by Dave MacLeay
Last winter we reviewed the Kahtoola FLIGHTsystem, an integrated winter travel system made up of a snowshoe deck that mates with a neoprene overboot. For fall 2008, Kahtoola is doing away with the neoprene overboot and offering a more traditional snowshoe-type strap binding, while maintaining the step-in, step-out convenience for switching between snowshoe and traction device.
The new binding, dubbed the FLIGHTdeck TS (for Two Step), features the same underfoot traction as the original overboot, but allows the use of insulated winter footwear. When clipped together, the binding and snowshoe deck appear similar to many other modern snowshoe designs. The advantage is that once strapped in, you can quickly switch from floatation to traction by unclipping the binding from the snowshoe deck.
Whereas the original FLIGHTsystem required the overboot to be sized to your foot, the FLIGHTdeck TS has a wide range of adjustability, making it feasible to share the system between different-sized friends or family members.
The FLIGHTdeck TS will be available in October with an MSRP of $269.
