I am looking to buy one right now, but not so far enjoying much luck in finding UK places that even stock them for sale! In America/Canada they are by necessity I suppose just available everywhere. It is an almost universal item sold even in tool supply stores and general/diy stores along with all other kinds of spades and shovels! I liked the one that I just saw on the tv tonight being used in the Cairngorms, by a Mtn rescue affiliated avalanche safety investigation/awareness team! The lovely lady there had a collapsable or telescopic type handle on hers, as featured on the Channel 4 show about surviving snow and avalanche conditions in the UK! That is the sort of snow shovel I am looking for myself! But where does one actually go and buy one like that kind from exactly please?
Trevor, I'm not sure where you're based but there are quite a number of UK shops that sell snowshovels, Needlesports, George Fisher, and The Climbers Shop in the Lakes, Cairngorm Mountain Sports and Braemar Mountain Sports, Backcountry UK and Homebarn, both in Yorkshire, Outside in Hathersage, and the Snow and Rock chain to name just a few that I'm aware of.
If you only want an emergency item for occasional UK use then consider carrying a Snowclaw as it's much lighter and easier to pack. But if it's a real shovel you're after then you'll find polycarbonate models by Lifelink or Ortovox available, or metal (imo much better) models (including some with telescopic handles) by Voile, BCA (Back Country Access) or Black Diamond (in my view these BD ones are more gimmicky and less well finished). Google any of those makes and you'll find UK stockists or you could even get one from the USA where they cost about the same $ number as they do £s over here!!
Watch out for the weight of a large metal shovel though. My own is a Voile Mini weighing about 640g and they don't really come any lighter. (iirc a Snowclaw Guide is around 180g.)
Just brought a Black Diamond Lynx from Theoutdoorshop.com for £20, Black diamond also do one where the handle folds down into the blade. Check out the Black Diamond website
Sounds like I need to go north then to look at these items before buying! Or might just buy the snow shovel I require on the internet through an online store. If, that is, any of you know of any that sell some good ones?
I am actualy way down south near Crawley in West Sussex, on the Ashdown Forest in East Grinstead! No really decent dedicated stores near my location sad to say! A good few basic stores though around this locale, like Cotswold/Field and Trek and Blacks/Millets only!!!! But I am talking a nine mile journey either way here though, to either shop in Crawley or else Tunbridge Wells shopping centres!
I always found the ones available in the UK to small,this meant that you had to use a lot more energy and sweated more[which then can freeze on you].
The best solution was found at Norwegian or Swedish petro station whic sold a wide and deep aluminium bladed wooden handle shovel.For some trips i replaced that handle with a long t-bar canoe paddle which was lighter and gave better Leverage for cutting snow blocks..Unfortunately it was all stolen in Stockholm.
It may be worth trying to buy the aluminium shovel in a Hardware wholesalers as i have seen them used by builders and granaries...keep digging and not sweating...chris
Hi Trevor, it's a little bit further afield than Tunbridge Wells, but you could try Peglers in Arundel. They certainly have them on their website - here.
I forgot to add before, if you seriously want to get into snow shelter building and 'snow engineering' then it's well worth investing in a decent snow-saw. Personally I'd carry one of those in addition before I went for a larger shovel.
But watch out for flimsy ones, especially the ones that pack down a shovel handle - many of them bend on first contact with hardpacked snow. Mine is a sturdy aluminium Lifelink one, 225g, completely flat for easy packing down the inside of my sack, and it'll saw through pretty much anything but hard ice. Great for cutting blocks to build walls, roof, seats etc., or just for breaking into the snow to make life easier with the shovel.....
Wow, thanks all you guys for the really fab info input above here! I am really very impressed indeed with all of this greatly informative accumulated knowledge on offer here at this OM website! I saw Ray Mears using a snow-saw for igloo building once on one of his great tv shows. It is most definitely an item that I would one day like to buy, own and use-cheers Matt! Thanks too for that great link to the Sussex shop there James-again very much appreciated here! Chris R, sorry not to have thanked you before, but I do thank you now, for your own great link and ideas on where to look for my future snow shovel purchase!
Chris, I really do sympathise with you over the loss of your kit to thieves in Sweden! I have had quite a bit of kit stolen from me too over the years! It seems to very much be a problem mentioned on OM at this current moment in particular! I earlier on mentioned the kit that I lost to theft/attack in December 2006, which I am still trying desperately to replace gradually-little by little and bit by bit! Someone else in the bushcraft knife thread I see also had kit recently taken, including a bushcraft/outdoors knife as well, in a burglary on their home. I guess not many of us will remain untouched at all by this growing petty thefts problem, as it seems you can't even park a vehicle in outdoors areas either these days, without returning to find items having been taken from it by thieves breaking in via the windows!
