- Joined
- Jul 22, 2005
- Messages
- 4,360
Part of the Put up or Shut up campaign,
and MOTIVATION FOR YA'LL TO PARTICIPATE IN:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=700030&highlight=SHELTER+snow+contest
Jack Frost came again, and re-transformed my new abode into a winter wonderland. The locals say it hasn’t snowed this bad in 10 years, we must have brought it with us. The new house I live in is fantastic, but since I’ve moved in (less than a month now) with the new wife (mental note: Never introduce your wife as “your first wife”
, I have not been able to crash outside yet. With the 18 inches of snow freshly bedded down Friday night, I had the urge to go outside and “play”. I decided to try out snow cave construction skills. I have not built and slept in a Snow cave for about 10 years, yet I’ve learned a lot since then about the intricacies of the white crystalline boogers that pour from the sky.
The first step was piling up the snow. Luckily, I had the fortunate happenstance of a whole driveway full. So while I busily scraped the drive way, the better half though I was diligently working. Piling up snow, lightly packing, piling up again, I worked until I had a roughly 6 foot dome. I let the snow set up and sit for roughly 2 hours, then went to digging it out. Now I tried to plan where I wanted to enter properly, and about where the tip of the shelter would be. Tunneling like a rabbit, with a combination of combing the inside with my waterproof gloves, I hollowed out a shelter 6 feet wide and about 3 and ½ feet height. It is a large area to heat up but I wanted to be able to fit more than person in there. I packed snow on the ground of about a foot, and used the cold steel trail hawk (thanks Sergeant Josh!) to chisel out any ice that was on the ground. I poked three breathing holes about the diameter of a tennis ball, and one for the candle on the far side and the others for me. A dome shape with high walls is necessary to alleviate dripping while the snow melts, when you sleep. You are in a snow shelter already, You want to be as comfy as possible.
I brought a thermometer in with me. I used my Big Agnes pad, with a Advanced medical survival cloth (shiny side up) to reflect heat in, and cozied up in my 0 degree bag, on a snow platform a little higher than the rest of the front of the cave (to create a heat sink)
I brought a thermometer in with an alarm to get temperature readings at night. Inside the Snow cave, it stayed about 27 degrees at the points where I checked it, into to the coldest portions of the night. The temperature outside at the coldest portion of the night was 7 degrees F.
When the snow starts melting and I am finally done with Frankensteining it, I'll cut in in half so you can see the shelving and setup.
Things I learned:
It is almost impossible to photograph the inside of a snow shelter correctly, especially with all your gear in it.
Don’t let dogs inside it if you have a choice. They like to modify the architecture.
You will get wet.
I want this
http://www.amazon.com/How-Build-Igloo-Other-Shelters/dp/0393732150/ref=pd_sim_sg_3
And this
http://www.grandshelters.com/icebox-igloo.html
We will be getting more snow in this week. I hope to experiment with small elevated cooking fires in the shelter to see how the smoke rises.
Opening. You are looking at the small potion that gradually builds up.
First wall
Rough outline.
Halfway dug
Up in the morning, with a WONDERFUL gift from a friend.
PS: It gets internet too!
and MOTIVATION FOR YA'LL TO PARTICIPATE IN:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=700030&highlight=SHELTER+snow+contest
Jack Frost came again, and re-transformed my new abode into a winter wonderland. The locals say it hasn’t snowed this bad in 10 years, we must have brought it with us. The new house I live in is fantastic, but since I’ve moved in (less than a month now) with the new wife (mental note: Never introduce your wife as “your first wife”
, I have not been able to crash outside yet. With the 18 inches of snow freshly bedded down Friday night, I had the urge to go outside and “play”. I decided to try out snow cave construction skills. I have not built and slept in a Snow cave for about 10 years, yet I’ve learned a lot since then about the intricacies of the white crystalline boogers that pour from the sky.The first step was piling up the snow. Luckily, I had the fortunate happenstance of a whole driveway full. So while I busily scraped the drive way, the better half though I was diligently working. Piling up snow, lightly packing, piling up again, I worked until I had a roughly 6 foot dome. I let the snow set up and sit for roughly 2 hours, then went to digging it out. Now I tried to plan where I wanted to enter properly, and about where the tip of the shelter would be. Tunneling like a rabbit, with a combination of combing the inside with my waterproof gloves, I hollowed out a shelter 6 feet wide and about 3 and ½ feet height. It is a large area to heat up but I wanted to be able to fit more than person in there. I packed snow on the ground of about a foot, and used the cold steel trail hawk (thanks Sergeant Josh!) to chisel out any ice that was on the ground. I poked three breathing holes about the diameter of a tennis ball, and one for the candle on the far side and the others for me. A dome shape with high walls is necessary to alleviate dripping while the snow melts, when you sleep. You are in a snow shelter already, You want to be as comfy as possible.
I brought a thermometer in with me. I used my Big Agnes pad, with a Advanced medical survival cloth (shiny side up) to reflect heat in, and cozied up in my 0 degree bag, on a snow platform a little higher than the rest of the front of the cave (to create a heat sink)
I brought a thermometer in with an alarm to get temperature readings at night. Inside the Snow cave, it stayed about 27 degrees at the points where I checked it, into to the coldest portions of the night. The temperature outside at the coldest portion of the night was 7 degrees F.
When the snow starts melting and I am finally done with Frankensteining it, I'll cut in in half so you can see the shelving and setup.
Things I learned:
It is almost impossible to photograph the inside of a snow shelter correctly, especially with all your gear in it.
Don’t let dogs inside it if you have a choice. They like to modify the architecture.
You will get wet.
I want this
http://www.amazon.com/How-Build-Igloo-Other-Shelters/dp/0393732150/ref=pd_sim_sg_3
And this
http://www.grandshelters.com/icebox-igloo.html
We will be getting more snow in this week. I hope to experiment with small elevated cooking fires in the shelter to see how the smoke rises.
Opening. You are looking at the small potion that gradually builds up.
First wall
Rough outline.
Halfway dug
Up in the morning, with a WONDERFUL gift from a friend.
PS: It gets internet too!
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