Winter Camping: What To Look For In A Snow Shovel

Description

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The Secrets Of Choosing And Using A Snow Shovel

Snow shovels are often undervalued for winter camping and winter travel.

In fact, a snow shovel is probably one of the most important pieces of winter equipment you can take with you on a winter journey.

In the video I explain why. I also discuss some of the features I think are worth looking for in a good snow shovel.

A snow shovel allows you to move snow quickly and efficiently. This ability to move snow is always useful but in some situations could be essential to survival.

You may have to get a skidoo unstuck and avoid being stranded miles from anywhere, unable to walk out due to the depth of snow. You may need to dig out an emergency bivouac or build up snow for an emergency snow shelter such as a quinzee.

This video discusses this and other reasons why a snow shovel is one of the most important tools you can carry in winter.

I hope the video also gives you some good pointers to what features to look for.

For more free information on wilderness survival skills and outdoor safety, please visit my blog at http://paulkirtley.co.uk where you will find many free articles and videos.

This video was produced by Paul Kirtley in association with Frontier Bushcraft Ltd. http://frontierbushcraft.com

Tags: Snow,shovel,snow shovel,Winter,Camping,winter camping,winter travel,travel,outdoor,outdoors,outdoor safety,wilderness,wilderness journeys,wilderness travel,ice fishing,heated tent,hot tenting,snow walking,snow machine,ski do,ski-do,snow scooter,dog sledding,Sweden,Scandinavia,boreal,boreal forest,northern forest,Canada,United States Of America (Country),north woods,northern bushcraft,Black Diamond,Bobcat,D9,Frontier Bushcraft,Bushcraft,survival

Video Transcription

hi I'm Paul currently from frontier bushcraft in this video I'd like to talk to you about a tool it's often undervalued for winter camping and winter travel

it's the humble snow shovel if you ask people to draw up a list of what they think might be important equipment to take with them on a winter journey on a winter camping trip particularly in the northern forest they might state an axe for felling dead standing wood for firewood

they might also stay too sore for sawing that up into manageable lengths particularly if they're using a stove in combination with a heated tent they may say an ice auger an ice chisel for getting through the ice on frozen lakes and frozen rivers either for accessing water or for fishing few people though will say a shovel is quite high up on the list in fact this is probably one of the most important pieces of equipment you can take with you and in this video I'm going to explain why I'm also going to discuss some of the features that I think are worth looking for in a good snow shovel when your winter camping you find yourself using snow shovel for all sorts of daily tasks when you're setting up camp you may be digging out a cold well for your tent you may be shoveling snow onto the snow valances to seal your tent you may be digging a latrine you may be collecting snow so that you can melt it for your water supply all these things are made much easier or possible even with a snow shovel when you go down to a river or lake for ice fishing first you need to remove the snow that's on the surface in the area that you're going to be fishing before you start drilling into it a snow shovel allows you to shift significant amounts of snow quickly and efficiently this ability to move snow quickly is always useful you could be stopped for lunch you want to clear an area quickly so that you can have a fire and stay warm maybe cook a bit of lunch that's always very pleasant particularly on a sunny day in spring in more extreme circumstances you could have got your snow machine very stuck and you need to dig it out in more extreme circumstances still you might need to dig down to the ground to create an emergency bivouac or pile up snow to create an emergency snow shelter without a snow shovel all of those things become extremely difficult so what to look for in a good shovel well first off an extendable handle is very important this gives you extra reach and allows you to move snow much more efficiently there's a real knack to moving soft snow quickly it's less digging and more scooping as you can see with a long handle that scooping motion is made much easier and it's also much easier on your back what else do I look for in a good shovel well first off a good strong metal blade that's going to last you a lot longer plastic blades may be lighter but in cold conditions they become more brittle and I've seen quite a few plastic shovel blades break over the years good strong handle good strong shaft and it'd be shaped handle if possible these are becoming harder to find these days you see a lot with a T grip but a D grip is really good because you can use them not just with gloves but also with mittens another useful feature to look for in any snow shovel is a removable head so that you can separate the handle and shaft from the head like so that makes it much easier to pack whether you're packing it in a backpack with you're packing it in a duffel bag on top of a pulp or a toboggan that makes things much easier so that's something always to look for very easy as a final tip and this may require a little bit of customization on your part think about points of contact metal conducts heat away much faster than plastic or wood and a lot of shovels metal shovels are made of some sort of aluminium alloy which is very conductive in cold conditions even with gloves on you don't really want to be handling metal because it will SAP heat away from your extremities much more quickly than touching something less conductive as well as a well as the plastic handle here where there's a metal shaft underneath here even though it's painted what I've done is I've wrapped around some tape and this is hockey tape is to sort of tape that your wrap around ice hockey handles and that type of thing you can buy that in most sport shops it's quite easy to get hold of and that is very insulative it stops the cold coming through to your hands so that's an excellent addition to make to your snow shovel

you can see I've added it all the way along there where my hands might be gripping from the shovel I hope that demonstrates why a snow shovel is one of the most important tools you can take with you on a winter camping trip or a winter journey I hope it's also giving you some pointers in what to look for in a good snow shovel I'm Paul Kirtley from frontier bushcraft thanks for watching and I'll see you on the next video