MSR Lighting Ascent 2019 - 2018 Review by The Good Ride

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The MSR Lightning Ascent is something is a very well made easy hiker for a snowshoe, but this is 100% from a slackcountry focused at best, snowboarders perspective. I dabbled in uphill travel this season (2018/2019) because I wanted better access to easy/safe slackcountry routes before the mountain opened and I wanted to ride my quiver as well as the solid boards I’m sent to review.  So, getting a split board wasn’t an option.  Especially as a gear whore like myself.  I concluded that, in most situations, this is too much work for people like me.  Instead,  I found the Drift Boards shortly after reviewing these and they do a massively better job. The Drifts aren’t better than splits in many situations but they are soo much better than snowshoeing it’s not even worth considering these.  I still have these for hard snow and days when I might go for a hike with my wife who doesn’t snowboard but 19 out of 20 situations I’m using my Drifts.  These are great snowshoe’s and I liked them better than the MSR Lighting Approach for going uphill but after using the Drift Boards, I just don’t want to snowshoe up to ride down.

Ethics Statement: We don’t get paid by the manufacturer to write these reviews.  No one is perfect and we do make money from the “Where To Buy” links below, but this is our best attempt at an honest and objective review from an average riders’ perspective. 

How This Review Happened: We spent our precious Good Ride dollars to buy this.