5 Best Leave No Trace Trowels for Backpacking and Camping
Using a Leave No Trace trowel is one of the most responsible things you can do to preserve the backcountry for others to enjoy. While there’s nothing quite as satisfying as having a good bowel movement outdoors in the crisp morning air, surrounded by white-capped mountains and wild flowers, it’s important to leave no trace of your “passage.” In order to preserve that wilderness feeling for others, you should bury your poo, so it can biodegrade properly and not become an eyesore.
But many Leave No Trace trowels sold today are too flimsy for backcountry use. That’s why this list of trowels includes many metal ones, which are durable and can dig through tough ground filled with rocks and roots.
BEST LEAVE NO TRACE TROWELS
1. The TentLab Dirtsaw Deuce #2 Trowel
FEATURES: Featherweight aluminum is durable and long-lasting. Available in multiple bright colors so you won’t lose it. The Lanyard hole lets you clip it into your backpack. Sharp and tough enough to cut through roots and lever out stones.
BEST FOR: Ultralight Backpacking
The Dirtsaw Duece #2 (clever name) has wide and smooth teeth designed to agitate and cut dirt like a serrated knife. Its teeth are protected so they can stay sharp and are far enough away from the front edge that they don’t threaten your hand when using the trowel upside down. This 6.8″ tool can be held at either end, depending on whether you need to dig with the narrow end or scoop with the wide end.
2. Vargo Titanium Dig Dig Trowel
FEATURES: Serrated end for cutting through roots with a comfortable, rolled-edge handle. Can serve double duty as a sand, snow, or tent stake. Has a lanyard hole so you can clip it to your backpack.
BEST FOR: Backpackers who need to dig through thick roots or rocky ground and need a durable trowel with a serrated cutting edge.
The Vargo Titanium Dig Dig Tool is a multi-purpose titanium trowel designed by Brian Vargo, a backpacker and titanium manufacturing specialist who’s probably designed more titanium backpacking gear than anyone else on the planet. While heavier than the other titanium trowels listed above, the Dig Dig is by far the easiest to use as a tent stake or snow anchor, a dual-use benefit that is seldom realized by other Leave No Trace trowels.
3. Bogler Ultralight Trowel
FEATURES: High-grade aluminum trowel with a thin serrated edge that cuts cleanly through turf and small roots.
BEST FOR: Backpackers who want a very lightweight trowel.
The Bogler Company Ultralight Trowel
4. QiWiz Big Dig Trowel
FEATURES: Brightly colored so you can’t lose it with a sharp end that’s capable of cutting through roots, chopping through packed mud, and levering out stones. A full 7.25″ long, you can easily dig a cathole that’s the requisite 6″ deep and verify its depth using the trowel. An added lanyard hole makes it easy to clip to your backpack. The painted handle is not sharp and easy to hold.
BEST FOR: UL Backpackers who want a hand-fabricated titanium trowel made by a one-person cottage gear company in the USA.
The QiWiz Big Dig (pronounced “chee-wiz”) is a handmade titanium trowel made by Leave No Trace Master Educator, Rob Kelly. Considered the “Yoda of trowels”, Rob, who’s trail name is QiWiz, is passionate about teaching people how to minimize their impact when backpacking and camping. A chronic tinkerer, Rob made a titanium trowel for himself out of scrap metal for his personal use. When other hikers saw it on the trail, they offered to buy one from him and now he’s sold hundreds to backpackers and thru-hikers. Super hard and durable, but ultralight, the titanium Big Dig will last a lifetime and can serve double duty as a tent-stake.
MORE: QiWiz sells two other handmade titanium trowels. The “Original” weighs less than 0.4 oz and is 6″ long and the MEGA DIG which weighs just under 1 oz and is 8.25″ long.
5. GSI OutDoors Cathole Sanitation Trowel
FEATURES: Serrated edge helps cut through vegetation. Measurements on blade help measure cathole depth. Lanyard on handle lets you clip it to your backpack.
BEST FOR: Budget oriented backpacker that digs catholes in less challenging soil conditions.
