While I am no Alaskan beaver trapper, I have struggled through a few snowdrifts in my time, looking for off-piste bliss. It's hard work: two steps forward, one step back, sinking up to your knees.

Strapping tennis racquets to my feet always seemed a little too quaint, but the modern showshoe makes amateur mountaineering effortless.

Hooded against the chilly breeze on the Remarkables near Queenstown, I look down at the carbon fibre and aluminium footwear I am about to strap on. They seem fairly basic, with a distinct lack of Arctic explorer nostalgia about them, but I am intrigued to see how far I'll get on them.

Guided Walks New Zealand owner Peter Hitchman is pretty excited, having spent a few thousand dollars to import 14 pairs, making his Queenstown company the first commercial guided snowshoe operation in the country.

Snowshoeing is all the rage in North America, apparently, with snowshoe trails springing up all over the alpine scene.

I have some affinity with a snowboard, but snowshoeing is a first. My tour companions are a step further removed - an Indian family who have never been on a mountain before.

Strapping into the snowshoes is simple; they are simply rubberised roman sandals with spikes underneath. I am eager for instructions on mastering showshoe walking, but there are none. You just walk.

But it's like walking on water. As we stride along in single file, the scenery is breathtaking, the sunshine breaking through morning cloudbanks. The simplicity and ease of snowshoeing up the white slopes is invigorating.

Duck stepping up the hill, the Indian beginners are as adept at the new activity as anyone. It's easy. At a morning tea stop, Peter whips up a cuppa and biscuits as we watch his wife, Karyn, on a ridge far above us, starting a full-day walk with two showshoers in tow.

The bookings are coming fast as news of the snowshoeing tours spreads, and Peter takes calls on the trot as we pack up the picnic and head for a picturesque spot overlooking Lake Hayes and Arrowtown.

On the surface, snowshoeing is really just another form of tramping, but the unique equipment opens snowy mountain terrain to regular walkers.

As we turn downhill on the homeward leg, the cleansing chill of the mountain atmosphere fills my head. The hi-tech foot fixtures have been all but forgotten as the frosty white alpine landscape disappears beneath them.

Taking walking to new heights, the strange footsteps in the snow are likely to get a lot more common.


Source: NICK CHURCHOUSE - The Dominion Post