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Teacher
Edition Contents
Skill,
Tools, & Craftsmanship
Cutting
& Drying Fish
Sharpening
Nails,
Pegs, & Lashings
Falling
Trees &
Small-Scale
Logging
Guns
Chainsaw
Clutch & Chain
Ice
Pick
Shelters
Wood
Stoves
Wall
Tents
Steambaths
Insulation
& Vapor Barriers
Gas
Lamps & Gas Stoves
Travel
Piloting
A Boat
Boat
Design
Magnetos
& Spark Plugs
Carburetors
Compression
Outboard
Motor Lower Unit
Outboard
Motor Cooling System
Dogsleds
Snowmachine
Tracks
Snowmachine
Clutch
Snowshoes
Winter
Trails
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Activities
- Time someone walking a given distance in deep snow without snowshoes.
Then time the same person with snowshoes.
- Try different kinds of available snowshoes (trail, bear paw)
on different snow conditions. Which is easier and why? Which is
easier in the brush? On a snowmachine trail? On windswept snow?
In powder?
- Try different kinds of bindings. Which seem better to you?
This test is invalid unless you walk under many different conditions:
packed trail, in the brush, up hills, in deep powder, etc. Which
bindings and snowshoes are the quietest?
- Compute the psi of individuals wearing winter boots and again
with a pair of snowshoes (their weight divided by the area of
the boots or snowshoes).
- Ask some of the oldtimers in your village what kinds of snowshoes
they used and why. What did they do to the rawhide (oil, varnish,
etc) to make it waterproof?
- Ask an oldtimer how to pick a good birch tree for snowshoes.
How could they tell the grain of the wood and the toughness of
the fiber?
- Take two pieces of birch from the same tree. They should be
carved about the same size, similar to the frame of a snowshoe.
Cut them two to three feet long for this test. Steam one. Bend
them both. Which bends easier? Which breaks first? (An easy steamer
is made from a coffee can with two inches of water in the bottom
with stovepipes extending to the desired length.)
- How did they make rawhide in your village? How was the skin
cleaned and how was it split into thin strips? Does anyone still
know how to do this? Try to learn if there is a skin available.
- If a pair of homemade snowshoes is available, try to discover
the pattern followed to lash the webbing. What did oldtimers do
to protect it from wearing?
A glancing blow with an axe or abrasion on the outside of the
frame can sever the webbing, so many oldtimers made an effort
to embed the webbing into the frame for protection.
- Study the different kinds of snowshoes described in catalogs
and resource materials. What kinds of traditional snowshoes were
used in other regions of the North? Can you guess their winter
weather by the design? Look at the following picture. What kind
of snow conditions do you think this snowshoe was designed for?
Deep powder. It is a trail model snowshoe with fine webbing.
- What kind of snowshoes do you think are best for walking home
on a snowmachine trail? Time someone walking with these snowshoes
for a mile. Time someone without snowshoes. Who walks faster?
Bearpaw snowshoes are good because they are light and easy
to carry, and there is a little bounce in the step.
- Some oldtimers knew how to make emergency snowshoes. Ask the
old people in your village if they ever used that kind.
Student Response
- What is the idea behind snowshoes? Use the term “psi”.
To increase the surface area so the psi is decreased and the
individual doesn’t penetrate the snow too deeply.
- With the same snowshoes, who will sink more deeply into the
snow: a person eighty pounds or someone one hundred and ten pounds?
Someone 110 lbs. The psi is greater
- Which is better for hard packed snow: bear paw or trail snowshoes?
Bear paws
- Which is better for powder snow: bear paw or trail snowshoes?
Trail
- Why would someone want smaller snowshoes even if the snow is
soft, deep powder?
Break trail for dogs or other people following.
- What purpose does the tail of the snowshoe have?
It acts like a keel keeping the snowshoe from swinging from
side to side.
- Why aren’t commercially-made snowshoe frames strong?
There is little quality ash and hickory left in the country
and most commercially-made frames are sawed from a tree rather
than split.
- What kind of skin was the toughest to use for traditional lashing?
What is the disadvantage of this kind of lashing?
Spring cow. It is illegal.
- Why did oldtimers oil their snowshoes?
Quiet walking, keep dogs from eating the webbing, and keeping
the frames from rotting.
Math
- What is the psi of a person weighing 175 lbs on snowshoes that
have 400 square inches.
.437
- What is the psi of the same person wearing boots with 48 square
inches? Snowshoes increase the surface area the person is exerting
force upon by how many times?
3.64, 8.34 times
- On a trail snowshoe, measure the surface area in front of the
individual’s toe. Measure the surface area behind the individual’s
heel. Which is greater?
In the front.
- Compute the psi of the smallest person in the class if they
have a standard pair of 10” x 56” snowshoes. How big
would the snowshoes have to be for the largest person in the class
to have the same psi therefore sinking the same distance into
the snow? You will have to figure the area of the snowshoes out
in several different parts, circles, squares and triangles.
Answers will vary
- A homemade snowshoe weighs 2.2 lbs. Another one made by the
Army is 3.0 lbs. If someone’s step is 2’ and there are
5,280 feet in a mile, how many extra pounds are lifted in a mile?
How many extra pounds are lifted on a hunting trip where the person
walks 7.4 miles?
2,112 pounds in one mile. 15,628.8 pounds
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