Tubbs Frontier Series

Good bindings. My Easton Artica trails broke and these were available. Seems to be just as good a binding and better crampons. Good buy.

Good shoes for the price. They seem on par with the Easton Articas I have.  The heel straps are a bit easier than the Easton ones as my articas (Easton) have nylon/web straps and when they get cold and wet they can stretch a little and make it hard to adjust heels. Not an issue with Tubbs as they use synthetics that feel like biothane to me, so they do not get hard to adjust in wet/cold. 

I have not had them long enough to speak on durability, but anticipate no issues. As mentioned above there is a black plastic clip that secures the instep strap. It is designed with ridges that lock in to tension the system for one snap on/off of shoe. This is all well and good, but hate to see plastic clips on a stressed thing like that — would rather see AL or light steel.

I would not let that be a deciding factor as most shoes use a like mechanism, just an observation. That was the one good thing about the Easton ones as they used plastic tensioners to hold the nylon strapping, but not a plastic clip inserted into it — less chance to wear out/break. 

Error-prone. Very poor quality.
Totally unsuitable for difficult terrain, steep hills with deep snow, walking beween the trees with deep snow.

The binding is very primitive and error-prone. Never go on steep hills with deep snow using these. Never go in the forest in deep snow. The buckles release all of the time.

I often use snowshoes in very demanding terrain in Norway. Tubbs Frontier is totally unsuitable and even hazardous for this. I have had Tubbs XD Hunter, and these are absolutely wonderful for all circumstances. Frontier costs 50% of the price of Hunter XD. The quality of Frontier is not 20% of the quality on Hunter XD.

Background

- hills with deep snow
- between trees on hills with deep snow
- flat, easy terrain

Nice looking snowshoe, but prone to failure.

These were good snowshoes in terms of comfort and performance, and had good bindings that were easy to do up.

However, I had two sets in a row that failed in the field. The frame separated on one and the cleat broke on another, just with regular use on snow. One of them squeaked constantly as well.

Both pairs went back. Now I'm using a pair from Atlas. We'll see how those hold up.