anyone ever snow holed

[jamin]

i did it in sweden a few years ago and thought i would post it.. we dug the holes out of a snow drift.it took about4 hours to do.it had 2 shelfs for sleeping on and a hole made with the fishing auger to let air in.and had a few candles dug into the snow to indicate that we still had air .we used deer sleeping mats to insulate us.they were pritty good. a swedish guy said that they are warm to sleep in.i recon he lied. we woke up at about 3 in the morning freezing. so went for a sauna. any one else got any experiances.

 

[Tor helge]

Warm is relative. What was the outside temperature, and what temperature was inside the snow cave? I bet it was a real difference.
I have made several of these, but never spend the night in one. I consider them to be emergency shelters.

Tor

 

[shocks]

yup, this year. Great fun other than the others snoring. We made a huge one must have been about 16 of us in it! The temperature in the snow hole stayed around -1 outside it was -16. The trick is to block off the entrances....

 

[John Fenna]

Done a bit in my youth...fond memories!
Subsiding roofs as the temperature rose and the snow "compacted", the cozy roar of the primus, the drips off the roof, the security from the blizzard outside...great times!

 

[Twodogs]

Yep I had a night in one some years back ,
Same experience as you , but better than sleeping outside .....
Twodogs

 

[johnboy]

Lots and lots of times..

There's almost enought snow on Mt Ruapehu to begin thinking about breaking out the snow shovel and avalance probe and digging one...

The concept of a 'cold well' works but it's a snow cave so it's never going to be tropical in there. One bit of advice would be an old style Karrimat is a better choice of sleeping pad than a thermarest. Thermarests ( especially if you give them a hand to inflate by blowing into them) can freeze inside so you end up sleeping on a block of ice.. Also they always seem to come worst off around crampons and Ice tools.... Candles are nice inside. And a bivvy bag or water repellant outer on a sleeping bag stops drips soaking in and freezing up. And a pee bottle is essential kit.....

 

[Jiffy]

I've snow holed in the Cairngorms once. It was only about zero degress in the hole so it wasn't too cold but the roof did drip quite a bit. I had a bivi bag so my sleeping bag was ok. Using a Karrimat under the Thermarest worked well for me.

 

[jungle_re]

Yep, last winter i did in Norway (2004 IIRC) your right there not warm you dont prance about in your skimpys but they keep much safer than being out especially in a snow blizzard.

Me in the middle

 

[Intertidal]

Yep snow-holed plenty of times in Scotland over the years and even once on Dartmoor (1983/4 I think).
As you've discovered, its quite a bit of effort to do from scratch, but sometimes you can get lucky and find one that others have built. However, I think some of the instructional centres now teach folks to stove in the roofs of holes when they're finished with them, just so other people don't fall through.
To my mind the main advantages of sno-holing are firstly that its MUCH quieter than in a tent, and slightly warmer. Plus of course - its great fun!

Intertidal

 

[Greg]

I used various types of snow shelter when I was in the Army.
(I spent 5 consecutive winters in Norway) I can happily say that the snow holes we used were the most comfortable - not warm - but comfortable. Even when you have spent a few hours getting it perfect and some numpty steps on your roof and falls through it!
But like Tor mentioned, temperature is relative, I've been in snowholes where the outside temp was below -30C but inside it was probably only -10C (ish!!). That is ok when you have got some hot food inside you and you are wrapped up nice an toast in your doss bag.
I have only had one really bad night in a snowhole and that was my last one funnily enough! We were put into a simulated survival situation and only had our metal mugs to dig with. No doss bags were allowed all we had was our pocket contents which included the crappy military issue survival bag (which we found would probably have had more use as an elephants condom!) oh and a candle to keep us warm! They did let us have a roll mat to sit on (very generous I thought!)
It wasn't pleasant to say the least.
But if you were to ask me if I would ever sleep in one again I would definately have to say yes.