Sat, Feb 12 2011, Sun, Feb 13 2011 - Winter Camping - Build a Quinzhee and Sleep in it Again! (View Original Event Details)
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Saturday was a nice day with temperatures around -6C. Perfect to for building.
We hiked in about 1.5 km, following wetland ponds and bushwhacking. Along the way Wei Lin broke through a small stream and got a double soaker. Well, the best thing to do in this situation is keep moving to camp and then sort things out with dry foot wear.
We had 11 people on the event. We divided up in teams of 3 and two teams of 4 to build 3 Quinzhee's.
I was teamed up with Chad, Anges and Vlad. It took us about 2 hours to shovel a 6.5 foot high packed dome shape pile of snow large enought of the 4 of us. We went away for an hour or so to let the snow sinter (stick together).
In the mean time, we dug out our firepit and started to collect firewood.
Back to the Quinzhee it was time to dig them out. It took us about 1 hour to dig our Quinzhee out and set it up with our tarp, insulated sleeping pads and sleeping bags. The weather man was predicting a low of -6C tonight. We decided not to add any vent holes so we could trap as much heat as possible from our bodies.
Night time comes quickly and we started into supper by 5 pm. The fires where great and we had a few laughs while we ate and dried stuff. Most of us went to our quinzhees around 9 pm.
We settled into our bags and the last man in closed the entrance tunnel with our back packs. It was about -6C outside.
The next morning we woke up around 7:30 am and the temperature was +3C inside the quinzhee. A little too warm! Anything above zero thens to get sleeping bags damp. Next time we'll leave the doorway a little open to keep the temperature below freezing.
We pulled away the packs and exited the quinzhee. The temperature was -6C outside. Up to the firepit to blow new life into it. Five minutes later with some dried birch bark we had fire again.
After breakfast we headed out for a 4 km day hike loop. Heading west to the McCrae Lake Crows Nest. Some of the ice was slussy in spots due to the weight of the snow cover. Up the hill we had a great view from the top of Crows Nest.
About 2 hours later we arrived back at camp and had lunch and packed up.
We performed the pile on top of the quinzhee and got a few group photos. Check out the fun time and photos.
We headed back to the cars at around 2:00 pm. We had a quick late lunch in Coldwater to square of the carpool funds.
We had a great group to experience the great Canadian outdoors in winter.
See you all soon.
Gary
Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Erik Sonstenes at photos@torontooutdoorclub.com. Please note that we prefer to receive the photos in approximately 640x480 or 750x500 pixels - do NOT send original high-res photos. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to twenty of your favorites (only) for a day event, or up to forty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.