Quinzee Craze.

Following on from Garys blog entry on his Backyard Quinzee and with the recent spell of snowy weather, both myself and Stuart had a go at our own. For you who dont know what a Quinzee is, its a snow shelter made by piling snow which wont stick together (powder snow) into a mound, allowing it to freeze ( also referred to as sintering) and then tunneling into it to create a living space. This is in contrast to an igloo which is a shelter formed by building hand cut blocks of snow. 

Stuarts Quinzee

To make this quinze I flattened down the snow in a circle about eight feet in diameter.  This would give me about six or seven feet inside when finished.  In the centre of the circle I placed a thirty litre barrel and piled snow on that.  After many hours of toil with a shovel I had a dome of snow about chest height. I flattened this down to compress the snow a bit and then placed sticks about a foot long each pointed into the centre of the dome.  I left this to freeze overnight and the next day I hollowed it out until I hit the sticks.  This gave an internal chamber about three feet tall and six feet in diameter.  

Pauls Quinzee

I made mine slightly differently. I made a pile of snow slightly over chest height and allowed it to sinter overnight (this is where the ice grains connect where they touch each other forming a strong but lightweight structure). I then tunneled into the snow pile. I didn't use any sticks for measurement like Gary and Stuart, i wanted to see if i could judge it by eye. I made the entrance just big enough for me to squeeze in lying on my back and i built a small return at the front to add shelter from the wind. I am 5'10" and i had a comfortable amount of room to sit up inside with out any problems, there was also enough room to lie down inside. I found a container of water had frozen in my back yard i managed to remove the top which was a perfect 2" thick piece of ice. I set about using it to make a window in the side of the Quinzee which worked very well for letting in light.