I fulfilled a  lifetime dream. I built an igloo. (This SHOULD go into the survival forum I guess, but it's a great family thing so I'll share it in General Discussion.)

Growing up in Southern California, we don't have much to build with other than smog. So when it snowed this week, I decided I'd do the eskimo thing and build an igloo.

My achin' BACK!

I started about 11:00 PM one evening... digging and tamping and stuff. The only tools I used were a dishpan, a shovel and a long knife.) This shows the first course of 'bricks.'




Here's the second course:


With the third course I started trimming the sides and bottoms of the snow bricks, to allow them to start leaning inward to enclose the top.



At that point my back was reminding me that I wasn't a skinny kid anymore. So I went to bed.

Here's the next day, the 4th course:



You can see how I'm trimming and fitting the blocks so they "keystone" together: the weight of the blocks falling inward makes them press together and lock themselves into place.  

This pic shows how I lay the blocks on the top of the last course; I haven't put them into place yet.



This pic is the next-to-last course; you can see how the blocks are keystone-shaped.




Here's the completed igloo with the door cut out. (I built it without a door, because I couldn't figure out how to build it with a big hole in the front.)




This took a surprising amount of work to complete. Next time I'll build a wooden form and have longer, skinnier blocks. *

I have to take it down tomorrow; my C&Rs don't allow unpermitted temporary structures.

This could make a great family outing some snowy day! The dishpan made a great form for the snow blocks.

ETA I'd also go up 3 or 4 courses before starting to slope the sides in; and make it about six or seven feet diameter inside.

eta2: Since this IS ARFCOM:



MY igloo is WELL protected! (Very bright pic, I'll try to darken it some.)

All that work and you didn't sleep in it for the night?


ETA: That's pretty cool, I would like to try one out for the night and see if I had what it takes to sleep in ice.

Actually, it's too damned small! I can barely squeeze in the door! If it were an emergency I could fit, but I'd be careful not to sneeze-- it'd shake the building down!

I'm TOLD that, with good caulking (with snow of course), they are pretty cozy.

sweet dude!

i dug my first snowcave a few years ago..




I slept in it


that pile is about 20ft.. it snowed 18-22ft in a few days before i went up there.

Being in S. FL, I read the title and thought, what the hell did he do with a beer cooler?

Quoted: Being in S. FL, I read the title and thought, what the hell did he do with a beer cooler?

LOL it looks like a 'horno,*' one of the dome-shaped ovens the Indians out here use.

With the latest snow, I was going to build another igloo, this time using 18" x 24" Rubbemaid boxes... but learned that my Inner Child doesn't get along with my Lower Back!

*that's spelled H-O-R-N-O, not H-O-M-O.