Igloo 101

“The weekend after FYAO in February, my venture Crew is looking to the Catskills or the Dacks to build Igloos. Does any one have any expertice they could offer in this field, or books and good websitse? Thanks”

“I found some descent sites on google, but I want the TT opinion”

“yeeeeh some one posted on my thread.....damn its just me”

“youse sposed to dig a tunnel...not build a friggin igloo”

“Ask an Eskimo, duh.”

“Here's a great link with a few options:

http://wmuma.com/tracker/skills/shelter/snow/index.html”

“You will have some problems with snow consistency in the East Coast.

Better to build a snow cave.
Build a pile of snow. shove 12 inch sticks in at various places.
Wait an hour, dig out until you get to the ends of the 12 inch sticks. Pull a couple of the sticks out for air holes.”

“In my younger days packing buckets with snow and using the blocks to build was fairly reliable....”

“I've always wanted one of these" Grand Shelters ”

“They work well (The Grand Shelters) They take about as much time to build as a cave or Quinzee and seem to last longer. Igloos can be a real pain to build normally, especially is the snow isn't just right.

We usually build one for our Winterfest gatherings in Lassen...

Picture1
Picture2”

“Tea, my Troop used to do 2 or 3 winter snow-shelter building campouts a year here in the Sierra. As experiments, we've built just about every possible type of shelter imaginable. Universally, both adults and youth members agree the Quinzee is the preferred shelter. Easier to build, lasts longer, more reliable in different situations when you have different snow-types and amounts, etc.

You should have someone OKPIK certified with you when you do this, safety is a very important aspect of winter camping / snow shelters, as I'm sure you know.

Most important of all....Have Fun!”

“BT: You should decide what type of shelter to build depending on the snow consistency. If blocks can be made, I think a trench with a tilt together peaked roof is the fastest. I can build one of those in 30 minutes, but newbies take a few hours.

If the snow won't form blocks, the quinzees work well, or if there is low snow depth.

To make igloos, you need good to great block making snow. You need plenty of time, and some strong people with good water proof equipment. A great book is Allen and Mikes excellent ski book, with instruction on all types of shelters.

For an igloo, you need two or three people per igloo, and you need to set a stop time, after which you have to make people give up on the igloo, and fall back to some other kind of shelter.

The footprint of the igloo should be a lot smaller than you think it should be. Every inch of added diameter means that you have a lot more work to do. Every turn of blocks should tilt in a lot more than you think should and at a greater angle than the previous layer. If not, the structure becomes a cone, and people aren't tall enough to finish the tip. With large blocks, in three layers of blocks the blocks are basically horizontal, so each layer really has to tilt in.

If you can cut large solid blocks, like 24" x 36" x 6", you might have a good chance with an igloo. If all you can make is small blocks, (depending on snow) don't expend your people's energy on igloos.

To make blocks, tramp down a large area with skiis or snowshoes, let it set UNDISTURBED for an hour, and then try cutting blocks from a pit with one smooth and vertical side.

Most important, camp next to a hot spring - oh I forgot, you don't live in Idaho, so nevermind.

Have fun!”

“What Idaho Bob said.

Plus, his post reminded me that we should suggest that you think about your objectives. If they're just to build snow-shelters & have some fun in the process, great. However, if you're depending upon them for serious shelter / protection from the elements, that might help you determine what type of shelter to construct.

What made me think of this was his mention of a trench shelter. We had one outing in particular where we had different groups build different types of shelters, they had to sleep in them and monitor temperature at night and again in the morning.

One of the benefits of a Quinzee is that it provides substantial insulating ability. Depending upon the structure and materials, other types of shelters may not. On our trip, we had one group dig / build a trench, they used a 12' X 12' tarp to build the overhead, which, of course, provided NO insulation whatsoever. I forget the actual temp readings, but those poor guys slept essentially in the outdoors, as the tarp provided them no insulation at all. Everyone sleeping in Quinzees, however, were toasty warm, and when we compared the temp measurements in the A.M., all were amazed at the insulating ability that snow has. (that's why you have to smooth out your ceiling, it will become so warm in a quinzee from body heat that you will begin to see snow melting, and therefore, water dripping on you if you haven't done it prpoperly!).

Go to the Princeton site, there's some great info here. This is probably the best "how-to" outdoors site on the web.

http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/index.shtml”

“those links are great. I like the quize the best so far. I think I will make one for freeze ur ass off. But the trip i am talking about is the weekend after FYAO where we are just planing on having fun in the snow all day.”

“The worst structure is a snow shelter with flat roof. I had a group who insisted on doing their own thing and made a four sided structure about vertical walls about 5 feet tall. Then they made a roof by laying limbs and branches on the top of the walls. On top of the branches they piled about 2 feet of snow. During the night, it got warm enough inside with 4 or five people in it that it rained, and the roof started to cave in. Most of them had to evaluate and sleep out in the open, ha!

Taking thermometers would be a good idea.

What I would like to figure out is how to make a snow trench warm inside when its really cold out. Usually there is not enough snow depth or construction time to build an air trap, and doors aren't very practical. So without a door, how can you keep it warm? Or, what kind of door can you build that is practical?”

“Use ur backpack or gear sled as a door.”

“Build a shelter before it snows!
LOL.”

“Idaho Bob...agree w you about flat roofs, we don't allow them for that very reason.

Guess I'm spoiled, where we go to build shelters there's anywhere from 10 to 30 feet of snow, so we have plenty of room to dig down. We build our sleeping area a foot or more higher than the entrance to the shelter so there's a cold well lower for cold air to settle below us. Don't have a solution to offer if you don't have that much snow, I guess using your sled as a door is the first thing that comes to mind.”

“Igloos? Cool!

"Crunchy on the outside; chewey on the inside."

(as the polar bears say)”

“For any kind of snow shelter, you'll need snow saws and shovels. Snow saws are easy to build, but you'll want to get started well before you need them. You can build them for around $6 each, with minimal equipment.”