I own several avalanche shovels and the Evac 7 is my favorite. It's sturdy and big enough, both the blade (designed for moving snow) and the length, that it also makes a good vehicle emergency shovel.
Can you get the plow guy to push the snow from the road right onto the sidewalk? That should be more realistic for debris practice than fresh snow.Evac7 arrived and it’s a really nice shovel. Very sturdy, easy to put together and take apart, and fits in the pack nicely. Now to break the bad news to the teen that he gets to practice by shovelling the sidewalk all winter…
not to worry, just still in the bag for backpack testing purposes and to make it easier to get the wrapping paper around it for his birthday! The pack has a full sleeve so no need for anything at all to hold it in place, fortunately. He will also be getting good instruction and practice Jan-March with it all and expert advice from someone much cooler and more experienced than his mother@Mel , I am a beginner backcountry skier, so others can correct me if they feel different, but I put my probe in my pack without the storage sack it came in.
I always have it in bag that it came with. But in my case bag is open on top and probe is actually some 5cm out of bag this way, so I can easily grab it with backpack full packed and with thickest gloves I ski with. Without that bag, I would say in my case it would be worse and harder to get it out. But these things depend on what kind of bag for probe you have, how your backpack is done and also what kind of gloves you are skiing with. I believe it would be much harder to handle that with thick gloves with no fingers (sorry no idea how that should be called, but I guess you know what I mean), but I don't ski with that. So I would say it's no strict rule with that, but quite personal preference. But either way, you should be able to get whole avi equipment out of backpack and have it ready as fast as possible and without removing extra stuff, either clothes or stuff you have in backpack.@Mel I am a beginner backcountry skier, so others can correct me if they feel different, but I put my probe in my pack without the storage sack it came in.
Guides I have asked, agree with that.
I did that after watching a helmet cam video of a real avalanche burial, where the rescuer had to take off his gloves to get his probe out, and then his hands where freezing by the time they reached the victim.
If the pack doesn’t have a full sleeve, but only some loops, I sometimes keep the probe together with a thick hair tie (that can just be pushed off with mittens on).
There was a discussion on probe diameter somewhere year or so ago. Was it here on ski talk?
Anyway, the gist of it was that:
So, if you can find the diameter of the probe, that would be worth considering,
- thicker (larger diameter) probes are stiffer
- stiffer probes are better, because in a real rescue, stressed out, you might be ramming it in, not gently handling it.
- longer probes tend to be larger diameter.
Other than that, most modern probes have decent tips, and the tightening mechanisms seem pretty good too.
Markings vary in ease of readability, so that is worth a look too.
edit: here is that thread https://www.SkiTalk.com/threads/avy-safety-probe-lengths.18458/#post-531725
Comparing avalanche probes: What to look out for | ORTOVOX
Advice for buying avalanche probes: These are the functions that make a difference in a high-quality avalanche probe. Find the probe that’s right for you!www.ortovox.com
In that spreadsheet Ortovox lists not only total length, but also collapsed lenght. you can see that the longer probes also have longer collapsed lengths.