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| Terra
Intermediate Member
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Never-Never Land, B.C.
Canada
720 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2004 : 2:56 PM
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With winter soon creeping down upon us I thought I would share this with any hikers/snowshoers/backcountry skiers who have never overnight backpacked in the winter but are considering it this season.
Last night I was reading through a Canadian Geographics magazine insert titled, "Travel & Adventure." Within those pages I came across the feature called, Shelter From the Storm. The article illustates and describes step by step instructions on how to build 3 snow shelters. These shelters are: the quinzhee, the snow cave, and the trench shelter.
As I have never built a snow shelter - other than snow forts as a kid - I'm only assuming these instructions are accurate. From my perspective I think they look safe and manageable. Good fortune would have it that when I checked CG's website they are also sharing this article online for free. So, here is the link for anyone who wants to check it out: http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/wtg_2005/storm.asp
If anyone with experience would like to add some safety tips that may have been overlooked it would be appreciated; thanks! 
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"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."
~~Albert Camus~~ |
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 Manitoba's misadventurin' bushwhackin', dog sloggin', dehydratin', beer drinkin' biggie - who's eager to peak bag Mt Currie in a dress
Squamish
5037 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2004 : 3:51 PM
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Looks good, Terra, thanks for posting. I also have no experience building snow shelters, but hopefully this year will get some practical experience.
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map hatin', coffee perc totin', garbage collectin', backpacking, action hero wannabe, who loves to hide out in Garibaldi park and will have his scouts sing if you keep him awake at night
2462 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2004 : 4:17 PM
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hi terra,
thanks for the link. i've slept in all three and have built them all as well.
speaking from experience the quinzhee and snowcave are quite a bit of work. in an emergency sitution when you need shelter fast this can be no good. you also sweat quite a bit when making one and since getting wet is a no-no, well you see where i'm going.
if you need an emergency shelter i'd recommend the trench. by far the fastest and easiest to build as well as being quite warm, snow is an amazing insulator.
remember that an inch of insulation under you is better than 6 inches above you. if lining the floor of your shelter with boughs, try to go for a layer at least 2-3 feet deep. At 3 feet deep, by the time you spend the night sleeping on it, it'll be about 6inches deep.
all in all though sleeping in the snow is fun and a great experience to add to the winter camping adventure.
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"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them." --Eeyore |
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| Terra
Intermediate Member
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Never-Never Land, B.C.
Canada
720 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2004 : 8:20 PM
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Marc & Blackfly, you are both welcome.
Like you BF, I'm hoping to get out this season and try my hand at building a shelter or two.
Seeing as you are a Scout leader Marc, you've likely constructed each of these styles more than once, so I value your input. I figured the trench would be the easiest and fastest, since you don't have to wait three hours for the snow to set, unlike the quinzhee. I do have to admit I'd really like to try building the quinzhee even though it is obviously very time consuming. I'm under the impression one would need a change of clothes specifically for creating their snow shelter. Seems like a valid excuse for buying a larger backpack!!
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"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."
~~Albert Camus~~ |
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Surrey, BC
Canada
423 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2004 : 8:52 PM
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Just curious, in a pinch, how long would it take to build a snow cave?
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Not all who wander are lost... |
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Bowen Island, BC
Canada
614 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2004 : 9:30 PM
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I think that building snow structures is part of the fun of playing with all the white stuff that piles up on our mountains -- and knowing how to do it quickly can be a life-saving skill.
A few years ago a group of us were benighted 35 km from the end of the road in the Chilcotin. We were heading for a cabin, so we didn't have tents or cooking equipment. (We did have tons of food.) So we built a snow cave, almost exactly like the one described in the article.
Inside the snow cave.
At 6:30 PM we were cold and lost. By 10:30 PM we were inside, fed and feeling much better. Oh, with the morning daylight we found the cabin in less than 15 minutes.
Sometime during each of the recent winters my daughters and their teenage friends ask me to take my igloo-making tool and we all go and make an igloo. Its is work, but it is fun.
This is the largest we've built. It has an inside diameter of 11 feet. We stamped a firm foundation in the snow beneath the walls and then dug the entrance tunnel below that foundation. My daughter is standing in the stairwell to the entrance tunnel. Because of the catenary profile, the igloo is strong and stable. It remained standing for more than a couple of months -- until it began to melt.
These igloos work so well that I'd like to construct some in backcountry ski locations so that I can visit without a tent and have lots of indoor space. So far, we've just made them for fun. |
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map hatin', coffee perc totin', garbage collectin', backpacking, action hero wannabe, who loves to hide out in Garibaldi park and will have his scouts sing if you keep him awake at night
2462 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2004 : 9:50 PM
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How long does it take? Hmm for a quinzhee big enough for say 3 people. Including the time it takes to set, about 6 full hours. that's if all 3 are working on it.
