it depends on the kind of snow. for plain old fluffy stuff, i like a bigger shovel -- the bright orange scoop shovels with oversized plastic shaft that they've been selling at supermarkets are good for that. for angry icy slushy heart attack snow, something like a coal shovel is good because you don't need to move a huge amount of the stuff at a time (because otherwise it would kill you) and it does well doubling as an ice chopper.