The ass-clown who wrote that was no Inuit.

Building it is easy.

It's getting the permits that's a b*tch.

That's interesting. But if you really need an emergency shelter in the snow, a trench shelter is quicker and simpler. Just dig down about four feet and start cutting blocks to windward. Once the trench is seven or eight feet long, cover the top by steepling the blocks. Toss in your ground cover and sleeping bag. Then hunker down and think about what you are going to do next since you are obviously in trouble if you needed to build a shelter in the snow.

i would suggest staying inside with a nice book, a roaring fire, and a cup of hot chocolate.

bukkak3: i would suggest staying inside with a nice book, a roaring fire, and a cup of hot chocolate.

This.

I am waiting for the first reports of fatalities, involving corndawg who builds one of these "igloos" only to discover that it is like building your own avalanche trap.

Darwin beckons.

I watched Les Stroud give a lesson on how NOT to build an igloo.

Who in their right mind (that isn't on an Eskimo hunting expedition) would use a saw to make an igloo? When I was a kid, my friends and I would just shovel out our driveways into a big pile on our front lawns, and use the shovels to tunnel into the piles. We never got enough snow to have to worry about a serious collapse, and when the inevitable happened, we converted the ex-tunnel into a fortified, open-topped turret for snowball fights. It was a great time.

What's snow?

/lives in Texas....

Laz Long: That's interesting. But if you really need an emergency shelter in the snow, a trench shelter is quicker and simpler. Just dig down about four feet and start cutting blocks to windward. Once the trench is seven or eight feet long, cover the top by steepling the blocks. Toss in your ground cover and sleeping bag. Then hunker down and think about what you are going to do next since you are obviously in trouble if you needed to build a shelter in the snow.

Or even easier: start by finding yourself a pine, spruce or fir tree. Its cover will instantly provide a snow berm around the base, with no snow fall near the trunk. It saves you from expending energy that building any sort of igloo requires, which you can use providing additional coverage as needed.

hogans: Or even easier: start by finding yourself a pine, spruce or fir tree. Its cover will instantly provide a snow berm around the base, with no snow fall near the trunk. It saves you from expending energy that building any sort of igloo requires, which you can use providing additional coverage as needed.

Unless it's ass cold out, and then the open top affords you no savings of body heat. The trench and igloo are better when it's cold and windy.
Putting pine bows on the floor of your shelter does wonders for keeping the ground from soaking up your body heat though.

CtrlAltDelete: Building it is easy.

It's getting the permits that's a b*tch.

NJ yes

The Grinch: Who in their right mind (that isn't on an Eskimo hunting expedition) would use a saw to make an igloo?

Anyone who wants square blocks?

How to build an Igloo (new window)

Thank you Film Board of Canada

midnite_farker: What's snow?

/lives in Texas....

Cold.

/lives in Quebec

What to do if you're stranded out on a frozen tundra with no possible chance of rescue, forced to build an igloo to avoid freezing to death:

1. Think about how good life has been to you so far.
2. If life hasn't been good to you so far which, considering your current circumstances, is far more likely, consider how lucky you are that it won't be troubling you for very much longer.

This is the only building instruction set I've seen that has make a snow angel as a step.

To hell with how. I wanna know why.

start by finding yourself a pine, spruce or fir tree...

Reminds me of the guy in Jack London's "To Build a Fire"

"It was his own fault or, rather, his mistake. He should not have built the fire under the spruce tree. He should have built it in the open...Now the tree under which he had done this carried a weight of snow on its boughs. No wind had blown for weeks, and each bough was fully freighted. Each time he had pulled a twig he had communicated a slight agitation to the tree--an imperceptible agitation, so far as he was concerned, but an agitation sufficient to bring about the disaster. High up in the tree one bough capsized its load of snow. This fell on the boughs beneath, capsizing them. This process continued, spreading out and involving the whole tree. It grew like an avalanche, and it descended without warning upon the man and the fire, and the fire was blotted out! Where it had burned was a mantle of fresh and disordered snow."

OWN3D!!1

Cripes I learned to build an igloo when I was 5 dere eh?

tokennrg: Thank you Film Board of Canada

Awesome find.

How to build an Igloo (new window)

Thank you Film Board of Canada

Awesome find. "The two Eskimos admire the wooden buildings of the white man, but for their own dwelling, they will build -- an igloo."

/way to go, white man, way to go.

well .. I ripped out the page from the Globe this morning. My kids said - oh yeah! - having built several other rudimentary (yet functioning snow forts/snow ball protection. We have had enough snow in the last few days, but it's been raining all afternoon (see Pats game for reference) so all of it is a soggy mess. I want to build one and have it in the back yard all winter. Love the link too!

tokennrg: How to build an Igloo (new window)

Thank you Film Board of Canada

That's neat. Somehow I get the feeling that if I were to try that I'd get about halfway up and then my "igloo" would become a new pile of snow.

You got a igloos chance in Hell of making a snowball from that...no wait....you got a hellish...no....bah.

Crosscut or rip?

Eskimos demonstrate

MPEG of How_to_Build_an_Igloo(1949)__by_Douglas_Wilkinson (new window)

I used the same sort of trenching procedure to build my kids a couple of snow forts at a National Park once. Once we got the forts built, some of the older kids (and their parents) took the left over blocks to make a ramp for their sleds. Good times.

/Then the Park Ranger showed up :-(
//I think he was more upset by my response "Yes sir. As a matter of fact, I do routinely carry a machete in my truck"

I thought global warming destroyed all the igloos

Zmog: To hell with how. I wanna know why.

I've done it every year since moving up north (build a quince that is)... I don't know either. A place to smoke? A place to drink? An excuse to pile some of the snow on your property into something more useful?

Today's Inuit complain of white man's interference with their way of life, but live in wooden buildings and drive snowmobiles. I'd wager only a small percentage still possess the knowledge to build an igloo.

And that was a good, albeit somewhat campy, National Film Board production.

Building igloos is a lot of fun, but hard work. If I had the choice (depends on snow conditions and location) I'd build a snow cave because they are easier.

I built both back in Boy Scouts, and had fun. Neither one was really all that pleasant, but they work as long as you build them correctly. An igloo is probably safer because a cave in is less dangerous (less snow above you). My brother got a crappy spot on a low angle slope to build his. When they woke up the next day the thing had sunk to about six inches above their heads.

/yikes

tokennrg: How to build an Igloo (new window)

Thank you Film Board of Canada

Thanks, that was interesting. I wonder how the Eskimos would react if the ADA or a similar agency told them they had to have ramps for their igloos.