The snowcave is quicker takes maybe 2 hours or less. Depending on conditions and where you're building it.
The trench can take ahout 15 mins. to as long as an hour depending on refinements. The trench as they describe on the website is much harder to build than what I've used. Basically, just marking out a length of ground big enough for me. Digging down a few feet and insulating the bottom. Cover the top with a few logs, branches or whatever else I can find. Pack snow on top and voila! It's a little "rustic" but it works. The main thing is, it's quick, requires little effort and will provide all the shelter you need.
Remember to always leave an air hole at the rear of the shelter. A flow of air through the shelter is very important. You don't want to wake up dead after all.
Couple of tricks for you.
When building the quinzhee, cutting a bunch of sticks and then sinking them randomly throughout the mound of snow you're about to hollow out, makes it more stable and much more noticeable. With all the sticks, sticking out we used to call them hedgehogs. Also insured that no one would walk/ski over them when the melt came and the ceilings were no longer stable.
Make sure you allow a nice arch to the inside walls. Water will run down that way instead of drip. If you stick a lit stove inside for a few minutes, it will melt then refreeze the inside. Allowing it to "glaze" will also help with drips.
The inside of these shelters, tends to be about 10-15 degrees warmer than outside.
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"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them." --Eeyore |
Edited by - Marc on 11/14/2004 9:57 PM |
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vancouver, bc
Canada
186 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2004 : 10:16 PM
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Thanks Terra, Good topic.
Congratulations Howesound. That igloo looks fantastic, and at 11 feet across it's a good size as well.
I've built igloos on Lake Manitoba and in the Artic, but I've never succeeded in building one in BC in the coastal area. I started one on Black Mtn last winter but I found the snow unsuitable. It was too wet and icy. I guess there are places where the snow is okay for making suitable blocks. Your igloo, Howesound, is proof of that. I guess I'll go looking for the right snow this year. I'd love to build one again
I've also built snow caves and quinzhees. One word of caution about snow caves. One cave we slept in the ceiling sagged during the night. We woke up with the ceiling 12 inches above us. The ceiling was unyeilding and we had a hard time crawling out. Then we attacked it with shovells to get all of our stuff out. We had left too much snow in the ceiling of the cave. The warmth of our breath had softened the snow and the weight of the snow itself caused it to sag downwards and freeze in place during the night.
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Bowen Island, BC
Canada
614 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2004 : 11:20 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by tuktu
I've built igloos on Lake Manitoba and in the Artic, but I've never succeeded in building one in BC in the coastal area. I started one on Black Mtn last winter but I found the snow unsuitable. It was too wet and icy. I guess there are places where the snow is okay for making suitable blocks. Your igloo, Howesound, is proof of that. I guess I'll go looking for the right snow this year. I'd love to build one again
Hi Tuktu. We didn't build those igloos using the traditional method of cutting blocks.
I mentioned that we used my igloo-making tool. It is a gadget called the Icebox. You can read about it here: http://www.grandshelters.com/.
Our wet west coast snow is actually the easiest to use to make the igloo; but I've made one with snow that was shallow, very cold, and had turned into granular 'sugar' snow (in Vernon at Christmas).
I called the device a tool because it requires some skill to manage it and the snow -- but almost all snow is suitable.
All snow structures sag. In the days after we left our Chilcotin bivouac we could see how quickly the roof of our cave descended into our refuge -- we would pass it as we went skiing. The catenary shape of the Icebox keeps our igloos from collapsing. |
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Kootenay Bud
2695 Posts |
Posted - 11/15/2004 : 08:38 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Marc
How long does it take? Hmm for a quinzhee big enough for say 3 people. Including the time it takes to set, about 6 full hours. that's if all 3 are working on it.
Not to be nit-picky, but that's a bit of an overstatement isn't it? It's certainly never taken me longer than about 2 hours for that size quinzhee, including digging a tunnel to enter. |
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opinionated-stove huggin'-fleece wearin'-arse burnin' hill virgin
Here
Canada
4641 Posts |
Posted - 11/15/2004 : 09:20 AM
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Six hours does sound like a long time but, perhaps he's including time to let the snow settle and harden as well. It took my crew three hours to dig a decent size snow cave and we could have let it settle for an hour or two.
