Parts of a Snowshoe – Frame, Decking, Binding, Crampons

All 13 parts on the diagram

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Modern snowshoe 9

Frame The outer rim that the decking and binding are fixed to.
Decking The sheet inside the frame that holds you up on snow.
Binding It holds your boot to the snowshoe.
Toe crampon Metal teeth under the ball of the foot, for grip.
Heel crampon A second set of teeth under the heel.
Heel strap The strap that goes round the back of your boot.
Pivot The rod or strap that the binding turns on.
Tip The front end of the snowshoe, usually turned up.
Tail The back end of the snowshoe.

Wooden snowshoe 4

Lacing Rawhide strips woven across the frame of a wooden snowshoe.
Crossbar A wooden bar that braces the frame from side to side.
Toe hole The opening that the toe of your boot dips through.
Master cord The heavy cord across the shoe that the binding is tied to.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-10-01 and kept only where two of these use it. (1) Wikipedia, Snowshoe, text only, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowshoe : a hardwood frame filled with rawhide lattice; a light cross-bar; a close webbing with a small opening for the toe just behind the cross-bar; bindings; a strap around the heel; pivot bindings let the toes pivot below the deck; crampon cleats under the foot; decking; the tail of the snowshoe. (2) Snowshoeing books and one magazine, passages read through archive.org's full-text search: Snowshoeing (1995), https://archive.org/details/snowshoeing0000edwa (the frame, binding system, pivot system and crampons; decking, heel strap, tail; toe and heel crampon-type claws); Basic Illustrated Snowshoeing (2012), https://archive.org/details/basicillustrated0000bura (binding, pivot rod or pivot strap, decking or webbing, tail, tip); Snowshoeing: A Trailside Guide (1997), https://archive.org/details/snowshoeingtrail0000olms (decking, binding pivot point, the hole cut out in the decking around the binding); The Snowshoe Book (1971), https://archive.org/details/snowshoebook0000osgo (frame, toe lacing, body lacing, heel lacing, crossbar, master cord, toe hole, tail, the upturn at the tip); Snowshoeing! (1978), https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153337_0177 (frame, crossbar, toe hole, toe, body and heel lacing); Walk into Winter (1977), https://archive.org/details/walkintowinterco0000wolf (the extra-heavy master cord or toe cord; the tip); The Cottage Bible (2007), https://archive.org/details/cottagebible0000mack (toe crampon); Vermont Life, vol. 56 no. 2, https://archive.org/details/rbmsbk_ap2-v4_2001_V56N2 (a toe-and-heel crampon system on the underside). Licence: own work

The drawing: Own drawing from plain geometry; nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

A snowshoe spreads your weight so you walk on top of deep snow. The first view names the parts of a modern snowshoe, from above and from the side. The second shows a wooden one.

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The modern snowshoe

A tube frame carries the decking, the sheet that holds you up. The binding holds your boot, with a heel strap behind, and turns on a pivot, which leaves your heel free to lift. Under the shoe, the toe crampon and the heel crampon grip packed snow. The front end is the tip and the back end is the tail.

The wooden snowshoe

The frame is wood bent to shape and braced by crossbars. Rawhide lacing fills it, woven finer at the toe and the heel. Behind the front crossbar is the toe hole, and along its back edge runs the master cord, the heavy cord that the binding is tied to.

The quiz takes deck for decking, claw for crampon and toe cord for master cord.

Questions and answers

What is the decking on a snowshoe?

The sheet stretched inside the frame. It gives the snowshoe its surface area, which is what keeps you from sinking. On a wooden snowshoe, rawhide lacing does the same job.

What are the crampons on a snowshoe for?

They are metal teeth under the shoe that grip on slopes and packed snow. The toe crampon sits under the ball of the foot. Many snowshoes have a second set, the heel crampon, under the heel.

What is the toe hole on a snowshoe for?

It is an opening under the front of the foot. The binding leaves your heel free, so with each step the toe of your boot tips down through the hole.

What are the parts of a traditional snowshoe?

A bent wooden frame, crossbars that brace it, rawhide lacing in three sections (toe, body and heel), a toe hole, and a master cord that the binding is tied to.