A Guide to Snow Camping


 A Guide to Snow Camping

Started on 2/13/2023

(This post is currently geared towards the Stevens Pass Snow Cave Trip planned for Feb 24-25, 2023. But the principles could apply on any similar snow campout)

Camping in the snow is a fun and unique experience. The cold, white stuff provides very different opportunities from other times of year. 

A few things about snow caves

-Digging a cave is not easy. It is hard work and takes several hours. Experienced cavers can dig one in 1.5 - 2 hours. First time cavers can take 5-6 hours. 

-When done correctly, caves can be much warmer than a tent. 

-Digging a snow cave is a lot fun. We don't many chances to do this!


Gear:

Snow Shovel -  this is required to dig a cave (at least 1 per cave). Garden shovels can work. But the flat-nose, lighter, short-handled snow shovel is ideal. If you want to buy one, that is fine. But it is not required for each young man to have one. Adult leaders will have extra shovels. YM must understand and obey principles involved in not breaking the shovel. It is easier to break a shovel than you might think.

Snow Saw - a pretty neat tool, but not required. A saw allows you to cut out neat squares of snow that are useful for wall or igloo building. Cutting a block of snow out with a saw is also a clean and orderly way to remove snow from the cave during construction time.

Tent - Tents are a good idea to have in case the cave doesn't work, for some reason. We have extra tents for those who would like one. Digging a cave is a fun and unique experience but is not a requirement. 

Snowshoes - helpful, but not required. The trip planned for Feb 24-25, 2023 will not involve hiking more than 1/2 mile - and it will likely be much less than that. 

Poles - same answer as snowshoes, above. Poles are helpful for stability when hiking in the snow. Make sure you have baskets on the ends of your poles so they don't sink into the snow. But again, poles are not required. 


Snow Cave Technique:

Please see this Youtube Video on how to dig a snow cave. We watched this same video during our Wednesday, Feb 8 training. It is very important that each YM watches this video on his own:

https://youtu.be/Krn7JMHgVHs




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