Sunday, January 28, 2007

 

Great Googly Moogly!






I learned how to build an igloo on satuday from a pair of professors doing a bush pilot survival course. I slept in in on saturday night wrapped in caribou skins. It was bananas. you can build an igloo using just a carpenter's saw and a small machete called a "snow knife." you cut 2.5'x1.5' blocks from hard-drifted snow using the saw and then mitre the corners to make the blocks sit snugly against one another. and there is a little more tomfoolery to get the layers of blocks off the ground going. you make it during the day when it is warm so that it is frozen solid by nighttime and not going anywhere.

Thanks to rick and jill for their knowledge and caribou skins. the igloo was very small. I couldn't sit up on my haunches, let along kneel. and I had to build an extension for my feet. I spent a long time patching the cracks between the snow blocks because building really good igloos takes lots of practice. but caribou fur is very warm.

if you click on the pictures, they enlarge. and there is not another person in the igloo with me. trust me, it is way too small for that.

Comments:
Holy moly Britt! You're an ar-kee-tekt! Seriously, that's amazing.
-EW
 
I know we talked about this the other day, but now that I can see photographs I'm even more impressed. That's so cool!

Were you ever worried that it would collapse? Was there something you had to do to strengthen the walls or the ceiling?
 
From the comfort of my warm, non-icy room, your igloo looks very cozy and fun.
 
I'm absolutely speechless. Dude, you built and slept in an igloo?!
 
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