Affiliations: Directorate of Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance,
US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, Aberdeen Proving
Ground, MD 21010, USA | Individual Performance Branch, Human Research and
Engineering Directorate, US Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground,
MD 21005, USA
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Dr Joseph Knapik, Directorate of
Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance, US Army Center for Health Promotion and
Preventive Medicine, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21010, USA. Tel.: +1 410 436
1328; Fax: +1 410 436 5449; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: Snowshoes are a common method of locomotion across snow but no
investigations has previously examined the energy cost of different snowshoe
models or looked for desirable snowshoe design characteristics. To this end,
four Marines were studied while walking at 4 km/h in four different types of
snowshoes. They traversed a field with an average grade of 2.4%, downhill and
once uphill with each snowshoe. Expired respiratory gases (for energy cost
measures) and heart rates were collected continuously during the walk. The
Pride Assault and US Army Standard models had a lower energy cost than the
Montana Light model and tended to have a lower cost than the British Assault
model. Correlations between snowshoe mass/surface area ratios and energy cost
were 0.81 and 0.72 on the uphill and downhill portions of the course,
respectively. Examination of the physical attributes of the snowshoes suggested
several design characteristics may be favorable from an energy cost
perspective: 1) a hinge-and-binding system that allows the snowshoe to be
dragged across the snow, 2) an upturned front that pushes snow away and allows
a more horizontal (less vertical) displacement of the snowshoe during
locomotion, 3) a narrow profile that avoids leg abduction, and 4) a lower mass
to surface area ratio. Further research will be necessary to determine the
importance of these factors because of the limited number of subjects and the
single snow condition examined here.
