Ortovox Pro Alu III Shovel - Review
Lightweight, rigid, compact and functional are all words that are sure to pique the interest of any backcountry skier. The Ortovox Pro Alu III shovel should as well, as it is all of those key attributes, and more. The latest version of Ortovox’s classic aluminum shovel, it is refined and re-designed for 2013. The Alu III (the third revision of their aluminum shovel) is the successor to the Alu II, the claimed “best selling avalanche shovel in the world”.
It goes without saying that the avalanche shovel is an extremely important piece of safety gear when venturing out of bounds. In the event of an avalanche, digging out a buried body is of paramount importance. In addition, it is almost always the most time consuming aspect of a rescue, and the most physical. The strength, weight, size, and ergonomics of your shovel is very important. Recognizing this, Ortovox has put in a great deal of effort engineering and design to optimize their shovels with these factors in mind.
It goes big, it goes small, it shovels and it even hoes!