Igloo Building

Last weekend I went with the young men to snow camp at Mt Rainier. This is one of those campouts that is very bittersweet. Sweet because it generates awesome memories, and bitter in every other way. A friend tipped me off to a device that is supposed to make igloo-building much easier, called the Icebox Igloo Maker. This is essentially a plastic form to make the igloo blocks in place. This sounded like a great, scientific way to build an igloo, and I wanted to give it a try, but without spending the $200. So, I grabbed some scrap wood from my basement and made my own.

I put hinges on the sides so that we could open the form up and release it from the snow blocks. Then we could slide it to the next location and make the next block. The telescoping pole in the middle helped keep the radius constant and support the form.

The form was a lifesaver for the upper layers of blocks. These have always been the hardest to place. The pole held the weight of the form and the snow until the blocks hardened in place, and then we released it and held our breath. It was amazing how the snow held in place.

You can see our entrance we cut underneath the wall. We expanded this, added benches and put a tarp over the entry to use it as a cooking space. Unfortunately the tarp collapsed during the night under the weight of new snow.

We woke up the next morning to a huge snowstorm and high-tailed it to the cars. The snow had collapsed a couple of the shelters and caused the wall of my igloo to bow in a little. The wind was blowing and it was miserable.

   

We had to wait in the bathroom shelters once we got back to the parking lot because all the cars were covered with snow. After about 5 hours they got us dug out and escorted us off the mountain. It was one of those campouts the boys will never forget.