The GSI Outdoors Cathole Sanitation Trowel is one of the most popular and least expensive backpacking trowels sold today and often used by Leave No Trace educators when teaching LNT awareness sessions. It’s made from recycled plastic, making it strong enough for the less demanding soil conditions found in many designated campgrounds and recreation areas. A full 10.3″ long, it’s easier to dig with than shorter trowels, especially for children.
SELECTION CRITERIA
PRICE – Leave No Trace Trowels are not that expensive, but I provide a full range of options below if you want to save money and still get a good product.
WEIGHT – Owning a lightweight trowel increases the probability that you’ll bring it with you on your trips. Heavy trowels are a “pain in the ass.” Pun intended!
COLOR – Trowels should be brightly colored so you don’t lose them in wilderness settings. It’s easy to put down a trowel and lose it against a background of green or brown, but less so if it has a garish color that’s not normally found in nature.
MATERIAL – The material that a trowel is made from matters. If preserving the wilderness is your goal, it doesn’t make much sense to buy a product made from petrochemicals that won’t decompose if you throw it in a landfill.
DIGGING EDGE – A good Leave No Trace trowel needs to be able to dig through a variety of different soil types from ones with dense root networks to hard-packed soil and mud. Having a durable edge, capable of busting through tough soil conditions and levering out rocks is a must.
LENGTH – The recommended depth of a Leave No Trace cathole is 6-8″ deep. To dig that deep, you need a trowel that has a long enough handle and blade.
DURABILITY – A trowel is a critical piece of backcountry gear that should withstand years of harsh use, UV damage, and when you accidentally drive over it with your car.
MADE IN USA – Let’s face it: The United States is on the way to becoming a third-world country because we’ve off-shored our manufacturing base. If remaining the most powerful nation on earth is important to you, you’ll buy products made in the USA.
BUYING ONLINE – Check the seller’s return policy before you buy, but you can almost always return an unused trowel within a certain timeframe after purchasing. I recommend buying your top choice, testing it at home, and returning/exchanging it if it doesn’t feel quite right.
LEAVE NO TRACE – Learn more about leave no trace and wilderness ethics.
Disclosure: I have received some of the products listed above from manufacturers while purchasing others with my own money. I am a Leave No Trace Master Educator and teach Leave No Trace awareness classes.
SectionHiker never accepts payment for gear reviews or editorial coverage. When you buy through affiliate links on our site, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Help us continue to test and write unsponsored and independent gear reviews, hiking and backpacking FAQs, and free hiking guides.
I’m a big fan of the Sno-Stake trowel. Mine weighs 36 g with a wine cork and handlebar tape to make a better grip. The narrow blade is great for rocky soil. It also works as a tent stake in soft soil. Or snow.
https://observer.wunderwood.org/2010/06/22/ultralight-multi-use-potty-trowel/
SMC stopped making the Sno-Stake, but REI makes the same thing for $2.95.
https://www.rei.com/product/845328/rei-co-op-snow-stake
Does not cut through soil with roots, rocks, or deeply rooted grasses. You need a finer edge.
If you are “cutting through roots” as you suggest, you are in essence leaving a trace. I’ve yet to encounter a situation where the tip of a trekking pole, my hands, a stick and/or shoe heel would not be able to dig a 6 to 8″ deep and wide hole. The additional weight of a trowel is unnecessary and disturbing the vegetation by cutting roots does leave a trace.
You are the first person I’ve come across to bring up this point (cutting through roots to dig a cat hole is very much disturbing the vegetation) and it seems obvious to me there has to be a better way. Digging a cat hole in sandy, rootless soil is fine, but otherwise leaving it on top and covering and marking it with organic debris makes much more sense and is less disturbing. Why is this not talked about more?
I don’t believe it’s an issue but LNT is a system of ethics and its up to the individual to decide how strict you want to be about it. I sincerely doubt that damaging fine roots (since that’s all you could manage with a little trowel) is going to hurt the vegetation very much or kill off the shrubbery, grass, etc. Moreover, since its buried afterwards, it will not affect other’s spiritual wilderness experience – which in this case is what LNT cares about.
You can easily sharpen the aluminum snow stake with a steel file. That said, I’ve moved on to the Vargo you reviewed above.
The snow stake cuts through small roots without a problem. The advantage is that the digging end is narrow, so you put a lot more force on it compared to a wider trowel. The narrow tool also helps in going between rocks and in hard soil.
I guess I could file it to a sharper edge, but I don’t actually want sharp tools stuffed into my pack.
I sharpen the edge on my snow stake trowel and have yet to damage anything in my pack. The snow stake has not let me down, it works in hard packed, rocky soils that we have in the New York Hudson valley area.
Thanks for the review as I have been reconsidering my cathole digging model.
I purchased one of the first QiWiz trowels and it was light but it felt like I was gripping a razor blade. Perhaps if wrapped in some tape it would have been better. Then I switched to the Deuce of Spades (made in South Korea). It worked pretty well. I started my AT thru hike with this but after about 500 miles I was bent on sending home everything possible to simplify my hiking gear. At that point I used my hiking poles. Those worked well for much of the trip. And I think for much of the trip they worked as well as the Deuce of Spades. If the ground was firm, I gripped the pole or in some cases both of them down low for more leverage. … However by the time I got to Vermont, I think the ground got harder still and I wasn’t always able to dig a 6″+ hole. So I have on occasion been guilty of not digging deep enough which is not good. This is timely as I’ve been considering the Vargo (heavier but appears more heavy duty) and the Dutchware. I’m leaning towards the Dutchware as it’s made in the US and lighter than the Vargo.
I’ve had the Dutchware trowel for a couple of years and would somewhat disagree that the handle is comfortable. It’s not razor thin and painful, but it is thin enough to dig into my hand when using it. I’ve considered wrapping it to make it easier on the hand. It is, however, crazy light and pretty doggone strong.
Is it realllllly necessary to bury your crap in the woods? Animals crap in the woods. What’s the difference?
Waste of money for these items.
Animals do leave deposits in the woods but they don’t have feelings the way humans do. Being considerate of others is reason enough.
Animals that live in the woods, eat the food from the woods, so their poop is more inline with everything around. We and our domestic animals eat food from all over the world. Our (and our pets) poop should be considered an invasive species.
Also, animals spread their dung around, rather than concentrate it around trails and camps (Even with LNT, there’s only so much area 200 yards away from a camp).
Animal dung also tends not to spread disease to other hikers nearly as much as human feces does.
The badgers in our woods take time to bury theirs. Maybe their poo spreads disease like ours and they’ve learnt from that. Unburied a dog may eat it or someone may step in it as has happened to me before in a really out of the way place. Always bury it
Human feces may cary diseases that wild animals are not accustomed to. Humans also tend to concentrate their excrement in specific areas, increasing the chances of spreading disease.
I’ve been using a generic plastic trowel i’ve had for years. It’s not designated as a “leave no trace” tool, but somehow, the holes i’ve dug with it still seem to hold what they’re supposed to. Being somewhat lighter, i may look into one of the newfangled versions, though.
Considering one of the selection criteria: “Trowels should be brightly colored so you don’t lose them in wilderness settings. It’s easy to put down a trowel and lose it against a background of green or brown, but less so if it has a garish color that’s not normally found in nature.”
Sure enough. As with landscaping tools, if one thinks about it, for the the best conspicuity in the the widest range of seasons and environments, a bright blue is arguably the best color choice. Something like the pictured Deuce.
During the growing season, green is out for obvious reasons. Autumn leaves rule out yellow, red, and orange. Brown and black don’t draw enough attention. There aren’t many blue things that cover the ground anywhere.
I use the REI snow stake. Cheap and won’t break.
Snow stake works great. On sale now for $2.19. Bright color to find it in the leaf clutter. Plus, it can even be used in a pinch as a tent/tarp stake.
https://www.rei.com/product/845328/rei-co-op-snow-stake
As long as you don’t have to cut through roots to dig a hole.
Trowels simply don’t work most of the time…. There’s too many roots and rocks. In the mountains where people backpack.
If only we backpacked where there was nothing but topsoil with light grasses…… But anywhere there’s bushes and trees… there is pervasive roots that you’re not going to get through…… And then there’s the fact that moose mountains are heavily rock… Such that it’s hard to even get a tent stake in between cracks in it in the ground.
More often than not I resort to removing a partially buried rock, this leaves a hole. Fill the hole scrape some topsoil into it mix it up with some water added… Scrape some more topsoil over it and replace the rock.
