"PaddlingPair" wrote...

The igloo maker is fascinating! It reminds me of all my failed
attempts at building igloos as a boy.

Ya, I had nothing but failures when I was a kid. Didn't have snow that made
good blocks. Quinzees work - just create an igloo sized heap of snow, pack
it a bit, then tunnel it out. You have to move a lot of snow, then remove a
lot of it. Slow, tiring & wet.

At the Canadian Canoe Routes forum winter gathering, a friend packed an area
of deep snow with snowshoes, let it set overnight, then used a handsaw to
cut blocks. That worked, but not for a same-day shelter.

The igloo maker works well & isn't at all tiring, because you move slowly,
spending time gently packing. I would have sworn though that some snow
won't pack. We had about the worst kind of snow at the gathering, tiny ice
chuncks instead of flkes, but it worked. Just pack it slowly, gently &
carefully. The resulting igloo wasn't as cozy as a heated tent during the
day, but was never as cold as a tent after the stove burns out in the night.

The igloo maker is rather useless on canoe trips though. :-)

Lloyd Bowles
www.madcanoeist.4ever.cc