Yesterday afternoon I had a couple of hours free and had been wanting to build a winter debris hut after reading about them on www.survivaltopics.com. Also, this coming weekend is the annual Scouts winter camp, and I was thinking of building one of these, so I figured it would be good to get some practice beforehand. After a 5-minute drive to the UNB woodlot, I had my snowshoes on and set out into the woods. Two days previous, we got about 20 cm of snow so the snowshoeing conditions were excellent. The woods were quite dense but eventually I came across a bit of a clearing with some evergreens around, so it seemed like a good place to set up the shelter.
Since I forgot my shovel, I had to use a snowshoe to remove the snow from the shelter site. It took about an hour to do this and gather enough spruce and fir boughs for the floor. Even then, I could have used more. (I was quickly learning not to underestimate the amount of time this shelter would take.) After that, I made a support for my ridgepole and then cut down a ridgepole using a small spruce tree. Next, I cut about 12 "ribs" and leaned them against the ridgepole along both sides. (The photo shows the shelter at this stage.) Next, I draped my tarp over the structure and started shovelling snow on for insulation. I found the tarp sagged in between the ribs under the weight of the snow. Also, it would have been helpful to tie the tarp to the support structure to prevent it from caving in. In all, it was a good learning experience and hopefully it will go better next weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment