Anybody got any experience with these? Toying with the idea of replacing my BD shovel with one of these (and maybe use it as a lumbar support too), but I'm not sure if it's a gimmick / piece of shit. What's it good for, if anything?

it's almost worthless. moving any real quantity of snow is back-breaking work especially if it's hard pack. forget it if you have any kind of crust to break through. the weight savings are pointless.

for kids digging out a "fort" in soft, light powder...sure. But it is not a legitimate mountaineering shovel.

I have both a Snowclaw shovel and a BD shovel. I agree with logsden. For mountaineering applications, take the BD, for digging out the snowcave in your front yard, the Snowclaw is ok.

Kind of what I figured (but was hoping wasn't the case). When something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Thanks for the input!

I have a contrary opinion.

I would not use the snowclaw shovel as an avalanche shovel. It's not great at hacking through avalanche debris.

However I would (and do) use it for other purposes, such as digging snow shelters, leveling out places to sleep, etc. Unless the snow is completely bullet proof, it's fine for these tasks. (If the snow is bullet proof, I typically am using the adze of my ice axe to chop, and not the snow shovel, anyway.)

Hey Kai. Do you use it mainly in Utah? Or do you find it useful elsewhere? That may sound stupid, but in my experience the snow in Utah tends to be more powdery than the Cascades for instance.

Jarpup wrote:Hey Kai. Do you use it mainly in Utah? Or do you find it useful elsewhere? That may sound stupid, but in my experience the snow in Utah tends to be more powdery than the Cascades for instance.

I've not used it in the Cascades. Only in Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. You're right, snow in WY, CO and UT is likely very different from snow in the Cascades. Although I've used it in spring conditions to dig snowholes, when the snow is more firm and not so powdery, so it will work in non-powder snow. However, spring snow in the Rockies still probably doesn't compare with Cascades snow. With the right sort of snow, it's actually a pretty efficient digging tool. We call it the "dog shovel" because you dig like a dog digs.