So around the third week of January, my snowshoes broke. I’d realized after hiking Mt Moriah that the crampons on the bindings had broken. Then, hiking up the 19 Mile Brook Trail, one of my bindings failed outright as a result of the crampons breaking off. Yikes!
MSR’s warranty repair website called for an eight week wait. It’s been just about that. But today, I checked my email, and they responded! The ball is rolling!
Yes, it’s been a bit frustrating, not knowing if I was even heard across the vast expanse of the internet. If I were MSR’s customer service gurus, I’d fix that, at least to the point of sending out an email saying “you’ve not been forgotten, we’re just buried at the moment.”
However, that said, the process is moving. I’ve already had two email exchanges, just in the day. Bonus points: they’ve kindly offered me a pretty sweet discount on my new snowshoes. So that purchase might come much sooner than anticipated.
My current snowshoes will be repaired. I’m thrilled that MSR doesn’t design for obsolescence, but rather repair. No kidding, they offered to patch the deck at the heel, where it’s starting to get worn. Anything to prevent making more landfill. I’m perfectly fine with that. Everyone should do this.
When I get my new snowshoes (with the Paragon binding, that I’m hearing is the cat’s pajamas) I’ll set my current ones as backups. Maybe a friend will want to borrow them, or maybe my new ones will need repairing. Whatever happens, it’s all good.
As I write this, there are about six weeks or so left of “winter” before things seriously pitch toward “poor sledding conditions.” I’ve planned for flat-ish excursions, and honestly, I’m still very much looking forward to it. If the trails start majorly melting, to the point where micro spikes are de rigeur, I won’t cry. The mountains were here for about 12,000 years before I showed up. I expect they’ll be around for at least that long after I’m gone. I’ve got time to hike the trails I missed these past few weeks. I remain sanguine.
So… yeah. The silence was unnerving. But they’re doing all the right things right now. Eight weeks has been frustrating, for obvious reasons. But as I said, they’re doing all the right things now, and not for nothing, they were up-front about the eight weeks.
More to come. Stay tuned.
As always, stay safe out there.
…and if you can, help someone near you who needs it.
One thought on “Snowshoe Update: MSR has responded!”
That’s awesome, thanks for sharing an update. Good to hear MSR is being responsive (and good to know for the future if my snowshoes ever need some love, I have Revo Ascents, though I think most people prefer Lightening Ascents….I wanted the hard deck though for durability). Paragon bindings are sweet!!! Good luck, and happy shopping!