A Room With A View
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 7:58 pm
I had went up the weekend before to break my route through the bottomless TG snow that is persistent in the Rockies this season with it's scant snow pack.
A team of four of us headed up the trail to find it very firm if not icy in areas where it was blown clean of the recent skiff of snow we received during the week. Most of the trail however had a bit of drifted in snow that was still soft and the going was easy with all four of up pulling pulks laden with all the luxuries of home.
We would need to build a ten foot igloo with a team of four and I knew there was much less snow than previous builds at our camp spot so we wasted no time in getting to camp.
We first spent nearly two hours building a base for the igloo and it was getting dark before we finished the igloo: We worked late into the night but what a palace it turned out to be: We put on an igloo addition to use on our third and fourth nights and also did a long day excursion as well as a short moonlit stroll to a near by lake. Everyone had a great time and learned a lot of igloo building techniques.
I went up again the weekend after the trip to check out the igloos and found that the wind had it's way and nearly melted a hole through the windward side. There were some small holes that we patched with some freshly drifted in soft snow to try and help retain our body heat while having lunch in the igloo. It was rather breezy and the calm of the igloo was welcomed but it didn't warm up much in the short time we were there. The sun also came out and it felt warmer to be outside in the sunlight behind the igloo that offered some protection from the wind. The two igloo were built so they overlapped and then we cut most of the wall out to make a huge door from one igloo to the other: Even with the scant snow we were able to get a very tall door: Looking out the door was pretty cool too:
A team of four of us headed up the trail to find it very firm if not icy in areas where it was blown clean of the recent skiff of snow we received during the week. Most of the trail however had a bit of drifted in snow that was still soft and the going was easy with all four of up pulling pulks laden with all the luxuries of home.
We would need to build a ten foot igloo with a team of four and I knew there was much less snow than previous builds at our camp spot so we wasted no time in getting to camp.
We first spent nearly two hours building a base for the igloo and it was getting dark before we finished the igloo: We worked late into the night but what a palace it turned out to be: We put on an igloo addition to use on our third and fourth nights and also did a long day excursion as well as a short moonlit stroll to a near by lake. Everyone had a great time and learned a lot of igloo building techniques.
I went up again the weekend after the trip to check out the igloos and found that the wind had it's way and nearly melted a hole through the windward side. There were some small holes that we patched with some freshly drifted in soft snow to try and help retain our body heat while having lunch in the igloo. It was rather breezy and the calm of the igloo was welcomed but it didn't warm up much in the short time we were there. The sun also came out and it felt warmer to be outside in the sunlight behind the igloo that offered some protection from the wind. The two igloo were built so they overlapped and then we cut most of the wall out to make a huge door from one igloo to the other: Even with the scant snow we were able to get a very tall door: Looking out the door was pretty cool too: