Avalanche shovels – which ones are useless?

I don’t get it. Who was it that came up with the idea of making avalanche shovels out of plastic? Have they ever seen an avalanche from up close? I don’t dare asking whether they have tested these shovels at all…

How fast will this thing break?

See, when you’re digging for a buddy under the filthy, cohesive, chunky ice that an avalanche brings down, there is immense strenght in you. Adrenaline starts pumping like crazy and it empowers you to do things beyond imagination. I have a friend who was on the beach when the tsunami hit South-East Asia in 04. He was running from the water and jumped a 7 foot stone wall in no time. The following day, he was standing bewildered at the foot of that wall – “how the f**k did I jump this thing?!”…

Alloy - much better!

When you start beating ice with a plastic shovel with this kind of strenght, it’ll break and you’ll have to keep digging with your skis or your hands – which is hopeless, right? Bottom line: don’t use plastic shovels. Forget aluminium too. What you need is a great alloy which is also light. I came across this hybrid solution which looks promising, but I don’t know whether it actually got manufactured or not…

Of course, findig your buddy and starting to dig is already an achievement, you have to know how to locate her first… and, of course, there are better blogposts than this one on shovels, if you’re into the topic.

So why do they make plastic shovels? The only reasonable area of use for these things that I can think of: big mountain expeditions. Here, avalanche rescue is practically hopeless. What you need shovels for on expeditions is digging snowcaves and holes for your tent; which is mainly done in soft snow, without the brute force that’s pounding in you during a rescue. Plastic shovels definitely have an advantage in weight here…

Stay safe, rock ‘n’ roll… and comment away.