Snowshoes

The military beaver tail magnesium snowshoes are great if you need a shoe to jump out of a plane with, or break trail a short distance through relatively shallow snow; however, the shoes have very little ability to provide loft in deep, fresh snow; these simply dont provide enough loft in fresh snow - not remotly. This due to the insufficent surface area, the wire weave material used on their decks, and the non loft providing usless lip agle they designed into every relativly useless pair of shoes they made.

The Canadian military bear paw shoe, shown above has much aggressive spiking for traction and significanty more surface area to provide loft, as compared to the beaver tail, however the bear paw shoe will still sink my foot on a 160lb of pressure in fresh snow or traveling over sunk bushes. Not only does a sunk foot have to be lifted that much more from the snow, but the shoe will "scoop" and hold snow on the way out. The Canadian Military BP, as shown above does have the advantage of being extrmely strong and likely to last through many hits and even generations of work; however, they cant be easily repaired to new condition. Magnesium shoes do make an audible clatter when knocked against one-another or where cleats touch ice; a point to take note of if making noise is a factor afield. Ive hauled 50 lb jugs of water to great effect with the shoes shown above over theigh deep snow. Any shoe is better than nothing at that depth. If there is solid pack layers of ice over soft snow or you are sinking only every second foot, the shoes above are great.

When choosing shoes, as with anything in life, and life its self,  youll have to weigh pros and cons, and make compromizes. Do you need durability? Shoes that will provide loft? Silence? Maoverablity? I suppost the desigers of the shoe above did make these considerations and came to a reasonable conclusion given their primary use as a military shoe. However, ive used snow shoes a few times and have yet to understand the reason for the 45 degree tips. 

I read about a man in Russia making snow skies from a tree as a last minute solution. I have tried to use just a log tied to my foot and these are also terrible; they break, tangle, but do provide loft. Also your foot will tend to want to role over the side. This is a solution that will require further experimentation. 

I may also look into DIY Roycraft Snowshoes.