I've owned my current snowshoes since 1991, which was when modern snowshoeing was just taking off. I thought I'd take a look around and see what sort of advancements might have happened in the past 18 years of this sports explosive growth, and see what is currently the "best of breed". Since I've done the research I thought I might as well share what I found with you guys.

Northern Lites Snowshoes - Simply put these are the lightest and best engineered snowshoes currently available. Without decreasing floatation (making them smaller) they've managed to substantially reduce weight, increase traction, maintain durability, and the binding system is very easy to use. These are going on my Christmas wishlist for sure.
http://northernlites.com/

Black Diamond Spire trekking poles - Consistently great reviews. 2007 Outside Magazine Product of the Year. Lightweight, comfortable handles that don't get too warm, and the adjustment locks stay put.  I bought my wife a pair of these last year when she was training to go trekking in Nepal (Unfortunately she couldn't go).  She loves them, and having seen them first hand I can see why they have such great reviews.  Now I want a pair for myself.
http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/shop/mountain/trekking-poles/spire-elliptic

Novel Item: XC Quickie Bindings - They allow you to use a warm but lightweight Nordic Telemark style boot with your snowshoes. Great idea, kinda lame looking implementation.
http://www.dtbakerprojects.com/ets/xcquickie/

Absolutely. The MSR Denali's are also great snowshoes. E.g. http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/00091.html
 

yeah, the traction is insane ... so good that I must admit I've gotten myself into some situations I had no business being in without a means to self arrest. I've walked straight down ski slopes at Crystal Mountain in these ... It was the shortest path from the X-country trail to DRAFT BEER!

On real snowshoeing trails, however, I find the flotation is inadequate without the add-on tips.   Especially if you're wearing a pack, or a heavyweight (I'm around 210lbs)   The other thing I'd mention about them is that without the taper of a regular shoe, the back edges have a tendency to clip one another unless you're paying attention to your gait.

What makes a Red Feather better than the Northern Lites? The Tubbs are significantly heavier than the Northern Lites and have an a binding that causes pidgeon toed walking. The Tubbs also have a rounded trail that doesn't track well.  The crampon of the Northern Lites is the one area that it might be criticized as they went with aluminum instead of steel to save weight. The aluminum wears out faster.

Edit:  I see that Tubbs has a new design.  My comments above are based on their traditional steel tube frame design.

Edit #2:  The new lightweight Tubbs snowshoes are 4lbs for a pair.  The Northern Lites with the same square inch size are 2.8 lbs.

Posted By Craig Miller on 12/10/2009 8:09 PM
Fair enough.

I didn't mean to be argumentative... I'm in analytical comparison mode on these things and am looking for hard data and subjective reviews.
 

np!

Just be cautious with "lightweight" snowshoes as sometimes they aren't meant to hold bigger folks like myself and gear.  Hate to bend up something 5 miles from the truck...  My biggest issue with finding a good set was simply finding something weight rated for my "large" frame;)

I have a pair of OR gaitors that I bought in 1992.  Look as good as new and I'd recommend them to anyone except those with really large calves.  They are too small to work well with my plastics (plastic shelled mountaineering boots that I use for snowshoeing/winter camping), but they work great with my regular full shank crampon compatible leather mountaineering boots.  They are also a bit small for guys with really large calves.

NOTE:  I split my original reply to this post off into a new thread titled, "Winter Clothing" as it has broader applicability than just snowshoeing.  The above paragraph was pulled from that dissertation of a post as it was in direct reply to Dale's original question.