Make a Quinzee or Snow Cave

GET YOURSELF OUTSIDE

AND MAKE A QUINZEE!

This time of year most people hunker down inside with books and TV.  A lot of people can’t really tolerate that for 3 months.  If you’re one of those people, you might be looking for something you can do outside, and get a chance to replenish your vitamin D at the same time.  One activity I’ve been drawn to for many years is building snow forts.  Especially, a type of igloo called a quinzee, invented as a temporary shelter by nomadic Athapaskan Native Americans of Alaska. It was used as a shelter for hunting parties or in an emergency. A quinzee can be easily built in a day. For all of the winter campers out there, a quinzee will out-perform any tent made, and by a wide margin. There are 3 main phases to follow when building one, they are piling, waiting, and digging. If followed correctly, you will create a structure strong enough to support all of its occupants standing on the roof. If you suffer from claustrophobia, you may want to look for more suitable activities, because quinzees have small entrances and living quarters. There are a couple of very important safety concerns. It’s best to keep your quinzee away from roads or snowmobile trails to avoid being struck while inside and kids should be supervised by an adult. Tools you will need include a snow shovel for each participant, at least 40 small diameter sticks 12 – 14 in. long and digging tools like a garden, cement or plaster trowel.

So you’ve decided to build your very own quinzee. To get started it’s required to find at least one more person to share in the work and provide a safer situation. The first phase starts with finding a place to build. You’ll want an area that’s fairly level, and at least 50 ft. in diameter. The snow should be naturally fallen, not shoveled or plowed.  Pile the snow in the center of your area in the shape and height you would like. Making it short and wide will shorten its life by quite a bit, so pile upwards. Generally, a quinzee isn’t intended for standing up in, and it would take a very large pile of snow to allow this. My brother and I built one like this once, but probably never again. The piling alone took over half the day.

When the pile is finished, you’ll likely be a little tired, so go take a walk or head back inside to replace all those used carbohydrates. While you’re off doing something else, your pile of snow does something magical. It’s a process called sintering in which the snow heats without melting. As the snow sinters, it hardens to a very strong crust.* Once this is finished your shape is set and shouldn’t be changed. Your pile should sinter for 4 – 6 hrs. I’ve heard other numbers, even as low as 3 hrs. but I would recommend at least 4 hrs. to make sure your pile is very sturdy.  Remember, if your pile caves in when digging, not only would you have to start all over, but someone could get seriously hurt. It doesn’t really hurt to pile your snow one day, and dig it out the next, but it’s more fun to dig it out the same day. If you’re going to use a quinzee for camping, you will need to pile and dig on the same day, so it’s good practice to build one like this.

Phase 3 makes use of the 12-14” sticks which you stick into your snow pile. They should be placed on the roof and sides and not sticking out. Next it’s time to hollow out your pile of snow, but where do you start digging? It’s a good idea to plan this before you start piling snow, but usually somewhere on the eastern side where the ground is the lowest will work the best. One of the functions of a quinzee is to trap heat on the inside, so picking a low area helps. Start digging a doorway at ground level. At first keep the doorway as small as possible. That brings up an important rule in the art of building snow dwellings. You can always remove snow, but once removed you can’t put it back. Tunnel in until you’re at least 1.5 ft. into the pile. This area is going to receive some wear during snow removal, so leave the walls here a little thicker. Once you reach the 1.5 ft. mark start digging up and to the sides. Now you need to start keeping an eye out for those sticks you stuck in from the outside. The sticks take a lot of the guesswork out of the digging. The walls can be as thin as 10 inches or so, but if you start to see a lot of light coming through, you’ve definitely gone far enough! Leaving some thickness near the bottom in some areas will be handy later if you want to make shelves. When you’ve cleared out enough snow to make a roof, dig out a 2” or more vent hole at the top. There are two schools of thought about how to make the floor. When I learned how to make a quinzee, it was firmly believed that leaving the floor covered with a few inches of snow provides insulation for sleeping, and further elevates the floor from the doorway. There are also those who remove the snow from the floor, presumably to gain more room inside. Nowadays sleeping mats have come a long way and likely would provide enough insulation against lying directly on the frozen ground. When doing the digging it’s a good idea to take turns being on the inside. It’s a lot more work than you might think.  Someone should always be on the outside in case there is a cave-in. I’ve never had a cave-in happen, but some friends of mine building a quinzee nearby had a cave in and one of them ended up with a badly screwed up knee.

Of course there’s no guarantee we’ll have enough snow this year to build a quinzee, but I’ve built one every year for the last 12 yrs.  During those lean snow years it’s tough but you just have to bring snow in from farther away. I’ve always been part of the school of thought that if it’s going to be cold outside, there might as well be snow. We can only hope. Just building one of these dwellings can be a lot of fun. The best experience, though, is sleeping in one while camping.  It’s possible with the use of candles (doorway loosely covered and a good vent hole) to get the temperature comfortably above freezing inside. An added bonus is when you pack up to leave there’s no tent to take down and carry out.

*The same process happens when snow plows create snow piles at the sides of the streets. There have been cases where children, making their own version of a fort or snow cave, have been covered and trapped in the snow pile when the plow went by. Parents should therefore caution kids to make their forts and snow caves far from the street.

Mark Verhagen