Winter camping around Edmonton Jan 3-4, 2004
Quinzy n.: snow cave built
from a pile of soft snow that is allowed to set (Lexicon of
Snow)
Jeff, Richard
and Faisal let their male egos get the better of them and decided to go camping
for a night during the Canadian winter. Our goal was to build a Quinzy to sleep
in for the night. It is similar in function to an Igloo, but is built
differently. Basically you start by making a huge pile of snow, pack it in,
leave it to cure for three hours, and then remove snow from the inside to make
the living space. We also took a tent as backup, but didn't need it.
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Time |
Temp (C) |
Wind speed
(km/h) |
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Jan 3, 2004
17:00 |
-29.7 |
11 |
Finished
packing and prep. Some equipment rented from MEC (-18C sleeping bag, -12C
sleeping bag, 3 thermarests, 4-man tent incase the Quinzy failed). |
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18:00 |
-26.5 |
9 |
Dropped off in
Whitemud Ravine. Walked on the frozen creek for about 30 minutes to find an
appropriate site with enough snow to build the Quinzy. Around 6:30 pm started
shoveling snow into a pile. |
|
19:00 |
-23.7 |
15 |
Realized we
were expending a lot of effort to walk snow to the pile, so we started using
the tarp to transport snow |
|
20:00 |
-20.6 |
19 |
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21:00 |
-20.0 |
26 |
A front
pushed through the area, clearing the sky so we could see the moon and stars,
but also bringing some wicked winds for about 30 minutes, as shown by the
wind speed data. The virus
that Richard had been fighting for the last few weeks got the best of him,
and we decided to evacuate him once construction of the Quinzy was completed. |
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22:00 |
-20.7 |
20 |
Completed
the pile of snow for the Quinzy, about 8 ft in diameter and 5 feet high.
Found some pine branches that we embedded in the roof to hopefully add some
structural stability. Used shovels to pack the snow. At 10:15 pm we walked
back along the creek and reached the road at 10:45 pm. Along the way Jeff
almost fell through a soft spot in the ice. Richard's father picked him up.
Jeff and Faisal proceded back to base and reached about 11:15 pm. |
|
23:00 |
-22.8 |
17 |
Jeff and
Faisal finally settled down to make dinner. At first the lighters wouldn't
work, but we found that if we warmed them against our body then they would
light. Faisal lit the liquid camp canister. It went out after 2 minutes. We
tried lighting it again to no avail. It turned out the liquid fuel had become
solid, and no amount of warming against our body helped. We decided to make a
fire out of the small branches and leaves in the area. Although they were not
wet, even the grass would only burn for a few seconds before going out. After
about an hour, our hands were so frozen we couldn't operate the lighters
anymore. We had chosen to bring hot dogs because they are precooked and can
be eaten raw, but they were frozen, as were the buns. We settled for eating a
protein bar each. |
|
Jan 4, 0:00 |
-22.3 |
17 |
We still had
to wait till 1:30 for the Quinzy to harden. To warm up our bodies, we went
for a walk. The route back was longer than we thought, and for a little while
we thought we had got lost. |
|
1:00 |
-23.2 |
15 |
We decided
to start digging out the Quinzy at 1:00 am. Jeff dug out an entrance on the
ground, about 1.5 ft high, 2 ft wide. He started cutting away at the inside.
Faisal kept expecting the whole thing to collapse, but it didn't. After a
while Jeff couldn't reach in any further, so he slid his upper body inside
and hacked away at the roof. At the same time Faisal pulled the snow out from
the entrance. We poked 12" sticks through the top of the roof so that
Jeff didn't make them too thin. |
|
2:00 |
-25.3 |
13 |
Around 2:00 am
we were exhausted and ready to sleep. We decided the Quinzy we big enough.
Faisal laid out the tarp, air mattresses, and sleeping bags (rated for –18C).
It was very cramped inside, and it took along time for both of us to get
settled. We head to slide in on our backs, head first. To leave we slid out
feet first. |
|
3:00 |
-25.2 |
15 |
Clumsy
Faisal kept bumping his head on the roof. We both worried he was going to
make it collapse, dumping a foot of snow on our heads. Lights out around 3:15
am. |
|
4:00 |
-25.1 |
13 |
The Quinzy
turned out to be quite comfortable. It was warm enough that we could not see
our break (i.e. about 0 degrees). However, it trapped moisture and everything
got damp: our gloves, jackets, touques, etc. Luckily we had synthetic sleeping
bags that did not absorb moisture. At one point Faisal's hands were cold
because his gloves were damp, so he removed the gloves and slept like that. |
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5:00 |
-24.8 |
15 |
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6:00 |
-28.1 |
9 |
Faisal had to
go to the bathroom. It took 20 minutes just to get in and out of the Quinzy. |
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7:00 |
-32.2 |
4 |
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8:00 |
-31.4 |
4 |
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9:00 |
-28.3 |
0 |
We woke up
around 9:30 |
|
10:00 |
-30.6 |
4 |
Faisal went
outside just as man walking his large puppy passed by. The man was
inquisitive but friendly and it was our first chance to show off. While we
were talking, the excited dog ran towards the Quinzy, up to the top, and
started jumping around! We both had images of it collapsing on top of all our
gear. But it stood up! All of Faisal's fears of it falling during the night
were unfounded. We started
to pack, which was very painful. Our blood was still cold from sleeping and
our hands would freeze from 15-30 seconds of exposure. Our toes and noses
were frostbitten, and Jeff's jeans were damp. |
|
11:00 |
-26.6 |
11 |
Richard came
back to help us carry the gear out. By 11:30 we were back in the car. |
|
12:00 |
-23.1 |
9 |
Drinking hot
chocolate and eating my mom's Chinese food in my warm house. I have even more
respect for the Inuit than I did yesterday morning. |
Climatic data:
http://www.climate.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/climateData/hourlydata_e.html?timeframe=1&Prov=XX&StationID=1865&Year=2004&Month=1&Day=3
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