They do if you get a metal trowel. The plastic ones just suck. We have a lot of experience digging holes in the Northeast with the rocky soil.
I confess to never carrying a trowel, opting instead to camouflaging “the result,” away from trafficked areas, with leaves, rocks, logs or whatever. Conceivably, the greater available oxygen under a couple of inches of leaves will break the stuff down quicker than if actually buried. In any event, after one good rainstorm, one very hungry coyote, or in a couple of weeks, it’s gone.
Mostly, I burn any used toilet paper on site, using due care and recognizing the potential fire hazard.
Im really surprised by the “I don’t bury waste” comments on this site and honestly somewhat disappointed…
I just got back from a backpacking trip in the Sawtooth Wildernes. No shortage of toilet paper sightings near camp sites and trails.
I really don’t want to see that and you should not be burning anything in the Western US right now. If you can’t bury your crap (or your dog’s) properly, go to Disneyland they have lots of bathrooms, fun rides, and mountain streams.
Yeah that really pisses me off. People are so clueless , tacky, lazy and classless.
It isn’t just about visuals. It’s about letting the microbes in the soulld brek it down faster, making it less attractive to other animals (and spreading disease) and minimizing the impact of rain runoff in water supplies.
“Currently, over one hundred protozoans, bacteria, and viruses have been identified in human wastes, including Giardia lamblia, Cryptosporidium parvum, various coliform bacteria, and viruses such as Hepatitis A. Proper disposal of human waste is important to avoid pollution of water sources, avoid the negative implications of someone else finding it, minimize the possibility of spreading disease and maximize the rate of decomposition.
In most locations, correctly burying human feces is the most effective method to meet these criteria.” – Leave No Trace lnt.org
Someone should invent a way to attach a light trowel head to the end of a hiking pole. The only problem for me is both my hiking poles serve as tent poles so I have to go after I break down my tent.
Wholeheartedly agree! Not burying your waste?…Unconscionable!
I’ve been using the Vargo, effective in the Adirondacks and Catskills. When digging get tough the handle is not all that smooth so I made a sheath for the business end, attached with some orange chord, slide off bottom and place on the handle. Made it from two pieces cut from a smaller plastic coffee container (Folgers) One piece include part of the bottom of the container, the second piece just from the side. Taped sides and bottom edge. Tape needs to be redone every now and then. Stores in the pack better that way and easier to use.
BTW- when checking a few of these at REI came across PACT shovel, wipes and tabs. Looks interesting. Have you seen this? Thoughts?
https://www.rei.com/b/pact-outdoors/c/all
I ordered the PACT system. The trowel is heavy duty and won’t kill your hand. I am going on a trip this weekend and will be able to try it out!
Let me know “how it comes out.”
Generally, I don’t use trees near where I’ve camped because I figure they have been abused enough. I’ll get on the trail, hike a ways, and then start looking for suitable places as unused as possible, away from areas that have heavy traffic.
Of course, there are times when the body says, “Now!”, in which case I try to find a tree as far away from the campsite as possible.
I mention trees because it’s usually possible to find relatively soft soil right next to the trunk, and there is something to lean on while “communing”.
I use a QiWiz Big Dig and it does its job well, cutting through roots and levering rocks out. I added a layer of blue plastic dip coating to the original yellow, both to make it more visible in the forest and to pad my hands a bit more.
My fave is made by lawson. Its a tad heavy but comfortable in hand and strong. Thought i would really like the vargo but the handle end is sharp and the serrated sides really not sharp like a real saw. Lawson not making them currently though. Really sharp saw edges might cut backpack material. Adding tape on handle or making a cover adds weight. A stiff sturdy Trowel is what is needed to really get that leverage, most light trowels are too flimsy. Have not tried the Deuce 2 yet.
I use the steel foldable U-Digit trowel which works great during the four seasons, is quite durable (20+ years) and can be used to move around glowing coals which would melt the plastic solutions listed. Also have used it to chip away at ice when necessary. There are likely other uses for it as well. Comes with a cordura sheath. Well worth the $6.99 CDN I paid many years ago.
It probably ought to be mentioned that scraping a small trench with a trowel is easier and just as effective than trying to “shovel” a hole.