Needless to say, I've learned a few things about snow cave and winter camping. Below are a few of the things I've learned:
- If you are going to be hiking at all to where you will be camping, get some cheap plastic sleds that you can strap things to, with a pull rope on it. Then bring a backpack with most of your personal gear, and load the sled with your stove, water, fuel, firewood, kitchen box etc. Then, if you have time you can hike up the hill and sled down for fun!
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| Sleds make it easy to haul up gear to your site |
- We've sometimes been able to connect caves together with tunnels in the morning after we got up, but one year we connected them together before we went to bed, thinking it would be cool to be able to talk to each other through them. Well, we learned a few things:
- Snow absorbs so much sound that we couldn't really hear anything in the neighboring cave, so we didn't end up visiting at all
- I was in the cave that was lower (in elevation) than the other cave. The guy that was with me was sleeping right below the tunnel connecting us to the upper cave. Well, all the cold air from their cave rushed down through our tunnel, past him and out our door, giving him a cold breeze on him all night. It would have been warmer for him without the connecting tunnel.
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| Connecting the caves (3 connected in this case) is fun, but wait till after you wake up to do it |
- If the snow is powdery, you'll need to pack it down before you start digging. In the picture below, we piled up the snow but didn't pack it down and it collapsed twice while digging it. We ended up just digging a trench and sleeping in it instead of a cave. We were still warm, but it wasn't the same.
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| Pack the snow if it's powdery or it'll collapse while you're digging it out |
- Feed scoops from IFA and Avalanche Shovels work great in different types of snow. Other things that work great are regular or square nosed shovels that have the handles cut down to about 12-18".
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| Feed Scoop and an Avalanche Shovel |
- Shovels to scoop out the snow and throw it away (or to the top of the cave) need to be "scooping" shovels, not "pushing" snow shovels. Some snow shovels work great for pushing snow off the driveway, but you can't really scoop it up and throw the snow with it. Those won't work too great when you're trying to throw the snow out of a hole 5 feet deep in the snow.
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| A "pushing" shovel |
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| Scooping shovels work better for scooping up snow and throwing it away |
- Use a plastic box for your food and utensils and stuff (cardboard just get's wet and weak). Then carve out a kitchen in the snow. You can make shelves for your stove and food box, a serving table, or whatever you want. No sense cooking with your stove on the ground just because you don't have a table.
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| Make your own kitchen |
- If you start a fire on top of the snow, it will slowly sink down into the snow and soon the fire will be 4 feet down in a hole and the only way to get warm will be to stand directly over the fire in the smoke. But if you dig down to the ground and dig around so you can be down by the fire, you can be around the fire and stay warm. If you only have a few people, you can dig out one side around the fire and let the snow wall on the other side reflect the heat back to you. If you have a big group, dig out all around the fireplace so everyone can get around it.
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| Fires started on the snow will sink down till they are useless for heat |
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| For just a few people, dig out one side and let the snow wall reflect the heat back to you. This also will allow the smoke to go straight up and away from you. |
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| If you have lots of people, dig all round the fire so more people can be near the fire. Then you can cut seats and stuff into the snow - sit on a piece of wood, or plastic to keep your backside dry |
- It's amazing how much a candy bar can do to help you warm up, have energy, and raise your spirits. Keep some candy bars in your pack to eat when you get cold or tired. When you pack, think about how each candy bar will be when frozen. Carmel candy bars freeze so hard that they're hard to eat. I prefer peanut butter and chocolate candy bars because they give sugar and protein.
- Keep your spirits up. If you know that you have a plan, you will be more able to be optimistic and keep the boys busy. If you're busy, you feel better, and you'll stay warmer
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