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Wildwood Trackers' Snow Shelter
February 2004 (Photos and report by Walter
Muma)
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| Five people turned out on this cold but very sunny day for this Wildwood Trackers outing.
We hiked in a short distance from the road and headed off-trail to a
sunny site overlooking a frozen marsh. Here we built a snow shelter (not
in the marsh, but in the adjoining woods!). |
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The type of snow shelter we constructed is made by piling up a big
pile of snow. Here is the start of that task. |
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Finished piling the snow. This snowpile is then left to sit for an
hour or two. During this time the snow hardens up. Here's two of
the group sunbathing, winter-style!
We also went exploring and ate lunch while the snowpile hardened. |
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After lunch we hollowed out the snow pile to create the shelter. This
pic shows us starting the job. |
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Digging deeper.... |
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Done! Except for a door, which we didn't make. One could make one
by placing some sort of insulating material in between two layers of
sticks, and tying the whole thing together. |
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A view from inside.
We figured this shelter could sleep three people fairly easily;
four if they really liked each other. It's nice and quiet inside
the shelter -- the snow walls effectively block out much of the
sound from outside. |
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Here's the snow shelter two weeks later. No one had been here since
it was built. However, it had deteriorated quite a bit due to
several days of warm (above zero C) temperatures. There were two
holes in the roof, where the snow had been thinner than the rest of
the shelter. |
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Another view of the two-week-old shelter. |
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