What I will say is that in heavy use over four expeditions to Icland's Vatnajokull ice cap, and one to Alaska's north shore in Winter 2007, this shovel has performed flawlessly. What does that mean?

It means that I can extend and retract the telescoping handle even while wearing heavy, clumsy mittens, by simply pressing in the release studs. Being able to do this without pulling off mitts to work in thinner liner gloves is one of the many details that make it irreplaceable. In low temperatures and short winter days, everything has to be "mitten-operable', or you'll end up fighting yourself. Ten seconds to take off your mitts + ten seconds to work the freezing metal studs with your thin liner gloves = hours to get your hands back by windmilling your arms and other time-wasting and calorie-burning efforts.

It means that the blade doesn't bend, no matter how I punish it by trying to power through even the hardest of frozen snow.

It means that it's lightweight and the question, "Can I just skip this, to save weight?" has never come up. You might as well ask me if I'll skip taking my stove...

It means that I call this the best piece of expedition gear I've ever owned, period. I won't go into snowy environments without it.

Life-Link donated an HMX to my Iceland expedition in 1999, and nearly a decade later it's still going strong -- and I wouldn't replace if for anything.

One tiny, minor point: add a big, wide wrist loop that you can get fat mitts through (as you see in the photo; I think it came with a wrist loop, but that was a little too small; make your own big enough so you don't have to spend a singe second squeezing your mitt through the loop.) The blade is big and while that's an asset when trying to move snow to make a bivvy cave or flatten out a camping site, high wind will carry this thing away if you're not careful.

Life-Link also has plastic models with a lifetime guarantee, but I just can't imagine using plastic when I'm dealing with -40F day after day, conditions in which everything seems to just fall apart (e.g. all the plastic around a thermos bottle, etc.)..and a lifetime guarantee doesn't do you much good if you don't make it back home to file a claim.

But I don't care about the plastic models because I'm going to use this thing till it folds, and I guess I'll do that before the HMX does.

I give the HMX two thumbs up for any snow-camping trip, anywhere, from the Sierras to the North Pole or Antarctica.