One of the extraordinary experiences while visiting the north, is the chance to see an igloo, or help to build an igloo, or for the very adventurous, to sleep in an igloo! We now have two igloos nearby that were built by visiting groups, with much assistance from our CNSC director, Mike Goodyear. Mike has done this many times, and he is a very patient teacher.
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| Construction of the Earthwatch Igloo Begins! |
The third igloo is in the process of being built by our Earthwatch team. They absolutely plan to sleep in it, three at a time. They are scrambling to get the igloo finished so that everyone will get a chance at the experience. The remarkable thing is that they watched a video called
How to Build an Igloo, and then went to work. This link is to the video they watched, but upon doing a search, I discovered there are many others. This particular movie was created in 1946, and features two Inuit men. As Steve, the leader of Earthwatch said, "The technology has not changed."
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| Round One! Note the ramp for spiral construction. |
Yesterday afternoon, we visited the busy workers. One of the Earthwatch crew was cutting the blocks from an area which looked like a "snow quarry". The others were shaping and placing the blocks in a spiral fashion, which you can see in the first photo. This photo is from another igloo, but I included it so that you could see the ramp and spiral construction. It is all done with machetes and hand saws.
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| Blocks are added to the spiral, tilting inward. |
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Work continued throughout the morning, and was begun again after dinner. Around midnight, the crew stopped for some well needed rest. After all, this is their recreation time, not their work time. Breakfast is at 7, and there was a long day ahead of them to collect snowpack data. This afternoon, I went out to see what progress had been made. Check below for the progress made as of last night. You can see there is an entrance now as well!
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| The Latest Progress with Entryway |
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There was one more surprise for us. Snowhenge! Because of the overcast skies, the lighting was a challenge.
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| Snowhenge |
I never knew that igloos were built like a spiral. Are you going to try sleeping in it? Love the Snowhenge.
ReplyDeleteYou never know. Last year we slept in the quinzhee, a big pile of snow with an excavated cave. We kind of figured it was a once in a lifetime experience. Perhaps we'll have a tea party in the igloo, or maybe a sip of the Permafrost Schnapps would be more appropriate. I'll have Brian use his new fisheye lens to take a photo of the inside.
DeleteFinally, caught up on your entries. I appreciate the FB posts as well. Glad you are still enjoying the experience. I, on the other hand, am looking forward to the 50 degree weather predicted for the end of the week. Can't come soon enough.
ReplyDeleteYour identity is a mystery to me! Free(wo)man- I've deduced that you must be from Massachusetts, given the weather information, and a woman, and a Facebook friend. Still, I have a lot of candidates after looking at my Facebook friends. I've had fun trying to solve this, but I give up! Can't wait to hear.
ReplyDeleteI did send a second reply identifying myself but maybe I forgot to hit publish. I was surprised to see this very old blog handle come up.
DeleteCheryl
P.S. Tim did remove snow from the vehicle and gave it a start. Of course, now it is snow covered again.