UKC

If the snow's deep but you're not up for skiing, then snowshoes might make the difference between a slogfest and a fun day out. The Lightning Ascent is a sturdy and capable model well suited to the steep and rough ground found on most UK winter hills. Snowshoe-agnostic Dan Bailey finds himself won over.

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I can add a bit on longer term usage of MSR Lightning snowshoes, having bought a pair when I lived in Finland and used them a lot there, and a little since moving back to the UK a decade ago, although a section of the hinge snapped maybe five or six years ago and I haven't used them since. So once again this review is reminding me to email MSR to see if I can buy just the replacement part and get mine up and running again!

In Finland I used them a lot in the lower firmer snow conditions of the south. These size of snowshoes are pretty hopeless in the powdery, untransformed snow conditions that are far more normal in forested areas in Lapland - they simply don't have enough floatation. I used mine a lot in while prospecting for ice falls which generally meant crashing through forest a lot, so would often be putting them on protruding rocks and on fallen lumber. Probably not to dissimilar from the snowier parts of Scotland. The nylon deck and the steel frame survived that very well but as noted above it was a metal plate on the hinge mechanism that broke on mine.

Dan mentions using ski tracks to help find consolidation and in the Highlands I can't imagine anyone could possibly object to doing this, but just a word of warning to anyone going somewhere with purposely laid XC ski tracks - XC skiers tend to loath people walking or snowshoeing on prepared tracks. Don't do it! XC poles can be up to 2 mtrs long and have a wicked spike on the end, you don't want to get into a fight with an XC skier! I know in lots of popular places now for XC they also have separate and distinct snow shoe trails to avoid this conflict.

I’ll add to this with a plea not to snow shoe over ski touring tracks in general! A skin track can last weeks and generally just gets better with use,  but just one snow shoe over it trashes it completely! And also doesn’t generally help much for the snow shoeing as it isn’t dense enough packed to stop you sinking in anyway. 
(bone of contention in popular touring areas here in NZ)

Best snowshoes for the snowshoe-sceptic climber are surely: https://www.snowplak.com/en/product/snowplak-approach/ . Super light, no moving parts and fit over crampons. 

My thoughts as a keen snowshoer:-

There are two sorts of snowshoes, 'trail' ones and 'mountain' ones - trail ones are rubbish on slopey ground, my wife's just been on a snowshoeing course at the weekend and the instructor who was teasing her about her old, big, 'heavy' Denali Ascents had to wind his neck in when she was happily tromping up and down the slopes and her fellow students in trail snowshoes were sliding around. MSR's mountain range are the 'ascent' models by the look of things.  The confidence you get on steep ground is amazing, I feel like I'm some kind of indestructible tank as I go straight up stuff I couldn't do in summer in hiking boots. NB. this could get you into trouble in terms of avalanche terrain, but it gives an idea of the grip you get.

Catching your legs - as a user of old Denali Ascents with a plastic floatation area I can say that it must be the metal perimeter on the Lightning ascents tested that is the issue - much of my snowshoeing is on twisty rough terrain in woods, and over buried dwarf pines resulting in me hitting my legs all the time, and I've had no catching or damage at all.

Size - I'm ~85kg in jeans, jumper and trainers, so easily 90+kg with all my kit (winter clothing, daypack with lunch, emergency gear inc shovel, bumsledge, poles).  The add-on tails are definitely useful in anything soft. They can be a pain in rough terrain - where there are shallow boulders, tree roots or other buried stuff making the shoe sink in different depths at different parts of the shoe, or where you're doing lots of turns (e.g. zigzagging up/down a slope), but the rest of the time they're well worth it.

Crampon use - I'm intrigued as to the need to continue to carry crampons, Dan - where do you find the snowshoes don't provide enough grip on ice?  Is it because the large grip area results in the teeth not penetrating deep enough (all your weight on dozens of points instead of 10)?  I've only come across ice once - on a broad wind-swept ridge where freeze-thaw had resulted in it becoming a sheet of clear ice and had no trouble in the Salewa 999 snowshoes I was using.  I can see steep, rocky terrain being an issue where you can't fit the shoes in between rocks, or where the ground is too uneven, but would you want to be wearing snowshoes there anyway?  I don't do UK winter stuff, so am just curious and want to learn before I find myself in trouble!

Expense and quality - I'd have no hesitation in buying secondhand MSR snowshoes if new ones are too pricey - my Denali Ascents are easily 10 years old and are still going strong.  The straps, however do lose their suppleness, crack and break. Replacements are easily sourced online.

From seeing recent posts on social media from MRTs and others making the most of the recent snow in the UK I'd strongly recommend using snowshoes. The major advantages are

a) not post-holing and getting wet feet/legs, or unexpectedly post-holing into a twisted ankle situation when you plunge through powder only to hit uneven ground and roll your ankle, or get it trapped between boulders. I've happily walked on top of snow that others have post-holed up to their groins every step!

b) not slowing down.  I'm doing virtually the same pace with snowshoes as I get on similar terrain in summer.

If you have to carry them up a climbing route they may be more hassle than they're worth, but for winter walking it's a no-brainer.

Have you used them? As they're not articulated, do they not have a lot of resistance when you're lifting your feet?

I quite liked my TSL snowshoes. A French brand, heavy‑duty cold‑temp resistant plastic (scuffed from all the rocks but still strong), if a slightly more technical binding. One big plus of them is they make a "descent" model that unlocks the boot heel to be able to go down below the snowshoe, which is a great help on descents on any steeper snow.

I find it's the descents that are most tiring on snowshoes. They are usually made for flat or rising ground, not so much for descending, where you have to bend the ankle or knees too much for me to be comfortable. 

That and traversing reasonably hard snow making your ankles twist sideways as you can't dig the edge in. Powder is far nicer to do steep stuff in.