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"My name is Hiker Boy and I approved this message" |
Edited by - Hiker Boy on 11/15/2004 09:27 AM |
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map hatin', coffee perc totin', garbage collectin', backpacking, action hero wannabe, who loves to hide out in Garibaldi park and will have his scouts sing if you keep him awake at night
2462 Posts |
Posted - 11/15/2004 : 09:22 AM
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quote:
Not to be nit-picky, but that's a bit of an overstatement isn't it? It's certainly never taken me longer than about 2 hours for that size quinzhee, including digging a tunnel to enter.
Like I said that included the time to allow the snow to set, about 3 hours for that to happen. Also factoring in the time to find/cut branches, and building it in such a way not to sweat too much. Depending on snow conditions I don't think my estimates are too far off.
You can build them faster, and I have. I've found that you really don't need to wait all that long for it to set up. By the time I've dug down to the ground, then repiled all the snow, I usually start hollowing it out right then. I've found best case scenario, working alone or with one other it still takes about 3hours though.
With the times I outlined it's a structure big enough for 3 plus gear and like I said the times were purely estimates.
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"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them." --Eeyore |
Edited by - Marc on 11/15/2004 09:55 AM |
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398 Posts |
Posted - 11/15/2004 : 10:18 AM
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Howesound,
OMG! That IceBox Igloo builder tool looks like great fun and practical for some scenarios. |
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vancouver, bc
Canada
186 Posts |
Posted - 11/16/2004 : 10:54 PM
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| Howesound, that Igloo Builder is quite amazing. Really ingenious to invent such a tool. Looks like lots of fun. |
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106 Posts |
Posted - 01/01/2005 : 04:51 AM
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I have built these shelters and it always amazes me how the time it takes to build a shelter seams to grow exponentially in relation to how many people must sleep in the shelter. As for snow caves. I learned that if you look at the enterance hole as a large T as opposed to a round hole, a two person cave can easily be dug in under an hour. As you start digging, visualize the floor to be at hip level. Dig in and one side out first, rebuild the wall then dig out the other side. Remember to have a large block to bridge the opening. I find that I can go about 5 feet on each side. The T shaped hole allows one to rough out the cave much faster and with much less effort.
P.S. Do not forget air holes, and mark your site well if there are ski or snowmobile trails nearby |
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Maple Ridge, BC
Canada
146 Posts |
Posted - 01/01/2005 : 09:53 AM
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| Great topic and lot's of good advice from everyone! I've dug a few caves and the only thing I can add is that when digging a snow cave, excavate the inside taller than you figure you will need it as the body heat inside will melt/consilidate the snow on the ceiling and you will lose height overnight. We did a training excercise up on Mt. Baker on Ptarmigan Ridge a few years ago and some people found this out the hard way, waking up at 3AM with their ceiling 12" from their face, luckily we had a tent with us and that was set up as a back-up! Warmth inside is great, this trip it was -10C outside and minus 1C inside. As for time, about 3 hours for a cave for 3 people, and as some one mentioned earlier, don't forget the airholes! It's also a good idea to place a marker (wand or avy-probe) on the top of it so no-one walks on your ceiling and also enables it to be found in case of a big dump overnight. SJ |
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opinionated-stove huggin'-fleece wearin'-arse burnin' hill virgin
Here
Canada
4641 Posts |
Posted - 01/01/2005 : 10:28 AM
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hmmm, sounds distinctly like my story. I can't remember you being on my trip.  
http://www.clubtread.com/sforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=81
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"My name is Hiker Boy and I approved this message" |
Edited by - Hiker Boy on 01/01/2005 10:34 AM |
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Bowen Island, BC
Canada
614 Posts |
Posted - 01/01/2005 : 10:36 AM
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| I am being petitioned to participate in building an igloo tomorrow on Hollyburn (not far from the Lodge below the XC area). If members of CT are nearby and want to see what we are doing, send me a personal email and I'll tell you the location. Put 'Hollyburn Igloo' in the email subject. Or navigate to my web site and phone me. I expect to be in tonight. |
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Maple Ridge, BC
Canada
146 Posts |
Posted - 01/01/2005 : 11:00 AM
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quote:
We followed a trail previously broken by a mountain rescue group which were also camping overnight.
Hey Hikerboy! Judging by your TR and dates, we were that rescue group that you refer to, and I agree on the avalanche hazard the second day, that's why we gave up our original plan of spending the day doing avalanche rescue practice up there and bugged out (25cm of new snow and slopes of 25 degrees or more). Sure glad we placed wands the day before! It was an incredible weekend all the same. SJ |
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Topic |
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Quinzhee, Snow Cave, & Trench Shelter
