Ortovox Grizzly 2 Shovel - 2009 BCS

This shovel is a solid as they come- it will get through snow, ice, and dirt (hopefully there's more snow than that though). The major drawback is it's compactness, or lack there of. It folds in half, but doesn't fully break down like most avy shovels. So, you really have to work around it if you're trying to fit a lot in your pack.

This is a great shovel full of features. Specifically, there is an internal mechanism in the handle which facilitated deployment and locking. At first I was like, this thing is a pain! Then I realized that I didn't have to push the pins in to allow the plade to deploy/fold. The lever is in the handle. Quite trick. I like a d-handle shovel better as I wear mitts, so this version is exactly what I was looking for. The blade is plenty big enough to move lots of snow and the grippy surface on the shaft makes for easy use when wearing gloves/mitts.

Love this one. Super fast & sharp with the hoe feature and the serrated edge & packs down small for its size. It is not the best for smoothing walls in pits but in a rescue situation or building a camp I am thrilled with its performance

Personally I think Ortovox can improve on this. First of all my ski packs have a specific shovel pocket and because the handle does not separate from the blade it doesn't fit in my packs. My next issue is that when the shovel is collapsed the handle extention just slides right out. As soon as I took it out of the box the handle slid out and dropped to the floor. I do think its great when fully extended and locked out, its just not gonna work for my current application. Those who keep their shovels inside the main pouch or have giant shovel pockets may have more success.