An activity report cum snow shelter construction methods review
           
On Christmas Day, I was feeling overstuffed and wanted to go outside. I tried to convince my siblings - any one of them - to go outside and build an IceBox Igloo with me. Nobody bit, so I decided I'd go and build a quinzee. The rest of them stayed inside and took pictures out the window...
I came inside to let my snowpile settle, and soon after Matthias emerged from the workshop with his knockoff igloo tool. He started building an igloo, and I looked out the window - at least until he started needing a second set of hands, at which time I weighed sticking my tongue out at him versus potentially having quinzee help, and put my outdoors clothes back on.
I really didn't think the PretendBox igloo tool would work, but, to my surprise, the form was fine. It wasn't, however, possible to simply remove a panel like with the real thing, because Matthias had hinged his design. Still, we got very close to finished using the home-made tool.
We finished off by having Matthias crouch in the igloo while I packed snow on top - and presto, it worked! It was tiny, though, and I declared that this method was all very well and good for a midget igloo, but I didn't think it would work for a full-sized version.
What a cute little igloo! Later that night, my brothers illuminated the igloo with a 300W bulb and took some long exposures with the EOS300D (more night stuff with the digital SLR found here). But long before darkness fell, we also had a quinzee to finish...
The snow had settled nicely, and I started hollowing out using my hands. I soon pressed some of my mother's wooden garden stakes into service, and we used a bunch more of these to mark the pile from the outside - I'd stop digging if I saw the stakes poke through. We decided to err on the side of caution - the stakes were at least 8" long!
Despite the generous wall allowance, the quinzee ended up big enough that one person could have slept in it comfortably. But there wasn't that much point to that exercise, not when it was standing only about 20 feet from the house... It was, however, still standing in the morning - albeit with some noticeable sag.
On Boxing Day, Matthias said he'd help me build an IceBox igloo, but only if we'd build it next to his baby igloo. I didn't think there was enough snow there, and wanted to put it next to the vegetable garden - and when Markus agreed to help with that, started stomping out a patch there. I was a bit challenged by the IceBox pole assembly, and had to go inside to download the manual (because of course I have no idea where the manual that came with the tool is now!).
We started out with really good powder snow, and packing the blocks was easy - though I didn't angle the first row in far enough (again!) and had to compensate for that.
By the time we started level four, we were once again called in for lunch, and Markus made me a door. After lunch, it had warmed up enough that the snow that was in the sun was really sticky - and this made doing the tricky levels higher up really easy to do. I did, however, get a milk crate to stand on.
When the igloo was finished, I crawled inside and started sticking snow to the thin spots - which were very obvious in the bright sunshine. Matthias and Marlene came in too, and it was big enough inside that we could easily have had five people lounge comfortably.
Meanwhile, back at the little igloo... Matthias decided to disprove my "but your CheatBox wouldn't work for a big igloo" and started to build a bigger igloo soon after Markus and I started on ours. He worked alone for a while, but then Marlene started helping him with the higher levels (but she also bopped around and photgraphed the action).
I think the sticky snow helped Matthias too, because he did build another, bigger igloo (but not as big as mine!). Markus did point out that even as a little boy, Matthias played around with catenary curves, though (and Matthias acknowledged that the curve on his first igloo wasn't ideal, and it was sagging in spots).
Matthias connected his two igloos using a pile of snow akin to quinzee building, and built his entrance through the little igloo which he called his vestibule. I crawled inside, and it would have made a decent one person shelter - though I felt strange being all the way in there, without a fast exit.

So, now that we have a quinzee, and IceBox igloo, and two igloos made using only a homemade igloo tool, my evaluation: the quinzee is the only one that I could build on my own. It has the advantage of keeping me very warm during the first half of construction (the snow piling part). It also, however, got me very messy and wet during the second half (the scooping out part). Of the three construction methods, it used the most effort, but would also be the most efficient if you had more than two people to house since only two people at a time can work on igloos but everybody could help with the snow pile.

The IceBox igloo, despite my pole confusion, requires less skill than the PretendBox igloo, because the pole assembly takes the thinking out of placing the blocks and making the curve. I also think that the ABS plastic mold is much less likely to get gunked up with snow than the homemade wooden box. The shelter is definitely the airiest of the three types since it is much taller inside. I felt most comfortable in the IceBox igloo - not even a hint of "I'm in an enclosed space, I must get *out*". I was least comfortable hanging out in the quinzee.

Both the igloo types were very bright inside, and both had the advantage that you only had to move the snow once, as opposed to the quinzee. The CheatBox has the advantage where cost is concerned assuming you are handy enough to build your own form - but it requires quite a bit more skill to actually build an igloo and get the curve. If the curve isn't right, the igloo is more likely to sag than the IceBox - but nothing compared to the sag issues of the quinzee, it was quite mild and by the end of the second day, the door of the quinzee was reduced by 40% of its original height - but then again, our quinzee walls were thicker than they needed to be. The first free-form igloo had a severe sag by the second day (though, again, not as much as the quinzee), but the IceBox igloo - which was the tallest of the four structures - also evidenced a bizarre semi-collapse on the south side after an afternoon of full sun and +5 degree temperature. I don't know if this was a function of poor igloo construction, part of the design, or related to the fact that the igloo never had time to set in sub-zero weather.

All of the shelters survived 36 hours of temperatures well above freezing, though they all - including the IceBox igloo - became smaller (this was particularly obvious with the doors). The small PretendBox igloo collapsed completely after a night of warm rain, the IceBox igloo collapsed partially, and the front half of the quinzee collapsed as well. The bigger CheatBox igloo held up the longest, though it, too, sagged badly, and after 24 hours of rain, all of the snow shelters had collapsed completely (the IceBox and the bigger PretendBox igloos, however, maintained a significant amount of usable space inside even after the collapse).

The quinzee requires the least "stuff" - really, just a shovel and some twigs to gauge thickness of the walls when carving out (garden stakes not required). It also has the least steep learning curve - this was my first solo-build quinzee, and I had no difficulty getting a shelter that would have served for a night in the backcountry. But I would have been soaking wet by the time I was ready to use it, and I don't like it enough to want to lounge around in it, cooking. The CheatBox has the most steep learning curve, when properly constructed (the second of the two) can handle all that the IceBox igloo can. The home-made box (of lightweight wood, no pole) is comparable in weight the commercial product (ABS plastic, metal pole), but does not fold down for travel. The CheatBox did need repairs during building, but then, it was constructed in an hour.

So, I maintain my support of the IceBox Igloo Tool, if you're into that sort of thing and want a spacious shelter that won't sag. But, at $230CAD, it's certainly only for winter camping enthusiasts or those looking for an exercise in communication (after all, I built an igloo with an engineer who had never looked at the manual, if that doesn't challenge one's communication skills, I don't know what does). If you understand catenary curves, are handy, and have a good idea of how the whole thing works, I suppose you can make your own - but I won't be heading into the backcountry with you in less than ideal conditions and no other shelter in that case...