Winter Survival

Dec 05, 2008  ·  03:43 PM  ·  permalink

This video makes igloo construction look pretty easy, right?

But what if you don’t have a snow knife, never mind years of experience living in the artic? What if you’re a 17 year old kid from San Diego armed with nothing but a snowboard, a one-hitter, and an unrealistic estimate of your abilities?

Although I am “none of the above,” the igloo video piqued my interest: what’s the best emergency snow shelter? It turns out there are a lot of considerations: snow caves require lots of snow, are a lot of work, can collapse, and can encourage hypothermia unless you have dry clothes to change into. Ditto for the quinzee. It seem the snow trench or snow coffin is preferred: it requires minimal tools, minimal snow, and if you build it on a slight incline it’ll even act as if it had a cold air sink.

Plus, if you keep it small, it makes an awesome hotbox while you wait for your step dad to realize you’re missing.