So I tried building an igloo..

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Yesterday was a nice bright sunny day here in SE Wisconsin so I felt like doing something outside. For a reason I can’t explain, I thought that building an igloo would be a fine way to spend the day.

I got an old dull knife about 7" long, donned my Carharrt insulated bib overalls and got to work. I cut into a drift about 3’ high right behind the house. After about 5 minutes I was getting really good at carving blocks of snow out of the drift. I was cutting them about 5"x 5"x 12". The snow was nice and dense and was almost like cutting blocks of styrofoam. I cut a 2 foot wide path into the drift and then cut blocks out so that I had a nice circle about 6’ in diameter. Things were looking promising.

So I started stacking the blocks. I had absolutely no confidence that I would be successful, but before I knew it, I had some lovely gracefully curving walls about 4 feet high. Along with the 3 foot walls of the snowbank it was looking like it was going to be very spacious. My wife wandered outside to see what I was up to and laughed at me. Then she went and got the camera and took pictures, I’m assuming to show prove to people that she is married to a lunatic. I told her “If this works I am sleeping in here tonight” and she laughed even harder.

But that’s where things started to go wrong. The pitch was getting too steep and my blocks were falling in, often taking out sections of wall below them. I tried packing wet snow into weak spots, but that wasn’t working. I tried cutting the blocks in half so that they were thinner, that didn’t work either.

So, to make a long story slightly less long, I failed. But I did get a little bit of a suntan and I have a kick-ass snowfort in case the neighbors try to stage a surprise snowball raid.

There ya go, about as mundane and pointless as you can get.

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How to build an igloo.

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Ah, memories. We built them during an Outward Bound course in the Rockies. The difference between us and you was that while our instructor carved them, there were two, and then one, person to hold/support them as the pitch became more horizontal. Our final block fit in as the uppermost of a Roman Arch. Also, maybe you were doing this but he built not in layers but more like a continual string. The first few blocks were ramp shaped, and you just kept the string going each time you came back around. Once the blockwork was done, we filled in the chinks with packed snow. An entrance wasn’t cut into a wall but, instead, we dug down from outside, over and up into the igloo. Although it was very cold outside that evening, we were quite comfortable inside. They’re quite strong as well. The next day, for grins, we climbed over and slid down it’s side, no problem.

I envy your environs!

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I should have Googled it before trying to build, but I thought I’d try my native intelligence first. Now I see, lieu, that all of the websites talk about the ‘spiral’ nature of building an igloo, I didn’t do that. Also, it looks like my blocks were much too small.

5

Quinzees are even easier to build, but less aesthetically pleasing.

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We always put a few pussy willow poles into a peak on top of the wall and slid the blocks against them. Fill in the cracks and then built a spirl tunnel once around the outer wall. The once around spiral wall kept out the strong wind and snow. We put a snow block in the tunnel entrance when we left, so no skunks or snow could get in. We loaded the floor with marsh grass also. It made a good fort for 3 months on average. Always build extra height for settling and sunny day compacting.