How to survive in the mountains in wintertime? Go build your self an Igloo!
Chris and I took the chance of perfect snow conditions to experience one night in the alps in an selfmade igloo. It was also a good project to test the latest ivention of him and his friends, a snowsaw to cut bricks of snow. Our plan was to climb up in a remote alpine valley in the Kühtai area (western Austria). Using our skiers to get there, build up the Igloo and then test it for one night right away.
The most important thing is to have enough snow of course. Then find a good spot, take your stick and draw a circle to get an idea where you will build the walls around. Then cut out the bricks and shape them, to fit the need of an leaning angle to build the couple. You have to build around, slowly increasing the wall height. The most tricky part is completing the last brick and making the roof complete. Plan minimum six hours for the Igloo construction!
Hopefully the pictures give you an idea how to do it. By the way, It was not one of my best nights but we survived, which was originally our plan.
Check this out as well: