UKC

Evening all

Which snow shovel do you use?

I’m after one for winter camping/ digging the car out etc.

I want it to have a metal blade, adjustable telescopic handle which can be removed from the blade and a triangular handle like a normal shovel.

Any suggestions? Don’t want to pay much over £60.

thanks

Dave

I've got an ortovox pro alu, not sure exactly which version but it's older than the current one. Might be a touch pricier than your budget. I'd buy it again which is probably about as much as you can say in favour of a shovel that doesn't get used much. It's got a T handle rather than a D shaped one though. 

I snapped a D shaped handle a few years ago so don't quite trust them now, though obviously not all handles are created equally so my mistrust is probably unwarranted. It was digging out the toilet doors on a winter hut in the alps that were pretty buried in snow and ice and I was giving it some welly so a bit of an edge case anyway.

Thanks mate

Id read a good review on a Kodiak, think that was ortovox.

The D handle probably isn’t that important, but it must be strong enough to shift frozen snow and ice .

cheers

dave

When I was living in Calgary, I found the best approach was a very large shovel, made of lightweight aluminium. This was because the snow there was so dry and light that it paid to shift as much as possible with each shovel load. When I was living in Derbyshire ten years ago, I got a broad snow shovel, based on that Canadian experience, but it soon broke up shovelling British snow, which tends to be relatively very heavy. I ended up using a standard heavyweight shovel of the type one might use when mixing and adding sand to cement. 

Having left my BD Transfer shovel somewhere in the Arctic at the end of a trip, I treated myself to a BD Evac 7.  It's got a telescopic D handle and also a hoe mode which is handy for some.  Tested in Norway this year and its excellent.  Not the lightest, but then it goes in my pulk (and I'd rather have shovelling capacity to build snow walls when solo).

They also make a Evac 9 which is higher volume, but slightly more expensive.

Decathlon bum sledge...?

I have a mammut one with a t handle which has done pretty well so far. On offer at rock and run https://rockrun.com/products/mammut-alugator-ride-3-0

I've got the Ortvox Kodiak, it's a beast, very strong and shifts snow very quickly

Metal is certainly best but just be aware they are not designed for clearing snow off the tarmac road or other hard surface. The blade quickly gets eroded and rough, just don't do it. I have a large plastic shovel in my vehicle for this task.

https://www.buildworld.co.uk/merchant/gorilla-plastic-shovel-yellow-1-piece...

Plastic bladed shovels have form for breaking.  I think mine is a BITS, metal blade and folds down pretty well

Indeed, plastic avalanche shovels are not recommended. Industrial plastic shovels are fine and used everyday in many workplaces.