It’s cold outside. Very cold. It’s the kind of cold where when the wind picks up, you wonder how long you would have, if you were to just stay outside, before frostbite would start to claim your toes. (Here’s the National Weather Service’s chart showing windchill and frostbite times if you’re curious.) It’s the kind of cold where when you get inside, you sigh as though you’ve just survived something treacherous, even though you really only walked about three blocks.
But this is all very good. Because with such cold comes the possibility of another big snowfall or two before it starts getting warmer.
And with that in mind, I have a recommendation to make: the next time heavy snow (as in about 10 inches or more) is in your local forecast, go snowshoeing.
I was skeptical at first. For one, my wife Laura and I could’ve saved the $20-per-pair rental (REI’s price if you have the $20 lifetime membership) and just trudged through the snow in our boots. And since we didn’t have time to make it out of the city, we’d be going in Prospect Park in Brooklyn—a great big park, but surely not the Great Outdoors experience we really wanted.
But none of this mattered ultimately because snowshoeing—in Brooklyn or on Bear Mountain—is just fun. The shoes, which are essentially a crampon surrounded by a flat surface that distributes your weight over a larger area, let you easily move over heavy snow. You see an open field and you can head straight into it. You see a path through the woods and you just go. It’s no frozen-toed slog, like going in snow boots alone can be. And while adding large objects to your feet might seem to slow you down, the shoes are so light and make walking through snow so easy that you feel superhuman (albeit modestly).
Laura and I went all through the massive park for hours and saw almost no one because of the freezing cold, which we were feeling almost none of because of all of the hiking we were doing.
So I’m hoping New York will get another big snowfall or two this winter. And in the mean time, I’m keeping an eye on Craigslist to see if some cheap snowshoes appear. (New ones are around $200.) The next time there’s heavy snow, I want to be able to head straight off into the cold.
But this is all very good. Because with such cold comes the possibility of another big snowfall or two before it starts getting warmer.
And with that in mind, I have a recommendation to make: the next time heavy snow (as in about 10 inches or more) is in your local forecast, go snowshoeing.
I was skeptical at first. For one, my wife Laura and I could’ve saved the $20-per-pair rental (REI’s price if you have the $20 lifetime membership) and just trudged through the snow in our boots. And since we didn’t have time to make it out of the city, we’d be going in Prospect Park in Brooklyn—a great big park, but surely not the Great Outdoors experience we really wanted.
But none of this mattered ultimately because snowshoeing—in Brooklyn or on Bear Mountain—is just fun. The shoes, which are essentially a crampon surrounded by a flat surface that distributes your weight over a larger area, let you easily move over heavy snow. You see an open field and you can head straight into it. You see a path through the woods and you just go. It’s no frozen-toed slog, like going in snow boots alone can be. And while adding large objects to your feet might seem to slow you down, the shoes are so light and make walking through snow so easy that you feel superhuman (albeit modestly).
Laura and I went all through the massive park for hours and saw almost no one because of the freezing cold, which we were feeling almost none of because of all of the hiking we were doing.
So I’m hoping New York will get another big snowfall or two this winter. And in the mean time, I’m keeping an eye on Craigslist to see if some cheap snowshoes appear. (New ones are around $200.) The next time there’s heavy snow, I want to be able to head straight off into the cold.