Snow Shelter

S

siguy

Joined
Aug 26, 2006
Messages
3,799
this morning when i woke up, we had a couple of inches of fresh powdery snow on the ground, and i got an urge do to something semi-productive, so after i shoveled off the steps and the bottom of the driveway (our driveway is a hill, slippery to get up) i started on a snow shelter.

i started out doing a quinzee style, just a really big mound. then partway through making my mound i decided i wanted to try building a different kind of snow shelter that looked alot easier; basically a debris hut with snow instead of debris...so i built the lopsided tripod and started setting up for that, but realized that i didn't have any of the necessary smaller vegetation and pine boughs in my front yard (it would have been several long walks up into the woods out back) so i went back to the snow mound.

IMG_1428.jpg


i built it in the front yard with a full size snow shovel, since the grass meant that it would be easy to shovel.

i used my cold steel shovel and a kid-sized snow shovel i got at the local hardware to dig out the inside. i ended up making the shelter about 3 feet longer than i needed, just to be safe. so it was especially hard to hollow out the inside.

i ended up using one of our sleds once i got to about waist deep. i laid down on my belly in the sled and had my brother push me into the tunnel. i would scoop out some snow and wrap my arms around it and have my brother pull me and the snow out. lather, rinse, repeat. this took a while.

a note: i read once to start at the opposite side of the shelter. this way you can patch up the hole you make with sticks and snow, and keep the doorway small enough to not leak alot of heat. i did it this way, and actually ended up having the doorway bigger than the rear tunnel anyways, so i don't know if it is really necessary. i could see it being useful for larger, more igloo-like, shelters.

the walls ended up around 18" thick, thicker in most places.

IMG_1430.jpg


IMG_1433.jpg


if your monitor is well adjusted, you should just be able to make out my face inside the shelter :o
IMG_1435.jpg


the plan is to sleep out in it tonight, i will let you guys know how it works out! i'm going to be using a pad and sleeping bag, so it won't exactly be roughing it, but it should be nice anyways.

i wonder how late i will sleep... today when building it i had to shout as loud as i could (from the inside) so that my brother 4 feet away could just barely hear me. i suppose i won't be hearing any traffic or other noises, and pretty much all light will be blocked once i plug the doorway...
 
Way cool brother!!!
I've been waiting for an accumulation like that around here so I could something similar....
 
great work! hope you stay warm out there. still no snow here, but if by some miracle we do get some, i would definatly like to try somthing like that.
 
Halo, i will be leaving some ventilation around the door, and i pulled out a couple of my depth-gauge sticks to leave small openings.

thanks for the comments guys, i'm excited to try it out. i'll probably be heading out in an hour or two...i don't want to be lying around awake inside for too long.

this is definitely going to be nice...have some cocoa, slip into my jammies, brush my teeth, and step outside to sleep in my snow shelter. much more civilized than my usual winter camping routine...:D
 
Very cool, can't wait for tomorrow's report. Looks pretty cozy :thumbup:


This part is a hoot :D
siguy said:
i ended up using one of our sleds once i got to about waist deep. i laid down on my belly in the sled and had my brother push me into the tunnel. i would scoop out some snow and wrap my arms around it and have my brother pull me and the snow out. lather, rinse, repeat. this took a while.
Click to expand...
 
theonew said:
This part is a hoot
Click to expand...
i think it was probably even funnier to see, if anyone had been watching!

i went out at about 10:30 ish, i took two bottles of warm water with me.

the biggest issues:
-doorway is really small, hard to get into with bedding down on ground. i had to crawl in backwards on elbows and knees, and got snowy doing that.
-i didn't have a door, so the shelter basically just stopped the snowfall from the night from falling on me. it didn't trap any warmth
-i want a bivvy bag, to keep my sleep setup all together and to keep the snow off of my bag

it wasn't too bad, i was a bit chilly a couple of times, but nothing really noticeable. i ended up using my sleeping bag quilt-style, opened up as a blanket over me, with my feet in the sewn up foot pocket (the zipper stops about 15" from the bottom of the bag).

my feet were again my biggest issue with cold. they were pretty chilly. i think i'm going to try sewing up some extra thick fleece sacks to go around my feet, to try to trap more heat around them.

i woke up at 4 this morning, and decided to use the little boy's tree and make a door. i came inside to grab a trash bag to fill with snow (to use as a door) and my mom was already up, and i started chatting with her, and before i knew it i was wide awake without a hope of getting back to sleep.

so overall the shelter worked fine, but i think that if i had a door it would have worked really well. a larger doorway and something to keep the snow off of my bag would have made it just about perfect.

if i build another snow shelter in the future i want to try making it really big, so it can fit two people with room to sit up and move around some. something like a more long-term shelter.

in a survival situation, i would say that a snow shelter like this isn't worth building. it took me all day (on and off) to get it done, with about 3-4 hours of actual working time, part of which was with assistance. i could definitely see one of these for a longer-term primitive living jaunt in colder climates though, provided it was big enough.

[youtube]WirLTDWL_tg[/youtube]
 
Great report.

