Winter is coming in the northern hemisphere, time to ask some hard-hitting questions.
Are you a burrower with a hollowed out snow drift? A mason who shapes and packs each block? Do you have snowball caches in case of attack?
Share your style and techniques.
It’s been decades since the UK was cold and snowy enough for us to be able to build snow forts. Iirc it was possibly as far back as 1989.
Fucking North Atlantic current keeping our climate mild.
And humid 😰
I was always a burrower when a bit of extra wall on top. Kind of dreamed of being more mason.
As kids, my brothers and I would wait for the public snowplow to clear the road and would dig tunnels in the piles they created…typical gross kids. We had to take our snow gear off at the entryway of the (military) housing unit we lived in so it didn’t matter. It was fun.
With the door wide open. The snow fort is a trap. Im not in it. Im in the snow bank under the snow waiting for you to approach it. Its over for you and you dont know it.
I’m just impressed you engineered a snow fort with a door that opens.
Pile the snow into a big mound, pack it down, then hollow out the middle. Camping overnight is optional.
This is the way. I grew up farther north (compared to now) with decent mounds from snow plows so it was just a matter of waiting for those and then tunneling into them.
These days I shovel the snow from a larger area to build my mound before tunneling. Kids love it regardless ☺️
This is delightful. I haven’t quinzhee camped since I was a teenager, but once my friends and I made one tall enough to stand in with the help of a friendly gravekeeper and his backhoe.
Thanks! This has become a January tradition with my kids. We are trying a different winter camp location in 2026, and I really hope there will be enough snow to do this again!
I’ve never seen snow except through an airplane window
Wow! Are you interested in seeing snow in person someday, or nah?
If only it wasn’t so cold! :)
It’s been a long time since I built a snow fort, but I was partial to the mason method. Of course there must be a snowball cache! Because I know my sister is lurking somewhere…
There hasn’t been enough snow for that in a while. Many years ago I used some big plastic boxes to pack and mold snow bricks though, and that really workes great for build a little “iglo”. Stood for over a week, was the last thing that melted in the garden. Good memories :)
You still get…snow?
That even stays?I steal it from behind the ice rink.
I build quinzhees, a snow shelter that can be built at any temperature below freezing. Once the temperature gets below minus 5, snow no longer packs. Quinzhees can be built at any temperature.
What hell is “snow?”
In this context? Cocaine.
If only…
