Fitted and tried out the Dion snowshoes Mrs. gave me for Christmas. I'll add photos and the Garmin track later. My phone said the distance was 4.2km. I don't really know what the truth is, but 2.8 seems a bit short.
These snow shoes are quite nice. Quite light and plenty real estate for the snow I expect around here. The claws served nicely in the few places I had a packed trail and in the deeper heavy snow. There were spots where I sunk 10-15 cm, but it the progress was still good, just extra work. I expect to start wearing the heart monitor so I can do a reality check on just how much work it is.
Today I stayed close to home. Down the hill and across the river. I took a couple of loops to the river, then across the railway to the terrain park. Then a loop on the east side of the tracks before crossing back over and crossing a meadow back to the coniferous woods.
I was extremely over dressed, even opening the arm vents in my jacket. I expect to take a few outings to get the dress right before trying a snow shoe event. Something in the 60-90 minutes is probably about right for me. Maybe a Snow-O and just use fragments of the course for an outing.
And the photos:
Boots in shoes.
The Harness - they came with several spare straps to accommodate different shoe sizes
The cleats
and the imprint left by the shoe - I should note that they do throw some snow up to your butt when it gets deep
They also came with a convenient strap to hang/carry them