 .... I wonder how useful people generally find saws? Having used my mate's to good effect, I have now invested in a probe, dead handy for working out if the snow is deep enough for a decent bit of space inside. I just hope I never have to use it for its intended purpose.
In the right consistency of snow, saws are fantastic - they can make it very quick to remove entire snow blocks, which in turn act just like breezeblocks to build up walls, fashion entrance tunnels, re-close an enlarged entrance etc. I also have a probe and it's useful for exactly the depth-testing you describe, although I tend to be carrying mine for its primary purpose. You can test depth to some extent if you knock the basket off a trekking pole, and some poles will join rwo together to make a passable probe.
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I have played with them a little over the years - and as you say (MC), if the snow is right, they can be great. Handy if there are two people in a party and only one shovel. Keep meaning to experiment with slabs over a snow coffin or similar - a technique that might come in handy one day!
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 I tried the coffin and slabs method once.
OK as long as it lasted, but we didn't dig the slabs in deep enough and towards morning the wind stripped the snow surface down far enough to leave a gap at the top end, and drift started to fill the hole.
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 For the specific job of digging a snowhole I'd suggest something with a curved metal blade. The Rotefella is the one I used, the Grivel folk have posted pitcures of might ft the bill too. In nevee which has been around a bit the curve lets the blade carve out ice where a straight one digs in and stops, which is less effective and zlso much less comfortable for your wrists! While 4 of us were building a very des res in Norway on a tour we found the Rotefella curved shovels were much the best for carving out the space while my flat bladed Voile was superior for shifting the debris. Flat blades are also better for keep-bum-dry instant chairs and for digging/executing avalanche prediction pits. Pete.
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It sounds like you guys get a lot of use out of them. I would never have thought of getting out but last winter a friend got one for her car and it has made me think. I just thought I'd use a spade for the car but this Christmas holiday period a few are planning a winter skills / snowholing training session. AFAIK there are only two people in our little group with snow shovels and one won't be snowholing so I reckon I might end up with one. That leads me on to my question... If you are not going to be using one a lot which would you recommend? It is quite possible that I like snowholing and end up getting into it more but morelikely it will just end up being a tick off my must do list and the shovel will be the winter emergency car kit. That kind of means it will be a waste to get an all singing all dancing shovel which turns into a pick and has a saw in the handle or a probe or whatever. I guess a cheap and cheerful metal bladed shovel that packs up nice and tidy yet shovels the snow well. What do you think?
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To quite a degree a shovel is a shovel is a shovel... You want a metal blade if you'll be carving into ice but aside from that you're looking at small improvments, and any proper snow shovel is a colossal improvement over hands and/or an axe. The BD Lynx at ~ £30 is about as cheap as they get, go for the BCA Tour at 40 and you can upgrade it with a handle extension later. Pete.
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Pipecleaner - You might re-think this, as it's very useful to carry a light shovel in the hills in winter. They are so light now that one in a party is a good safety measure. I never used to, but the Tour is so light that I tend to carry it as a matter of course (assuming sufficient snow). So you'll have to work out which is more important: having something heavy and tough in the car which you'll leave there cos it's too heavy, or paying perhaps a bit more and having a valuable survival tool which can also be used to dig out the car! Given sufficient snow, it takes very little time to dig a very nice lunch stop - and doing so warms you up before you stop!
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Another question is how and where do you carry yours? Is it strapped to the outside ro inside the sack? I have a alpin extrem from berghaus (an old 50l+10l alpine style climbing sack) Which is probably what I will start using as it is actually as light as my vaude triset 35+8l daysack I've started using for winter. Before that I use the ALpkit gourdon 20l daysack. Anyway. This sack has compression straps at the side for poles and the like but no other way to attach anything. I keep losing the crappy berghaus plastic and shock cord axe grip thingies (must sort out velcro tapes for that). Anyway do peopl carry them inside your sack at all or how else do you carry them. I guess in the osprey or OMM type of sacks there is a big front compressor pocket that will be good for them outside the sack. I also guess that in the UK and in particular the Lakes area you would be a bit posey if you have it showing on the outside of the sack. Climbers shop shovels - ignore the ipood one. Needlesports snow shovels. If anyone has the time and inclination to look at these and let me know which tghey think is a good one for me to get. I know it is a bit cheeky and I guess any of them is as good as another so perhaps the cheapest is best. Just picking the collective brains of OM. REckon the Lynx snow shovel from BD at £29.99 is as good as anything really that these two retailers have.
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 Have been using a BCA Tour EXt Shovel for last few years, I might give a Snowclaw a try this year.
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 Another question is how and where do you carry yours? Is it strapped to the outside ro inside the sack? I have a alpin extrem from berghaus (an old 50l+10l alpine style climbing sack) Which is probably what I will start using as it is actually as light as my vaude triset 35+8l daysack I've started using for winter. Before that I use the ALpkit gourdon 20l daysack. Anyway. This sack has compression straps at the side for poles and the like but no other way to attach anything. I keep losing the crappy berghaus plastic and shock cord axe grip thingies (must sort out velcro tapes for that). Anyway do peopl carry them inside your sack at all or how else do you carry them. I guess in the osprey or OMM type of sacks there is a big front compressor pocket that will be good for them outside the sack. I also guess that in the UK and in particular the Lakes area you would be a bit posey if you have it showing on the outside of the sack. Climbers shop shovels - ignore the ipood one. Needlesports snow shovels. If anyone has the time and inclination to look at these and let me know which tghey think is a good one for me to get. I know it is a bit cheeky and I guess any of them is as good as another so perhaps the cheapest is best. Just picking the collective brains of OM. REckon the Lynx snow shovel from BD at £29.99 is as good as anything really that these two retailers have.
Cheers lads  Somthing else for the christmass wish list 
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Carrying a shovel... Option 1: use a dedicated snowsports pack with a dedicated pocket for shovel and probe (good for quick access in the event of undertaking a post-avalanche search... ) Option2: carry a T-handled shaft in your pack's ice axe loops, or under the compression straps and tucked in a wand-pocket. Carry the blade under the bungees on your pack front, or under the compression straps - use a bit of cord and a mini-krab to make sure it can't slip out. Option 3: Carry both parts inside the pack - I would tuck them in between the pack liner and the pack, blade at the front, handle at the side. Note that some blades are better shaped than others for fitting inside a pack without making it hard to get at the remaining contents. Obviously not as readily to hand as the other methods, but neater for public transport! As for shovel choice, from those in PC's links, I'd avoid the CAMP polycarbonate one and personally I don't like the BD Deploy. And I'd avoid the Grivel one, not because it's bad, but because I don't always have an axe with me when I have a shovel, and I'd rather have a shovel handle to grip than an axe head for serious digging. After that then it becomes a choice of larger or smaller blade, and of price. The Spadetech will pack more neatly than the others, but the Lynx looks like good value for occasional use.
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