Iglu in England!

[jon r]

I made an iglue today with a good friend in my back garden! In the Midlands!!

Loads of snow today, so i had the day off college!

Heres the pics!

This is me inside digging the centre out

Started off as this, a massive snow ball! So big we couldnt roll it anymore and i bet it weighed over a tonne!

To make sure the walls didnt get too thin we made loads of equal length pegs and banged them in from the outside. Then we just dug the inside out, making sure we didnt go past the ends of the pegs!

Jon

 

[fred gordon]

Looks great Jon. Are you going to sleep in it tonight?

 

[Bushcraft4life]

I had the day off college too Jon. Wish i had done something constructive with my time .
Glad one of us did tho that is extremely cool .

Good work mate.

 

[dommyracer]

Technically speaking, what you've made there is a Quinze.
Good stuff!

 

[leon-b]

very nice mate are you sleeping in it tonight ?
leon

 

[jon r]

very nice mate are you sleeping in it tonight ?
leon

No way! to cold! There isnt a cold well inside!

And it isnt big enoughto lie down in. All in all, it would be pretty uncomfortable!

Would be better with a nice fire but i couldnt do that on the lawn!

 

[scanker]

Very nice. I had to stick to the more traditional snow activities...

That isn't a 6 foot plus snowman and me in my red all-in-one!

 

[silvergirl]

Good on you .

Last year we built an Igloo in the garden by gathering snow and compacting it in a large platic box to make bricks. Once the bricks were made we built the sides up and spread more snow over the whole thing. (unfortunatly all the photos were on our old computer, which died )

The kids were desperate to sleep in it but unfortunatly it started to rain in the afternoon so we didn't, it did last for a few days though.

So far we have only had a very thin scattering of snow, send it up please someone .

 

[Stuart]

Excellent :You_Rock_

What you Built is normally called a Quinzee rather than an iglu.

However you could argue on academic grounds that you are correct in your terminology as the word 'iglu' in its original language means only 'building' with no specific type, use or material of structure implied.

a domed structure built from snow blocks with the intension of habitation, in the way that we in the west mean when we say Iglu, would be correctly called a 'Iglukaktok'

I have never built one in the UK but I've had the opportunity to build some in a more suitable climate

Very comfortable inside and its warm glow is certainly a welcome site when returning in the frigid darkness

This is a typical quinzee constructed from heaped and excavated snow rather than blocks:

Snow shelters are quite deceptive, they are often much larger inside that their exterior would lead you to believe, the above quinzee would sleep 2 comfortably with gear, 3 at a push without gear: