We got a good amount of snow last night and today. I got a new pair of snowshoes this year, so I have been itching to try them out.
Early in the morning, before the plows came out, and people starting shoveling, I went for a long walk with them. I am quite happy with them.
Before I started shoveling the drive and the walk and all that, I shoveled the yard up into a big snow mound for making an Quinzee. It is about 8 feet in diameter and about 4 1/2 feet tall. Ideally I would like it to be 5 or 6 feet tall, but I was starting to run out of snow, and even stole some from the neighbor 
So, this would do.
If you haven’t built one of these before, I basically did the following:
- Shoveled all the snow into a mound.
- Alternated throwing snow and flipping snow to mix it up.
- As I started getting closer to the end, I work hardened the snow. Piled more on, and then did the same. This seems to be kind of controversial. I have seen people teach this exact method, and I have heard people say no work hardening at all. If you have any experience on NOT doing this, let me know.
- I stuck in several depth gauges so that I would know when to stop digging the inside out.
- Let it sinter for at least 3 hours.
- Dug it out.
- Poked a vent hole.
- Left a slightly elevated heat trap.
- Warmed it up.
The pictures make it hard to tell the size. There is not much in there for reference, and in order to get everything in, I took the pics at 17mm, which is causing huge persepctive distortion.
Here is the outside.
The entrance:
Me about halfway through the ordeal.
The inside. Here again, the perspective distortion is making the doorway look huge.
The kiddies were in and out of all day. However, by the time I actually grabbed the camera for pics, they were playing over at the neigbors house
On a related note, I have a cold weather camping trip coming up here real soon in the UP. I have been getting some gear ready for cold weather and will share that next. I just didn’t have time to get pictures of what I have done with that stuff.
If you have any comments, or suggestions on the quinzee, I would love to hear it.