Hi. In David Chenault's latest (well-done) article on human-powered snow travel, he made a big recommendation for choosing the narrower women's ascent over the men's. The argument, which is sound, was that the narrower shoe would make for a more normal gate while snowshoeing.

Question: has anybody gone this route? Seems like the biggest potential disadvantage is less flotation. Any thoughts on this?

Thought the Lightning were super for flotation anyway. Yes, they provide some, but their bigger advantage is traction on relatively packed trails. If float is your bigger concern, I'd consider something like the Atlas 10 or 12 series....

How does it work if we chose to get the Womens snowshoe but size up by one unit. Eg: Going by weight I need a 22" Mens snowshoe. I'm thinking to go with 25" womens to compensate for the loss of flotation. Thoughts?

but one other thought occurred to me. The decking / binding / crampon used to have issues with reliability (if you want I can find some loooong threads on ADKHighPeaks forum about this). Anyway. I'd ink that if you chose the narrower ones for your weight, there'd be additional stress on that point, since the moment arm would be shorter.

Being a cross-country skier I opted for the narrow ones too - did that when they first hit the shelves.

Dan, 3 inches is not a big deal when you consider 22"-25" snowshoes. In my neck of the woods(Cascades Oregon and Washinton) where its more of concrete snow, everyone suggests to go with MSR lightening. But I also plan to use this in dry now ( East of Oregon).

Can you please share your opinion if it helped you, going with women's snowshoe with extra length.

That extra 3 inches of length really isn't a huge deal one way or the other. You'll gain a bit of float, a bit of weight, and lose a tiny bit of maneuverability.

Bigger snowshoes will float better, but honestly snowshoeing in deep light snow is not fun. Has to be done sometimes, but I always wish I had skis.

Thanks David, I think going with Women's snowshoe with 3" of additional length makes sense.