How to build an igloo video

[Horrido]

http://www.nfb.ca/film/how_to_build_an_igloo/

Never occurred to me they were built in a spiral pattern. If we get enough snow this winter, I may try and build a little one, just to see how it works out. Watching that video also brought up a number of other questions, such as the purpose of the tassels on the edge of their parkas, or are they just decoration?

[dylan]

its not just snow that you need, but reeeally cold temperatures around -20c for a month or so. the snow they are using is from hard packed drifts and is really similar to styrofoam in consisnency. it even squeaks when you walk on it like styrofoam. you are probably not going to get the right conditions where you live to do that...BUT

there is another type of house that you make by piling up a bunch of snow and hollowing out the inside (Called a quinzee) once again the condition of the snow is a factor. it all needs to stick together and become solid, usually the pile of snow is left for a few days to settle.

when I was a kid in Winnipeg we would hollow out the snow hills made from clearing the streets. we would usually have some awesome snow forts by mid January.

Edited November 10, 2012 by dylan

[Big Daddy]

http://www.nfb.ca/film/how_to_build_an_igloo/

Never occurred to me they were built in a spiral pattern. If we get enough snow this winter, I may try and build a little one, just to see how it works out. Watching that video also brought up a number of other questions, such as the purpose of the tassels on the edge of their parkas, or are they just decoration?

Meh. Nothing that every red-blooded Canadian doesn't know. Most of us live in them up here, eh.

<jk, btw>

[mlicari]

there is another type of house that you make by piling up a bunch of snow and hollowing out the inside (Called a quinzee) once again the condition of the snow is a factor. it all needs to stick together and become solid, usually the pile of snow is left for a few days to settle.

Indeed! We make these when my son's Boy Scout troop is camping in the winter. They're really warm once you've been inside for a while.

Mike

[Horrido]

Dylan, I was rather wondering about the consistency of the snow the way they were lifting those blocks out, plus how they were flaking while being carved. Squeaks like styrofoam? Yechh, to me, that noise is on par with fingernails down a chalk board for most other people. My wife seems to enjoy tormenting me as she scrunches the bag of frozen peas upon extraction from the freezer.

I've also seen images of igloos aglow from the inside, presumably by fires. If they are fires, how do they keep them from melting through the center? I once watched a documentary of high-altitude/mountain/cold weather training for (I believe) the US Army. The trainees seemed to have had a rough go, and at one point, the instructors were amazed and chuckling that the trainees had built a fire, basically on the bare snow, and it kept burning as it melted through what appeared to be six to eight feet of snowpack, eventually reaching the bare ground below, and then extinguishing.

The location here, is maybe a week of temps around 15 F/-10 C on occassion from mid-November to the end of January, rarely things drop to -5 F/-20 C overnight. Normal winter temperatures are 25-35 F/-4-1.5 C. Snowfall is intermittent, with occasional dumps of between 6-12 in/15-30 cm.

May also try a quinzee. The big challenge is keeping the things from getting wet on the inside, proper wells, curves, slopes, drains, etc.