>>266320No. No, they're not.
I have one I use for flinging dog shit out of the parking lot, and digging things out of the dirt in the summer. Other than that, I'll rather use a real snow shovel in the snow.
An avalanche shovel, while expensive, are about the best (most durable, most compact) shovels available for your needs. Keep an eye on craigslist/ebay for guys upgrading. Next few months when people start dumping their snow gear is a good time to look.
A cheap ($20-30) grain shovel works really well for moving snow, but they're a little bigger than an avy shovel. Should be easy to find one of those in your neck of the woods.
I strongly suggest an aluminum blade over lexan, lexan sucks for chemical (like gasoline) resistance and has a nasty tendency of cracking in the cold. In a survival situation, the aluminum shovel can be used to melt snow for water over a fire. Plastic just burns.
Pic extremely related.
