I made this shelter today, i never thought it would turn out this good. Suprising what you can do in Britain...
To make the shelter i just kept on piling up the snow into a big domed mound. I didnt have a snow shovel so i had to use a kids sled to shift the snow. Once the mound was big enough and snaped correctly i let the snow rest and freeze for probably about an hour. Then i cut lots of sticks to about 30cm long and stuck them in the outside at 90 degrees to the surface. I could then scrape out the inside. When you scrape past the ends of the sticks inside, you know to stop digging in that area, you end up with an evenly thick wall. There is room enough for 2 people to sleep inside this one. It took a long time to shift the snow to make the mound because we only have aout 4 inches of snow here... those of you with about a foot of snow would be able to make one quicker i guess. Hope this is inspirational. If you were going to make one just be carefull the walls dont collapse in onto you, it could be dangerous... Read up on the propper way to construct these shelters first, i didnt cover everything in this description... Its not rocket science though. an air hole should be made and a burning candle offers light, some heat and a warning if carbonmonoxide is building up.
A good layer of spruce boughs on the floor inside provide excellent insulation from the cold.
Have fun and take care!
To make the shelter i just kept on piling up the snow into a big domed mound. I didnt have a snow shovel so i had to use a kids sled to shift the snow. Once the mound was big enough and snaped correctly i let the snow rest and freeze for probably about an hour. Then i cut lots of sticks to about 30cm long and stuck them in the outside at 90 degrees to the surface. I could then scrape out the inside. When you scrape past the ends of the sticks inside, you know to stop digging in that area, you end up with an evenly thick wall. There is room enough for 2 people to sleep inside this one. It took a long time to shift the snow to make the mound because we only have aout 4 inches of snow here... those of you with about a foot of snow would be able to make one quicker i guess. Hope this is inspirational. If you were going to make one just be carefull the walls dont collapse in onto you, it could be dangerous... Read up on the propper way to construct these shelters first, i didnt cover everything in this description... Its not rocket science though. an air hole should be made and a burning candle offers light, some heat and a warning if carbonmonoxide is building up.
A good layer of spruce boughs on the floor inside provide excellent insulation from the cold.
Have fun and take care!
