Snowshoe work, under such conditions, called for the use of muscles other than those used in ordinary walking.

From step to step the rising foot could not come up and forward on a slant.
It had to be raised perpendicularly.

When the snowshoe was pressed into the snow, its nose was confronted by a vertical wall of snow twelve inches high.

If the foot, in rising, slanted forward the slightest bit, the nose of the shoe penetrated the obstructing wall and tipped downward till the heel of the shoe struck the man's leg behind.
Thus up, straight up, twelve inches, each foot must be raised every time and all the time, ere the forward swing from the knee could begin.
On this partially packed surface followed the dogs, the man at the gee-pole, and the sled.

At the best, toiling as only picked men could toil, they made no more than three miles an hour.