Middle Earth Ranger Forum

So I went camping two weekends ago in northern Wisconsin. I was camping with to of my other buddies in modern gamer since it got down to -16 degrees. But we built a quinzhee which was a pile of snow that we dug out. It was really cool especially at night with our candle lighting the inside up.

Very cool! I have never slept in a quinzee or igloo, but we used to do an annual snow camp in our wall tent. We would stomp the snow down to pack it into a floor and set up the tent. We had a woodstove inside so it was pretty comfortable. I have been much colder camping in the rain versus snow,,I'll take snow over rain any day.

Wulfgar I love camping in a wall tent since my dad used to take me camping like that a lot in the winter it was amazing. I'd take snow over rain any day too.

Very cool!

I did a night in a snow cave in Idaho mountains once upon a time - the biggest surprise was how soaked we got digging the darn things!
That could have been dangerous in more survival circumstances, I imagine. Did you have a similar issue, and if so how did you deal with it?

My memory is that we dug ours a bit too big, which made it a bit difficult for the lone candle to heat much. How big were yours?

Elleth wrote:Very cool!

I did a night in a snow cave in Idaho mountains once upon a time - the biggest surprise was how soaked we got digging the darn things!
That could have been dangerous in more survival circumstances, I imagine. Did you have a similar issue, and if so how did you deal with it?

My memory is that we dug ours a bit too big, which made it a bit difficult for the lone candle to heat much. How big were yours?

We didn't get too wet but we did get a little damp but we had dry clothes to change into. and we made it big enough for three skinny teen boys so it was about 5 feet long by about 4 feet wide. We were definitely cuddling in it because it wasn't super big. But we did have enough room to sit up in it.

What do you know, it's a real word: Quinzhee

Kortoso wrote:What do you know, it's a real word: Quinzhee

Haha yep it is a great word for it I think.

I've slept out in the snow in modern kit a few times. Bombed out on my most recent trip, but I hope to have a successful overnight sometime very soon.

Hunh... so better too big than too small it sounds like. That must have been a "fun" midnight hike out.

Kudos for sticking to it after that! Next time for sure.

Elleth wrote:That must have been a "fun" midnight hike out.

Hiking in the snow by moonlight is actually really, really cool. It's funny how such a cool and unique experience only happens due to screwing up.