The Alugator Light is Mammut’s lightweight, compact avalanche shovel, with a good balance of strength and light weight. The blade is anodized aluminum with a sharpened, tilt-resistant edge and built-in steps, and attachment holes make it faster to build a snow anchor or rescue sled. The oval telescopic shaft assembles quickly with an automatic spring lock, and the symmetrical T-grip puts your effort into the dig. The space-saving blade fits into small backpacks, and it’s UIAA certified.
SPECS
- Certified to the UIAA 156 avalanche shovel standard
- Hardened, anodized aluminum blade
- Oval telescopic shaft with automatic spring lock
- Symmetrical T-grip
- Space-saving blade design with stabilization ribs
- Sharpened, tilt-resistant blade with integrated steps
- Straight blade back for cutting snow profiles
- Attachment holes for snow anchor and rescue sled
- Blade: 21 cm wide, 24 cm long
- Shaft length (collapsed): 37 cm
- Collapsed length: 54 cm
- Extended length: 75 cm
- Weight: 475 g
BUYERS’ GUIDE
This is a good pick for day tours and overnights, when you want a shovel that disappears in your pack. At 475 g it’s light, and it fits in small packs and shovel pockets. Owners like how quickly it goes together and how little space it takes. The tradeoff is the blade. It’s compact at 21 x 24 cm, so it moves less snow per scoop than a big digging shovel, and some owners find it small. Others like it for hard snow and for digging efficiently with less strength. A few owners mention the handle has a little wiggle, and that the button can be stiff to press in very cold weather, so practise assembling it with gloves on. If you want to save more weight, the Mammut Alugator Ultra is 80 g lighter. If you want a bigger blade, look at the Ortovox Shovel Beast. Whatever you carry, practise digging, and keep it with a beacon and probe you know how to use.
