Five people turned out on this cold but very sunny day for this Wildwood Trackers outing. We hiked in a short distance from the road and headed off-trail to a sunny site overlooking a frozen marsh. Here we built a snow shelter (not in the marsh, but in the adjoining woods!).

The type of snow shelter we constructed is made by piling up a big pile of snow.

Here is the start of that task.

Finished piling the snow. This snowpile is then left to sit for an hour or two. During this time the snow hardens up.

Here's two of the group sunbathing, winter-style!

We also went exploring and ate lunch while the snowpile hardened.

After lunch we hollowed out the snow pile to create the shelter. This pic shows us starting the job.

Digging deeper....

Done!

Except for a door, which we didn't make. One could make one by placing some sort of insulating material in between two layers of sticks, and tying the whole thing together.

A view from inside.

We figured this shelter could sleep three people fairly easily; four if they really liked each other.

It's nice and quiet inside the shelter -- the snow walls effectively block out much of the sound from outside.

Here's the snow shelter two weeks later. No one had been here since it was built.

However, it had deteriorated quite a bit due to several days of warm (above zero C) temperatures. There were two holes in the roof, where the snow had been thinner than the rest of the shelter.

Another view of the two-week-old shelter.

Survival Shelter Snow Cordage Furniture Winter

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