This is a snowshoe set that includes shoes, poles, and a carrying bag. The shoes measure 22” long and 7.5” wide at the heels. The extend 5” beyond the back of the heel plate and end in a point. The shoes have tubular aluminum frames with a plastic floating base. As a pair, the shoes weigh 4 lbs. The bindings consist of 3 heavy pieces of plastic that wrap around the entire toe of your boot, with a thin nylon cord and twist mechanism to hold the toe tight. The rear binding is a vinyl strap that is not detachable but whose length can be adjusted with a plastic clip. The bindings are big enough to accommodate any boots from women’s 4 to women’s 12. The bottoms of the shoes have steel ice grippers, swiveling under the front of the foot and solid under the heel. The Yukon logo is printed on the plastic by the toes and the “Spin, Advanced, Float, 821” model numbers appear by the heel. The poles consist of 3 telescoping rods with side clips for adjustment. The middle rod has recommended lengths printed on the side. The poles have soft rubber grips at the top and adjustable nylon wrist straps. The poles come with 2 sizes of snow baskets and caps to cover the ice pick tips. The Yukon logo is printed on the sides of the poles along with the purple background and snowflake design used on the plastic portion of the snow shoes. Each pole weighs 9.8 oz. The pack is nylon in back with a mesh front and a zipper opening along the top. There is a nylon strap carry handle on one side. The Yukon logo is printed in large pink letters across the front of the bag. I got these snowshoes for wintertime guests to use when visiting my house. I live in Vermont where the snow cover is heavy and I go snow shoeing just about every day throughout the winter. I tried these snowshoes out for myself before putting them in the guest room. As I expected, due to their short length and pointed ends, these snowshoes are best for well packed trails where there is little fresh snow. Because of the short distance behind the heels, the snowshoes kick up a lot of snow, and my back got covered from head to toe when I tried walking on any trail that had fresh snow. As for breaking trail in these shoes, forget it—they’re just too short and you sink. Plus you kick up gobs of snow. For jogging on packed trails, though, these shoes are pretty good. Except, they are quite heavy for their size. They might be good for training, but for races, you would want to change to lighter weight shoes. What makes a snowshoe fit for a woman? Narrow width, not short length. Yes, these shoes are narrow enough for women’s hips, but they are too short for anything but packed trails. The poles that come with this set are decent. Like other Yukon poles (all Yukon poles seem to be the same model with different pain jobs), there are no stops on the telescoping rods, so if you pull too hard, the poles come apart. These poles are also a bit heavy. The bag is a handy accessory. The shoe clips that came with this kit were so tight that I had to use a screwdriver to pry them off, so I won’t be using them regularly. Overall, this is a handy kit for light use, especially on well packed trails. But if you want to do some trail breaking, you will probably need a different model with longer length beyond the heels.
