Did you build an igloo?

[sassnetguy50]

Have you ever built an domed structure from snow?  Not necessarily a traditional block igloo.  If so, what state was it in?  

 

We have local areas with over 10' of snow.  Kids seem to have zero interest in tunnels or shelters now.

[Pat Riot]

We built an igloo in Pennsylvania. The dome caved in so it became a snowball fort. I think I was 8 years old. 

[Yul Lose]

As a kid in Creede, Colorado we built snow forts and igloos.

[Blackwater 53393]

I built one out of snow that my dad blew up into a pile from our patio and driveway in  January of 1961.  We lived in Metuchen, NJ at the time. Every time it snowed, dad would blow all the snow off the patio onto the pile and it snowed about four feet in just a month or so. I don’t remember how much total snowfall there was that year, but my dad and one of my cousins bought and paid for a new jeep and a plow rig on what they made plowing snow that year.

 

We busted up the igloo a day or two after school let out that year.

 

In ‘63/‘64, we lived in Kennilworth, NJ. School was never out for more than a day there unless it snowed heavily for more than a day.  The borough had no school busses, so if you didn’t have a ride, you walked to school, (small town)!

 

We took the snow that piled up between the street and the sidewalks of the main drag through town and made tunnels and open turrets that ran the length of the residential side of town. You could go fifteen blocks and not be seen except for when crossing the side streets! We stocked the turrets with lots of snowballs, most of which turned to ice.

 

The city of Cranford wrapped around our little township in a horseshoe shape. Cranford school buses would cut across the town as a shortcut. The Cranford kids shouted out the windows of the buses, making fun of us for having to walk in the cold.

 

The next time the buses came through, we knocked out all of the windows and they froze their butts off.

 

The city came through and busted up the tunnels after complaints from Cranford. After that, the Cranford buses would take the long way around Kennilworth whenever it snowed and they kept the windows closed when they DID come through town!! 

 

 

[Alpo]

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

 I did one Winter back in Columbus Ohio when I was about 12 or 13. Since I was in charge of shoveling the driveway, I piles all the snow into one giant pile. I packed it down, then hollowed it out. I took the snow I pulled out from it, piled it back on top, and repeated the process until I had something I could crawl into. It lasted most of the Winter. 

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

I was taught how to make a Kuinzee by some of my FN friends and I made a couple over the years to demonstrate to other snowmobilers although we used more cedar or pine branches for wall and roof support.

Edited January 15 by Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474

[sassnetguy50]

1 hour ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said:

I was taught how to make a Kuinzee by some of my FN friends and I made a couple over the years to demonstrate to other snowmobilers although we used more cedar or pine branches for wall and roof support.

Will you expand on how you structured the roof support?  We watched a Canadian survival video for sleds going through the ice and it demonstrated a quinzee.  I think the instructor said he is First Nation.  The only sticks were stuck straight in towards the center of the mound to act as wall thickness indicators.  All sticks were broken to one foot lengths, you stop digging when you hit the tip of the sticks.

Edited January 15 by sassnetguy50

[Rye Miles #13621]

We made them as kids. We used the piles of snow from the snowplows. They lasted until the next snowstorm when the snowplows ruined them 

[Eyesa Horg]

In Connecticut we did make some igloos from piling up the snow, but mostly dug long tunnels like Blackwater did, but NOT nearly as long! They were great for terrorizing traffic with snowballs! Even the cars that stopped and got out, never looked in the bank right next to them. The entrance was always hidden behind a shrub! Ah, the days of being a neighborhood terror!

Edited January 15 by Eyesa Horg
Typo

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

6 hours ago, sassnetguy50 said:

Will you expand on how you structured the roof support?  We watched a Canadian survival video for sleds going through the ice and it demonstrated a quinzee.  I think the instructor said he is First Nation.  The only sticks were stuck straight in towards the center of the mound to act as wall thickness indicators.  All sticks were broken to one foot lengths, you stop digging when you hit the tip of the sticks.

 

Usually, longer pine boughs etc. leaned toward a centre point, sometimes tied with some baling twine, then snow thrown over everything.

Kept as small as practical, you could be safe from a blizzard and be out of the wind.

We cheated a bit; on trips, we usually also carried a Sterno can or two and a piece of plastic tarp.