On Sun, 04 Dec 2005 04:13:23 GMT, Ecnerwal
wrote:

I don't think there is such an animal as an aluminum shovel that's not
too heavy which won't eventually fatigue crack in use.

Best I've seen were titanium. Better wear resistance on the front edge
than aluminium too. Now these were on a German airbase, but Ti scrap is
cheap enough these days you can find it all over the place.