Atlas Snowshoes Womens Elektra Snowshoe Kit Review
Atlas Snowshoes Womens Elektra Snowshoe Kit Feature
- Women's snowshoe kit with snowshoes, 2-piece poles, and zipper tote
- Spring-Loaded Suspension system helps your feet move freely
- Women's-specific Wrapp bindings are easy to adjust and tighten
- Aluminum Lock Jaw snowshoe poles with steel tips and removable snow baskets
- Zippered tote for gear storage; available in 23- and 27-inch sizes
A terrific choice for beginners, the Atlas Elektra 9 women's snowshoe kit makes it easy and fun to explore packed trails, broken trails, gently rolling terrain, and groomed slopes. The Elektra 9 is built using Atlas's Spring-Loaded Suspension (SLS) system. An Atlas tenet from the beginning, SLS technology suspends your foot so it can move freely with its intended articulation. The suspension absorbs impact and lets your foot flex naturally side to side, creating a comfortable, stable position on traverses and uneven terrain. SLS enhances traction, too, as the flex provides deeper crampon penetration into the slope, especially on steep or off-angle terrain. The Elektra 9 also includes the company's proprietary aluminum V-frame, the key to an efficient, natural stride. The V shape tracks straight in deep snow, while the tapered tail pulls less snow as you step forward, saving your energy. Made with lightweight, durable 6000 and 7000 series aluminum, V-frames all used on all Atlas snowshoes.
The Spring-Loaded Suspension strap makes the snowshoe easy to maneuver. |
To ensure a superior fit, the Elektra 9 snowshoes are outfitted with Atlas's flexible Wrapp bindings, which are a cinch to adjust and tighten. A noticeable step up from the bindings on the entry-level Elektra 8 series, the Wrapp bindings boast a women's-specific design with a slightly tapered tail, helping it accommodate a woman's natural stride. The shoe's Nytex decking, meanwhile, is forgiving and quiet even in the cold of winter. Finally, the shoes provide sure footing on two planes thanks to the stainless Twin Trac toe crampons and accompanying heel cleats. The toe crampons use a sturdy row of front points and two side teeth to keep your foot from twisting, while the heel cleats add traction and stability while climbing, descending, and traversing varied terrain.
The Elektra 9 snowshoe kit also comes with two aluminum Lock Jaw snowshoe poles and a zippered tote for carrying your gear. The two-piece snowshoe poles adjust quickly on the fly thanks to the Lock Jaw locking mechanism. Just flick the lock open, set the length, and clamp the lock closed, even with gloves on. The poles' also include ergonomically shaped soft rubber grips and adjustable nylon webbing wrist straps for comfort on the trail. Most importantly, the Lock Jaw poles track extremely well, with steel tips for superior traction in deep snow and removable snow baskets that are ideal for powder and soft snow.
The Elektra Series
The Elektra women's designs grew from a two-year biomechanics research program into a deep line of successful women's snowshoes that continue to lead the industry. The Elektra frames are shaped to accommodate a woman's natural gait, with tapered tails, a narrower nose, and outside rolling bends that nest the snowshoes together comfortably. Because women's needs are more than frame deep, the shoes' binding designs are molded around a woman's boot last. This encourages better arch support, with carefully placed strapping and padding to eliminate pressure points and keep circulation moving in the cold. The Elektra 9 women's snowshoes come in two sizes: 23 inches and 27 inches.
23-Inch Snowshoe Specifications
- Surface area: 145 square inches
- Weight: 3.26 pounds
- Load: 80 pounds to 160 pounds
27-Inch Snowshoe Specifications
- Surface area: 176 square inches
- Weight: 3.38 pounds
- Load: 120 pounds to 250 pounds
About Atlas Snowshoes
Winner of the American Alpine Institute Guides' Choice award since 1996, Atlas snowshoes are the performance choice for professional guides, outdoor enthusiasts, snowshoe racers, and even the Special Operations Forces of the U.S. military. The Atlas story began in 1990, when founder Perry Klebahn--who was looking to snowshoeing to help recover from a motorcycle injury--grew frustrated with contemporary snowshoe designs. Klebahn soon developed his own ideas and created a revolutionary new snowshoe as the theses project for his graduate engineering degree from Stanford University's product design program. Applying for patents on the original Atlas snowshoe, Klebahn was awarded the first patent granted for snowshoes in over 40 years. As development continued, innovations such as the dual crampon design and Spring-Loaded Suspension System became tenets of Atlas snowshoe designs and helped revolutionized the sport. Based in Seattle, Atlas has been awarded 19 patents, from heel cleats to contoured footbeds, SureClick buckles, frame-frame tail joints, and the company's latest--the elliptical cross-section tubing that provides the strength and durability of the company's 7075 ReactiV frames.
The Atlas® 9 Series women's snowshoe kit uses Free-Rotating™ Suspension (FRS) for natural articulation of the foot over uneven and side-hill terrain with minimal resistance. FRS flexes the 6061 aluminum Elektra V-Frame with each step, giving the toe traction deeper purchase. Flexible Wrapp™ bindings tighten easily and cradle the foot securely. The kit includes 6000-series 2-part poles and a zippered snowshoe tote.
