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Snow day

The recent blizzard was more than enough of a reason to get outside and build a snow fort! With temperatures at 5 degrees or colder, the most important thing to have kept in mind while building this fort was to maintain a suitable temperature to safely house a human being. While using solely natural materials and a 10x10 sheet of plastic, the main objective was to create a space of warmth for a person to survive. 
The first image shows me creating the outline for the snow fort. I began using my hands to claw away at the snow (keeping in mind the limited use of materials we were allowed to use) to successfully create what looks like a crater in the ground, (shown in picture 2).


 

The crater expanded into a long horizontal tube-like crater. The original intention was to line the bottom of this crater with shrubbery from the woods. This would serve as insulation for the bottom of the fort, to again, enhance the warmth in the small space. The sticks were included in this picture to preview for what was to come. The sticks as well as the shrubbery were gathered from the woods in my backyard.

 

This picture, again, shows more sticks and shrubbery to increase the level of warmth in the fort.

 

Picture 5 shows me laying in the crater. As you can see, the space is compact, but again, this is for a reason. Our original thought for building this snow fort was to dig a hole into the large pile of snow at the end of my driveway, which was constructed from a snowplow plowing my driveway. However, we realized that this was not a suitable space for survival purposes. A smaller, much more compact space would successfully keep the heat within the fort, especially from the insulation of the shrubbery and lower levels of oxygen.


After testing the space of our fort, I proceeded by laying down a sheet of plastic 10x10 tarp. The tarp would be used to block the cold wind, from which the direction of the wind was predicted using the very reliable "lick your finger and hold it up to the wind" method.



Getting back into the crater, now lined with a plastic tarp as well as shrubbery to increase the warmth, I had my partner, Daniella, put one end of each stick through the holes in the tarp, and the other end securely in the ground, mounted together with snow. Now, the wind would be blocked by the side of the tarp, and the warmth would be trapped within the small space of the fort.

 


 

A small area intended for a fire was also constructed using leftover sticks and rocks from underneath my porch, to ensure that the materials were warm and would catch fire. The pile was also protected from the wind by the tarp. The fire could be used as more warmth, or for heating food. 


This picture shows an unfinished snow fort as a panorama. With the tarp added, the fort would stretch from the end of the left stick to the end of the small bundle of sticks and rocks intended for a fire. Although the fort may deem small and uncomfortable, it would have been just as much work to construct a hole in a large pile of snow. However, our fort had warmth and insulation, which we decided would be better for the survival of a human being.


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