Crescent Moon Snowshoes Engineers Products for Women

Jake Thamm, president of Crescent Moon Snowshoes in Boulder, Colo., said his company has spent the past eight years working to perfect its snowshoes for women.

This year's women snowshoes models feature a new binding system that makes them easy to get on and off, even for beginners. "We designed the binding around women from the beginning, because women are smaller and lighter," Thamm said. "My wife is the designer. Her perspective is a woman's perspective to begin with. We felt like if the bindings work for a small, light person, it will certainly work for a larger, heavier person, so we have it on all of our snow shoes."

The snowshoe shape includes a front that is traditionally aligned, but the tail narrows to a near point. The teardrop shape is engineered to allow for a natural walking gait that eliminates the trips, skips and bumbles so common with other popular snowshoe designs.

"The teardrop shape is unique to Crescent Moon," Thamm said. "It is our signature. Women have more narrow strides than men, so this shape allows for one snow shoe to clear away from the other shoe."

"Also," Thamm said, "Because women have narrower strides, they are prone to hip-flexor irritation when forced to walk on shoes that are too wide. The teardrop shape of the womens Crescent moon Snowshoes allow for a much more natural gait."

Genesis Adventures Partners with Tubbs Snowshoes

Connecticut based event production company, Genesis Adventures, Inc. announced a partnership with the Vermont based Tubbs Snowshoes Company to act as title sponsor of GA's two event winter adventure racing series. The series, titled as the Tubbs Snowshoes Winter Adventure Race Series, will consist of two events in New York State and Massachusetts.

In it's third year, the winter adventure race series will consist of snowshoeing, trail running, cross country skiing and navigation. Teams comprised of two racers, from first time racers to elite level teams, will complete the course together and are required to remain within 100 yards of each other throughout the entire event. The races will cover up to 25 miles and will take teams between 3 and 5 hours from start to finish.

"We are excited to again sponsor Genesis Adventures," said Paul Adams of Tubbs Snowshoes. "The adventure race segment will only continue to grow and attract more athletes to snowshoeing as a great sport and off-season training tool." Tubbs Snowshoes will provide its Catalyst race snowshoe as prizes to the winning teams. In addition, Tubbs will provide snow shoes for racers to try. "Tubbs was a great partner in 2004, providing much needed support and prizes for the race, we are excited to have them on board as title sponsor for the 2005 races," said Jon Fontane, Sponsorship Director for Genesis Adventures, Inc. Additional sponsors include Clif Bar, Nike ACG and Rudy Project sunglasses.

Tubbs Snowshoes Winter Adventure Race Series Dates:
February 6 - Fahnestock State Park: Cold Spring, NY
March 6 - Northfield Mt. Recreation Area: Northfield, MA

MSR Lightning Ascent Snowshoes Included On REI Expert 2004 Holiday Gift List

MSR's men's and women's Lightning Ascent Snowshoes ($249.95), newly developed for 2004-2005, have been included to the annual REI Expert Gift List. Gear-savvy experts partner with Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), a national retail cooperative providing quality outdoor gear and clothing to devise the list experts, themselves, would like to see given to them as gifts this holiday season. Their selections help provide a wish list for many outdoor enthusiasts. In an effort to integrate the list into REI stores more effectively, the selected products will be tagged as Expert Gift Picks at all REI stores and on REI.com.

Beaver Creek to Loan Snowshoes to Spectators at Alpine Ski World Cup Events

Beaver Creek Ski Resort announced the Beaver Creek Nordic Center will be loaning out snowshoes for the upcoming Men's and Women's Alpine Ski Racing World Cup Events to be held at the mountain December 2-5, 2004. The fleet of snowshoes loaned to spectators is the result of efforts to attract more veiwers and enable them to see more of the ski racing events.

Atlas SnowShoe Company Teams Up with the Winter Wildlands Alliance

Atlas Snowshoes has entered a partnership with the Winter Wildlands Alliance. The WWA is the only national organization working to preserve winter wildlands that provide access and opportunities for quality human-powered snow sports experiences including snowshoeing. The Winter Wildlands Alliance is a coalition of activists who share ideas and resources, providing a national voice to public land use issues in order to preserve winter activity experiences.