Written by Ian Walker and published Saturday, March 08, 2008 in the Vancouver Sun

If you can walk, you can snowshoe. Or so people are learning, anyway. Snowshoeing is enjoying a resurgence of sorts with the development of snap-on bindings and durable lightweight shoes weighing less than a kilogram. It’s the fastest growing winter activity in North America, with more than six million people enjoying the centuries-old sport no longer just associated with sinews and varnished wood.

No one knows this better than Marc Campbell of the Yeti Snowshoe Series and the race director for today’s Canadian National Snowshoe Championship at Cypress Mountain. More than 200 competitors, aged 17-70, from across the country will compete in the 10-kilometre race. It’s the first time the nationals have been held on the West Coast.

“People always ask how you run in these things but it’s simple,” said Campbell, adding many of the sport’s enthusiasts share not only a concern for their own well-being, but the environment as well. “You run. That’s it. [The snowshoes] are asymmetric so you don’t get shoe slap, you don’t have to change your gait. It’s an awesome workout.”

Snowshoeing became a popular recreational activity in the 1920s, when outdoor clubs organized group snowshoeing “tramps.” As skiing caught on, snowshoeing’s popularity dwindled. A resurgence began around 1990, when technology opened it up to the masses.

The Yeti Series — Yeti is the Himalayan term for abominable snowman — is in the midst of its seventh season. Each year it has grown by “leaps and bounds” said Campbell, pun fully intended.

“We started out with 23 people our first year, now it’s grown to over 200 on the line this weekend,” said Campbell, who described the five-kilometre loop on Cypress as one of the best on the Yehti circuit, with groomed trail to buff single track and powder sections. “It’s a very exciting time for the sport right now. It’s part of our heritage and to have come this far … it’s very exciting.”

The Yehti is the biggest snowshoe series in Canada and one of the biggest in North America. The four-race series has seen events on Mount Washington, Mount Seymour and Grouse Mountain, and concludes with this weekend’s Canadian championships.

“It’s just part of the series, it’s not a standalone race,” said Campbell.

“People have been working towards points for the triple crown, which is part of the Yehti Series.”

It’s the second year a national championship has been staged, and it’s part of an attempt to professionalize the concept of snowshoe racing to make it less of a weekend hobby and more of a respected, competitive sport.

“We just need to get this sport going internationally,” he said. “There’s still a possibility of being a demonstration sport at the Olympics or possibly going further. We just want to start picking up the pace of this sport.”