Bushwalk Australia

Had an interesting conversation recently with my brother-in-law about the time he built a snow cave on Mt Ossa. It was quite a process from start to finish & they stayed in it overnight. Magic!

Has anyone built one & how did you go about it?

Lyndoor

Yes have dug a few Snow Caves in my day ,nothing too elaborate and always in a big snow bank(Marigold Valley on the Horse Track was a favourite) only slept in one once and it was not that flash!!
Never built an Igloo type but suspect you would want to be spending more than one night in it owing to the effort involved.
c

I was thinking the same, Corvus!
Looked them up on the Net & there was more to them than I first thought. One interesting tip for a cave was to have your entrance sloping down to the outside so the cold air "falls" down & out the hole. Scientific!!

Lyndoor

I haven't built one but have benefited from the work done by others.

Two years ago up on Ossa the SES were doing training which included building the "igloo type". They referred to it as a Snow Dome. We were planning to stay up there the day they were coming down, so we thought we'd utilise it. I believe they put many hours work into it. It was very solid and could support all 8 of them standing ontop of it. It slept the 3 of us quite nicely. They are not warm like i had heard previously. They are however eerily quiet. All wind/weather noise is eliminated. Its probably not a bad idea to have a ground sheet for the floor just to avoid slight dampness. Anyway, we enjoyed the experience thorougly. Would of been even better if we hadn't left the gas cannisters down at Pelion. A winters night at the roof of the state in an ice box with no hot dinner or hot drinks. Doh!

Hey, jwalker, cool pics...and well done, gotta admire the adventurous spirit!

lyndoor