a couple that have come and gone but blazed a path and made their mark.

Yupi Skishoes

Perhaps the original and most notorious skishoe was the Yupi Skishoe. The Yupi Snowspider 28 measured 6” wide by 28” long and consisted of a hardened sheet of aluminum covered on the base with a permanent climbing skin. You could use a hiking, climbing, or snowboarding boot with the hinged nylon binding. You could walk straight up 35-degree slopes, but in hardpack snow and ice, Yupis were known to flail. Once you summited, you pointed the boards downhill and rode the glide back down. It’s hard to find information on what happened to the Yupis.

Altai Skis

Named after the Altai Mountains of northern Asia, Altai Skis rank as another one of the original skishoes. These evolved from the Sweeper series of Karver and Meta skis made by Karhu, a major cross-country ski manufacturer. Nils Larsen from northeast Washington and Francois Sylvain from Quebec conceived them in 2009. Both had extensive experience in the ski industry and had worked together designing Nordic and backcountry skis for over ten years. They saw a potential for skis designed for what they call “pocket backcountry,” the areas many skiers experience close to where they live.

Altais are made from conventional laminated cap ski construction with metal edges and a climbing skin embedded in the base. Models consist of the Hok Ski, Kom Ski, and Balla Hok for kids, which come in lengths of 125, 145, and 99 cm respectively.

The skis comes with threaded inserts matching the extended 75mm norm hole pattern, making them compatible with current 75mm 3-pin bindings. Altai also offers its universal binding, which works with any kind of boot such as hiking boots. And they have an adapter plate compatible with Rottefella NNN BC and Salomon BC bindings.

Altai Skis

Curlew, WA

509-779-0030

www.altaiskis.com

Marquette Backcountry Skis

One of the more unique looking skishoes, the Marquette is made of hollow molded plastic, measuring 140cm long and 150mm wide at the tip, 130mm at the waist, and140mm at the tail

. It sports large fish scales on the bottom for climbing, making it a waxless ski.

David Ollila invented the ski in 2009 in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula but later took a job downstate, so he needed someone else to take over the business. He turned to students at Northern Michigan University and their Invent @ NMU program; Ollila happens to be the founding director. They essentially manage the company for Ollila, handling the marketing, customer service, shipping, and receiving, gaining real-world experience in the process.

The Marquette skis are compatible with any 75mm-3-pin/telemark binding systems. Casual touring explorers will find a basic backcountry touring ski boot adequate, while aggressive downhill skiers generally go for heavy-duty backcountry telemark boots.

Marquette Backcountry Skis

Marquette, MI

408-676-0337

www.marquette-backcountry.com

Faber S-Line

As an example of a snowshoe manufacturer joining the skishoe fray, Faber offers its sliding step snowshoe known as the S-Line. It employs conventional snowshoe construction with aluminum tubing and vinyl webbing and looks like a slightly narrow and long snowshoe. But it has eight traction wings, four on each side, acting as crampons for climbing. It glides when going forward, but the traction wings grip like climbing skin in the reverse direction. The S-Line comes in two sizes: 5.5x40 in. for users up to 225 pounds and 6.5x46 for up to 300 pounds.

Faber & Company

Quebec

418-842-8476

www.fabersnowshoes.com

Trackers Skishoes

Trackers feature a plastic ski measuring 33” long by 6.75” wide made of high-density polyethylene with sliding crampons embedded in the bases for lateral stability and climbing ability on icy surfaces. They also have fish scales in the bases for added climbing power. Trackers are available with cross-country ski bindings or snowshoe bindings. With the latter, the user can use hiking or similar boots. Trackers are typically skied in a kick-and-glide stroke similar to cross-country skiing, both up and down hill.

Two accessories are available including removable crampons that bolt to the bottoms to convert the skishoe into a snowshoe. Climbing skins attach to the bottom to increase climbing ability and are especially useful on long climbs. Both accessories can be carried in a pack.

Trackers Skishoes

Milton, PA

570-713-4812

www.TrackerSkishoes.com

MTN Approach

Snowboarders typically use these for approach skiing. Climb to your destination, usually a mountain summit, then fold the skis away and descend on a snowboard. But you can also use these as general-use skishoes. They’re especially useful if you need to save space and can store them folded up. A backpack is available for carrying the skis.

They employ conventional ski construction consisting of a wood core with a cap and full-wrap steel edges with climbing skin material on the bottom. The ski has two hinges, so it folds into a third of its length for storage (18.5”). It measures 148cm long and 135/110/125mm wide in the tip, waist, and tail. They have a universal binding made of aluminum with urethane straps and a heel elevator for climbing.

MTN Approach

Ketchum, ID

208-928-7628

www.mtnaproach.com

Boreal Sliding Snowshoes

Occasionally, you hear somebody say they know of a skishoe sold by LLBean. These were the Boreal Sliding Snowshoes, another one that has gone by the wayside. This featured ski construction with its Positrack no-wax base, actually fish scales, and metal edges. It had a 130cm length with a sidecut of 123-90-115mm (tip, waist, tail). Bindings were not included.

So where will the sport of skishoeing go in the future? Will it remain a handful of independent pioneering inventors toiling on their own, each with their own design? Or will a standard design evolve and the new industry unite, possibly even creating its own trade association? Stay tuned, as time will tell.

Tom Gibson is the founder and president of Trackers Skishoes