Brian, Tyson and I decided to do make an igloo this weekend. We went up to SEymour First Peak, and looked for
a suitable location for our home of the night. Enroute to the First Peak, we passed through a few slopes of
pure ice. We knew then it was going to be a tough day.
We started to cut blocks once we picked our location. We immediately realized that there were so many thick ice
layers beneath the snow. Some of our snowsaws would not even cut through these ice layers.
We initially aimed for building a bigger igloo, as hours passed by, we realized it was too big of an igloo to build,
we shrunk down twice to accommodate our goal of finishing it for the night. We had quite a bit of success in laying
down the foundation and the first 5 layers, but we struggled throught the 6th and 7th layers, which we were so cold and
hungry at the time. We had to stop to make dinner and re-hydrate ourselves, and continued to finish it off.
The weather was not cooperating neither. It started snowing when we were about half-way done. Wind was also picking up, and at
one point, the wind was so strong that snow was flying horizontally in our faces.
Once the roof was close up, we could enjoy a few moments of quietness, without the howling wind and the snow flakes. We then continue
to fill of the gaps so that wind couldn't get into our igloo.
Climbing up the icy slopes,... nothing but a big sheet of ice.
The wind made the snow on the trees so beautiful.
It was quite romantic sitting here ... too bad I wasn't the boyfriend in the picture.
One of the igloos we passed by enroute to our location.
Behind us is the City of Vancouver and Stanley Park
The heavy snow/ice cracked the snowpack at the crest of these slopes.
First Peak of Seymour
We started cutting our blocks from this crack.
Brian brought his homemade wooden snowsaw .
These would be our foundation blocks.
Brian was setting his camera on a tripod to automatically take picture at 1 min interval.
Cutting and removing snow blocks.
Measuring the diameter of our igloo.
Removing more blocks to room for the foundation.
Laying our foundation layer.
Fitting the block tightly.
Starting the 2nd layer ...
We had a visitor .. Victoria.
Slimming down the fat blocks ...
3rd layer ....
Don't know what we were doing ....
Tyson was removing snow to make room for our quarry....
Finishing the 4th layer
ummm... no clue what we were doing here ...
Starting the 5th layer.
Tyson harvested the biggest block ....
We were transferring the snow blocks into the igloo, before the wall became too high
The 6th layer, ... I think.
I swapped places with Tyson to make more blocks.
Closing up the 6th layer
I think Tyson here was clearing the snow to make room for our doorway into the igloo
The last block of the 6th layer.
The beginning of our miserable layer.
It was tough to fit this layer as we were running out of good sized blocks.
Well, we stuck on this layer for a long time.
Put one up, one fell down...
Getting dark now ...
Continue to transfer the blocks into the igloo.
You'll see the next 4 pics, we have no progress at all.
We tried fitting these smaller blocks .. but we failed.
I think here, we decided to make dinner and continue after.
Notice that long block on the right hand side, I think it became our roog at the end.
A fast forward version of our igloo building (2.6 MB file).
Closing up the roof ...
A moment of completion.
It wasn't a camp fire, just priming the stove.
OUr light source inside the igloo.
Trust me, it won't fall.
Want a cup of hot chocolate ?
My legs hurt ....
I just wanted to go to sleep.
It was warm and cozy.
Hig ceiling ... at least 6'5"
How it looks from the outside.
It glowed blue when the sun was coming up in the morning.
Wasn't the perfect roof, but hey, we finished it at least ...
You can clearly see the ice layers ....
Good morning ....! A good night sleep ? Yes !
We were checking out our "Hotel Seymour".
A walk-through of our igloo (20 MB file).
Hey guys, wait for me, I haven't finished packing yet.
A glimpse of sunshine through the foggy morning.
My name is "Tyson", FYI for the ladies out there.
The perfect snowflake.
If you have watched the video clip, he was the big squirrel. His name was Christian. He came up the mountain at midnight, dug a snowcave, and found us the following morning.
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