Snow caves

[Mooseman70]

Does anyone have a favorite area to go and make snow caves to camp overnight in? I'm taking a Scout Troop out next weekend and they want to hit up Strawberry Reservoir.

Are there better locations to do this sort of activity that anyone has had prior experience with?

I've never made a snow cave before, so I'm not quite sure what to do, what tools are needed, etc. Needless to say, I'm thinking it's going to be long, cold, night. :cold:

Any info/advice would be beneficial!

Thank you!

[DOSS]

I would assume strawberry would be good for snow.. you really just need a decent base amount of snow to start with :)

basically all you need is a shovel and a knife :) pile snow and dig HEHE.. well there is more to it than that but my abilities to type up how to do it are obviously lacking :afro: but you do need a few hours to do it right..

Snowcaves are rather warm and can be nice and comfy if built right.. how many boys are you taking up? are they all planning to snow cave?

[Mooseman70]

There will be about 15 Scouts, plus leaders. I believe all of them want to snow cave, but this will be the first time for many of them, as well as for me. I plan on bringing some buckets in case the Scouts want to fill them with snow and try and build some type of igloo structure. It doesn't really matter to me what type of structure they sleep in. Looking at the 10-day forecast, it looks like the temp at night will be around 10 degrees. I need to study up some more on the snow caves and see if I can find some good info to prepare us for this campout.

[Glockguy]

Just take about 5 Tylenol PM and you will do just fine.:naughty:

[uintahiker]

When I did snowcaves as a scout, we'd head up two weeks before to pile snow, and 2 days before to dig them out. That way we weren't all wet when it came to actually using them.

[Mooseman70]

That's a great idea. I have been doing a lot of thinking on this, and our Troop does not have the equipment to dig these caves to being with (i.e. - avalanche shovels, etc.), so I'm seriously leading towards scrapping the snow caving aspect of this until I can secure the proper equipemnt and learn more about construction, etc. I really do not want to have any hypothermia cases because the Scouts bedded down in wet / sweat soaked clothing from making a shelter 2 hours before they go to sleep. :cold: I've been there personally and it was MISERABLE.

Thanks for the food for thought!

[uintahiker]

That's a great idea. I have been doing a lot of thinking on this, and our Troop does not have the equipment to dig these caves to being with (i.e. - avalanche shovels, etc.), so I'm seriously leading towards scrapping the snow caving aspect of this until I can secure the proper equipemnt and learn more about construction, etc. I really do not want to have any hypothermia cases because the Scouts bedded down in wet / sweat soaked clothing from making a shelter 2 hours before they go to sleep. :cold: I've been there personally and it was MISERABLE.

Thanks for the food for thought!

We'd dig them out with garden trowels or the folding shovels you can get from an army/navy store.

If there's a 8+ inch layer of crusty snow, you could probably do igloos. I don't know how to build them, but it's probably pretty self-explanatory. Just tell the kids that they can't get rambunctious in there or it will fall on them. On second thought, don't tell them that, it'll just encourage them.

[Jaxx]

you can dig them out with regular shovels. Best way to do it is a couple weeks in advance then dig them out early so the insides can settle and freeze. take tents just in case. We did this last month up AF canyon. We didn't dig them early and they didn't collapse luckily.

[denaliguide]

they are real easy to make all you really need is a shovel with a short handle for the guy digging and some grain scoops for the folks on the outside to move away what comes out. ideally you find a big drift to dig into. but even if there is only 6 inches of snow you can make a really huge pile ( like 8 ft high and 15 feet across) and let it set for an hour (the snow has to have time to sinter) and dig into it. leave the walls a foot thick and punch a vent hole with a ski pole. make sure you have some good wet gear. you will get soaked digging a cave.

you will be toasty inside the cave. a candle and body heat will have them nice and cozy. you don't want them to warm because then they will start dripping all over your gear. make sure you have an elevated sleeping platform and you will be more comfortable.