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Building a Quinzee for Winter Camping & Survival

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Hey how's everyone's winter going? Out having some winter fun and decided to put together a new video on how to build a simple one-man quinzee. Could have gone all out making a giant snow hut but decided to make a basic solo survival shelter. It was -25 C or -13 F, but was super comfortable and warm on the inside. Check it out and let me know what you guys think.

- Cheers
 
Good video Eric...nice camera placement.

God dang I felt claustraphobic though..lol. Too bad you couldnt find some drifts to tunnel into ...but that is a good representation of a really bad scenarion where you need to construct a shelter from nothing. Lots of work for a short video.

Christine
 
It may help to "porcupine" the pre-dug quinzee mound with sticks 8-10 inches in length before starting to dig it out, to give an indication of how close to the outer edge you can dig from the inside. All such shelter types, quinzee or snow cave carved in a snow drift, must have an air vent, especially if candles are used inside. I make and keep my vent open by using a ski pole. The basket makes just the right size hole. Be sure to smoothly round the interior surface with no sharp edges of snow as much as possible to help prevent water drips if it warms too much.

I always figured to allow a minimum of one hour to pile the snow, another quiet hour to let it sinter, and a third hour to dig it out. While sintering you can often hear it make a 'thwump" sound as the snow compacts itself. To get it finished before dark means starting not later than 2:00 pm in the winter. During the process you will get wet, both on the inside from sweat, and on the outside from laying in the snow. I will strip down to a base layer and don a rain suit to keep relatively dry in both cases.

During a Boy Scout winter training event (Okpik-Gawasa) a few years ago in the Adirondacks, we built several kinds of snow shelters, Quinzees, trenches, and natural material mounds with tarps, and tents. I built a large demonstration quinzee for myself with an interior elevated sleeping platform and a couple of candle shelves. That night the outside temperature went down to -30F. All the scouts who did not build a quinzee ended up going into the dining hall at some time during the night to get warm by the wood stove. In my quinzee the interior temperature remained near +30F just from my two candles. Many leader's cars did not start the next morning.
 
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Very interesting and informative! I've built walls using a milk crate at the Humble Hovel and then laid some plywood on top and a tarp for a door just for the heck of it. I don't think I could spend a night in your setup as that is too closed in for me, like Iskweo said, claustraphobic is I! Thanks for posting!

dougd
 
Yea it was definitely not luxurious, meant to be a quick solo survival shelter, was very warm and cozy despite being so tight on space within the interior of the shelter. The video was meant to illustrate how you build a quincee in a pinch with very limited resources.
 
Shelters built with the primary objective to provide warmth and protection from the elements need to be small and cramped to minimize the space to be heated. In a snow type shelter, as long as you can avoid touching and partial melting of the interior walls, the smaller and more cramped the better. The same is true any kind of shelter, made with natural materials or otherwise. Tarps and stick frame shelters also need to be low and small. I will admit that the quinzees I have built (made more for practice, fun, and demonstration than for actual emergency use) tended to be rather spacious inside.
 
Shelters built with the primary objective to provide warmth and protection from the elements need to be small and cramped to minimize the space to be heated. In a snow type shelter, as long as you can avoid touching and partial melting of the interior walls, the smaller and more cramped the better. The same is true any kind of shelter, made with natural materials or otherwise. Tarps and stick frame shelters also need to be low and small. I will admit that the quinzees I have built (made more for practice, fun, and demonstration than for actual emergency use) tended to be rather spacious inside.

You are totally correct, the smaller the space, the easier it it to keep warm.

- Cheers


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I had a Quinzee once, but he ran away. Me, I just build snow caves
 
Kathleen and and I used to ski up into the alpine on mostly day trips in the mountains north of Vancouver. One time, with friends, we decided to overnight in snow caves. We built ours to share with one other couple. The guy, Alan, was six feet two inches, and he said he wanted the cave to be large enough to sit up in. I don’t remember how long it took to make, but I think about three hours. It was quite roomy and comfortable. It even had shelves in the walls. I don’t remember putting in a vent in the ceiling. Like your quinzee, yknpdlr, the temperature in our snow cave remained just below freezing throughout the night. We slept well.

One of our other friends dug a much, much smaller cave, perhaps similar to the size of your quinzee, Eric. He said he was too hot, and the ceiling and walls began to melt. Said he spent a very wet, uncomfortable night.

If I might generalize, based on only one experience, it seems that roomy is winter camping, while small is winter survival!
 
Quinzees for school clubs have fallen out of favour due to a couple of a accidental collapses that resulted in death. Problem usually results from building them too big in weather that is too warm. our club has a story about a collapse that occurred before I was there. Lots of frantic digging got the little guy out, but he was blue, took a while to regain his composure. I have slept overnight in them, but for snow structures, if you have time, igloo Ed's kit builds superior structures.
 
I usually stack some branches up un a sort of dome before I cover them with snow. This prevents cave ins.
 
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