“If you can walk, you can snowshoe”
Snowshoeing is easier to learn than skiing. The old and popular saying, “If you can walk, you can showshoe,” has been cited in print since 1922.
(Oxford English Dictionary)
snow-shoe v. (intr.) to travel on snow-shoes or skis.
1880 C. B. Berry Other Side 214 As we snowshoed over Lake Joseph.
1890 Hibbs in Big Game N. Amer. 41 The depth of snow‥does not enter into account when snow-shoeing.
Google Books
February 1922, Photo-Era Magazine, pg. 63:
Winter-Trips Among the White Mountains
KENNETH DUDLEY SMITH
(...)
To be proficient on skis requires many lessons; but to snowshoe — if a person can walk, he can snowshoe.
26 January 1947, New York (NY) Times, “Showshoe Hikers: They Find a Wonderland Is Open to Them” by Charles Grutzner, pg. X12:
Anyone wno can walk should be able to learn to snowshoe in about five minutes.
16 October 1966, New York (NY) Times, “A New Fad: Showshoes,” pg. 498:
If a person can walk, he can snowshoe.
Google Books
October 1977, Backpacker, pg. 56, col. 2:
If you can walk, you can snowshoe. All you need to know is that you can’t back up on showshoes. Other than that, as soon as you get over the idea that you should walk straddle- legged, you can start right out.
New York (NY) Times
Snowshoeing’s Appeal: No Ability Is Required
By BILL PENNINGTON
Published: January 13, 2005
(...)
“If you can walk, you can snowshoe,” said David Ingemie, president of SnowSport Industries America, a nonprofit trade association. “People who try it are amazed how easy it is.”
New York (NY) Times
Not All Downhill (Not Even Mostly)
By NICK KAYE
Published: January 27, 2006
(...)
“If you can walk,” Ms. Hornyak said. “You can snowshoe.”
San Francisco (CA) Chronicle
Full Moon Snowshoe Tour at Lake Tahoe
April 13, 2008|Mark S. Bacon
(...)
Hiking in snowshoes is easy.
“If you can walk,” Doyle says, “you can snowshoe.”
Yahoo! Sports
Five Must-Have Pieces of Gear for New Snowshoers
By Floyd Saunders, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Oct 27, 2011, 7:27 pm EDT
“If you can walk, you can snowshoe” is an old saying among snowshoers. And it’s true. Snowshoeing is an easy sport to participate in, although you need to find the proper equipment.