Isn't worth building? What was the outside temperatures and the temperature inside the shelter? Did you stay dry? I'd think it'd provide a shelter from convection (wind chill) at a minimum...

Anyhow, glad you tested it.
 
oi, dude... no offence but the first time i saw your pic i though u looked like a chick haha. I was thinking, why would a chick dig a random hole in the ground, thats more like something a guy would do.
 
halo, because i didn't use a door, the temp inside and out were the same. i suppose the snow probably acted to trap some of my radiant heat around me, but i am inclined to think that my sleeping bag probably had more to do with keeping me warm than the shelter.

as i slept in it, it protected me about as well as my poncho strung as a tarp, which goes up in about 3 minutes. had i done a door i think it would have been worth it.

but in terms of the most plausible survival situation for me (unexpected overnight on a dayhike) this sort of shelter doesn't really make sense. i would be up all night building it anyways. for something that is going to last a couple of days or longer, i think it would start to become a better alternative.

eccvets, i'm waiting for the day when i grow some chin hairs...:o:D
 
Hey Simon - Great review, bro. Thanks for sharing. I would love to get a good bit of snow here to try something like that out.

It looks pretty cozy. Are you going to let it stand and not destroy it? I'd be interested to see how long it stayed standing and at what temperature it started to lose it's structural integrity.
 
Hey Simon,

I think it is great that you went to all the effort to do this.

siguy said:
in a survival situation, i would say that a snow shelter like this isn't worth building.
Click to expand...

I have made these before when backcountry camping and woods bumming. They are generally bigger, but I realize your snow limitation. Many haul their packs inside, and use them to block the doorway. Also, create a slightly elevated sleeping platform for a cold trap. Those two things will greatly increase the temp inside.

But, it was always planned. I also know folks that teach this skill to others, and most have come to the exact same conclusion. Generally for the following reasons:

- Lots of time and lots of work.
- You almost need to plan for it clothes wise. You are working so much, you almost need to be dressed lightly so you don't sweat. You pretty much need your outer layer to be raingear, because of all the work with the snow, and the heat trapped inside while digging. Even if it is cold out, it will get warm enough inside to melt snow on you. When camping, it is not so easy just to go in and change clothes, so you have to have these "digging" clothes and pretty much change when you are done working. If that makes any sense.

Besides from that, they are super comfy cosy. In a survival situation, I would be more inclined to look for a natural feature and build upon that. Such as a large pine. Use snow to increase the insulation, etc. Much less work. Unless, for some reason, I really knew it was going to be an extended situation.


Great work, pictures and video :thumbup:

B
 
Last edited:
thanks for the comments guys...

myright, i intend to let it stand for as long as it will. if it is still sound next weekend i might try it again, with a door to see how much it helps.

Brian, that is a good point about the clothes. you can see in the photo of me standing next to the doorway that my pants are totally soaked through. that was from laying inside tunneling. unfortunately, i broke my tyvek rain pants, or else i would have worn those to keep me dry. my gloves were also wet and provided almost no insulation after about 20 minutes of working.

Kis, i was never concerned. i let the pile set/harden for about 2 or 3 hours, and then i let it set for about 4 or 5 hours after i hollowed out the inside. i did keep knocking little bits of snow off the ceiling, but it wasn't anything serious, just annoying.
 
Good job, I have been following your posts for a while. It is really nice to see someone, especially a young person, not only interested in the outdoors but actually getting away from the keyboard and doing the things they talk about. :thumbup:

Unfortunately I have never lived anywhere that a snow shelter was an option but I can really see the advantage of one if there was very much wind or it was bitterly cold. Chris
 
There was this nighborhood girl who kicked down every snow fort, snowman she seen. I made one big enough that three of us could go inside and sneak a cigarette. She kicked it down to. She was a mean girl.
 
Nice job siguy.

When I was down at the South Pole, we made many snow caves as well. They can be a lot of work or very little work depending on how you build them. Here is how we did it.

Everyone had an orange survival bag. It was about the size of two large rucks. What we did was to put your survival bag down and cover it with snow. Then dig out a small hole and pull out your survival bag. You now have a cave and you piled less than half the snow you normally would and you did very little digging out to make the cave.

I have also built them with using garbage bags. I carry in my winter survival kit, a long heavy duty contractors garbage bag. Fill it with air and tie it closed and pile snow on it. Naturally you have to be a little more careful with a bag as your base, at least at first. You pile on a small amount and then pack it down before really adding the snow on. Then let the air out and you have a cave. I leave the bag in place and do not take it out. I am now laying on plastic instead of snow. The snow is still around me and insulating, but I am not in contact with it. I like this way a lot as I need to move and handle very little snow. I have even melted snow and sprinkled it on the snow that was on the plastic bag to make ice. Then add a few more inches of snow to insulate it.

This works really well when you have little snow to work with but you still need it for insulation.

Save you energy, and sweat. Work smart not hard.
 
Big Bunker, excellent ideas there!

i'm curious about this survival bag...what is it exactly? in my mind i'm thinking of some sort of bivvy style bag made from bright orange material...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top