Garant Snow Shovel

I mentioned my snow shovel briefly on the last post but thought it might be worth looking at it again as I was back on the hill today and actually used the shovel as intended.

I had my gear packed last night, pretty much the same as I had on Saturday and set off for Trostan. There isn't a car park as such, just the entrance to a waymarked trail but there's plenty of space for parking assuming you can actually get the car in. The road was clear but the entrance was filled with snow, some packed down were other vehicles had been parked up probably on Saturday/Sunday. The only option was to reverse into the entrance at speed and force a track so I repeated this a few times gaining a few more feet with each attempt. As the entrance slopes slightly towards the road I took the snow shovel and cleared my tracks as best I could to the gravel base to help make things easier to get back out and to prevent the car gradually slipping down towards the road.





The shovel worked just fine even though I was digging into hard packed snow and gravel. The bucket shaped blade helped hold the snow and while there were a few scrapes on the edge it didn't feel as if it would break, snow that isn't packed due to a car driving up and down it should be no problem. As it started snowing shortly after I set off and had only just stopped before I returned I had to clear my tracks again and also used the shovel to clear the snow off the car.

As I mentioned I bought the snow shovel in B&Q earlier in the year, I can't remember how much I paid but it was significantly less that a branded snow shovel from an outdoors retailer. It's currently priced at £10.98 which has to be a good price.


Handle Collapsed.


Handle Extended

The shovel weighs 530g, extended it measures 755mm from the edge of the blade to the grip, with the shaft simply retracted which is how I carry it on my rucksack it measures 580mm and with the shaft pushed right down to the edge of the blade it measures 420mm (see pic in link above), of course you can just remove the shaft completely. The blade is 225mm wide at the edge, 310mm from edge to grip and is about 60mm deep at about the middle of the bucket.