MSR Basecamp Snow Shelter Saw

SPEED Get the right tool for building snow shelters: This aluminum blade unlocks and unfolds to create a 22-inch-long rainbow arc. What’s with the curvature? More teeth are in contact with the surface, allowing you to saw through more snow with less downward force than with a straight tool. The teeth are T-shaped, too, so they slice in both directions. “I could cut blocks twice as quickly as with standard saws,” our tester reports. “I sliced through a 6-foot snow pit wall in seconds.”

COOL FEATURE An oval hole in the blade catches snow, dumping it out of the slice path with each pull stroke.

DURABILITY Made of thicker aluminum than most saws (7075 grade), this blade never bent in our testing.

$90; 11 oz.; cascadedesigns.com/msr