Sat, Jan 24 2009 - Build a quinzhee and sleep in it! (View Original Event Details)
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The pictures here really tell the full story. It was a cold but clear day when we set off from the parking lot and hiked into the McCrae Lake Wilderness Area. We snowshoed in a west-northwesterly direction, aiming for a long narrow arm of McCrae Lake where we hoped to find a sheltered bay with lots of snow. Just a few meters short of that lake, however, we came across a smaller unnamed lake that had all the right conditions for our little experiment. So we halted our trek and started building a village of three conical snow huts or “quinzhees”.
We spent the first couple of hours mounding up the snow (made easier by the fact that there was lots of it, at least a foot in depth on the edge of the lake where we were working). Then we took a break, gathering firewood and setting up a cozy little kitchen area amidst the trees on the shore. Once that was done, we went back to doing the fun part: tunneling into our snow mounds and creating a roomy living space, with a built-in snow platform to insulate us from the lake ice. That evening, sitting around a blazing fire, we ate beef stew, baguettes and brownies whilst sharing tales of past misadventure and plans for the future. Later, nestled into our respective shelters, some of us did shiver a bit in spite of the fact that the inside temperature was significantly warmer than the outside (must go ahead and buy that winter sleeping bag…), others slept well as evidenced by their reputed snoring (personally, I don’t believe this tall tale).
In the morning, after breakfast, most of us went for an hour-long snowshoe hike around the area, returning at noon for a quick lunch. Following this, it was mostly a matter of finishing up the packing and walking back to the cars for the return journey home. By the way, we left our quinzhees standing so if anyone should want to head out there in the next few weeks, they can take advantage of our labour. Unless the weather warms significantly, these huts should be useable for quite some time.
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.