Gear Advice: How do the heel lifters work on Atlas Elektra snowshoes?

[sansanding]

I have never h ad snowshoes with a heel lift and I think I am doing something wrong. Does it go UNDER my heel or is it supposed to attach to the back of my heel? It keeps popping up and standing straight up under my heel. If I attach it to the back of my heel to make it stop doing that, it slides off after one or two steps. I can't use my new snow shoes! 😞 

[REI-JohnJ]

@sansanding Thanks for reaching out!

We're sorry you're having a problem with your snowshoes. We have a couple of quick questions for you to clarify the issue:

• Is the heel lift popping up on its own?
• Is it happening on both snowshoes or just on one?

The heel lifter should remain flat while you are walking and only engage when you reach down with your hand, or with a trekking/ski pole handle, and pull it up into place. You'll only want to engage the heel lift when you've hit steep sections of terrain! Once there, it should lock into place and not move. When you no longer need the heel lifter (once you've reached flat/downhill terrain), you should need to squeeze the sides together slightly to push it back down again.

When the heel lifter is engaged in the "up" position, it should fit underneath your heel so that it is holding the bottom of the back of your boot up and off of the snowshoe. The idea being that when climbing an incline or slope, the snowshoe is flush to the ground and your foot is close to level. This helps remove the strain on your calf muscles and moves the workload to your quads.

The heel lifter should lay flat on the snowshoe at all times and only engage when some effort is applied to moving it up and locking it into place.

We hope this helps clarify the heel lifter function on your snowshoes. If you need more information, please answer the questions above and we can help brainstorm with you to see if we can find a solution. 

Thanks!