Costco shovel shame on me

  I have owned a Voile shovel for more than 15 years, I always kinda grumbled about the weight but kept it in the pack just because it's what I had. Then last year my wife came home with a 3 pack (I think) of shovels from Costco, said we needed one for the car, and pickup just in case. They were darn lite, and didn't seem too bad to me, one left over so I decided it would be fine to carry. I have used it dozens of times, pits mostly, once to dig out a guys stuck car, nothing too demanding, what I would call lite work. Last week I was on a sled, got in a tight spot, and had to do a lot of digging in fairly crusted snow.  My Costco shovel snapped off at the neck of the blade, what's more it broke such that it would have been nearly unusable in a critical situation. It was a very sobering, had I been using that shovel in a rescue, I would have been next to useless. Fortunately I has my good ole Voile on the sled, got it out and finished the job. It was a stark comparison the lite flimsy Costco vs the tough as nails Voile. The moral of the story; friends don't let friends carry cheap China shovels! The life they save might be yours.  The Voile is back in the sack, and somehow it does not seem as heavy as it use too.  

 

Thanks for sharing, jtack. Good time and place to break it (and good on you to have a back-up, too).

I had a similar experience with those costco shovels. I was digging a pit and levering a bit of icy snow out of the bottom. I had applied a decent amount of force, but nothing near what I would expect to need to damage the shovel. It bent at the same place yours broke at. I instantly felt ashamed for carrying it as a rescue tool.

Phew! An inexpensive lesson. Wish I'd been there!

Crap, I carry a Pieps beacon AND a Costco shovel. I wonder how many other bad choices I have in my kit.