It’s that time of year again. While Vancouver drowns in drizzle, the mountains that tower above the city get walloped with dozens of feet of snow. I trekked up to nearby Cypress Mountain to partake in that most Canadian of rites, igloo building. Turns out it’s much harder and wetter than it looks. But the end product is still pretty cool. I wrote about the experience for the Sydney Morning Herald. And here’s a short video.
An ice place you have here
Remy Scalza; Special to the Sydney Morning Herald
Chilled from a day in the snow, worn out from hours of shovelling and stacking snow blocks, we worm our way into the tunnel of the igloo one after another. The wind’s howl mutes to a low hum. The day’s grey light goes black. I follow the pair of boots in front, crawling in towards the glimmer of light ahead.
The boots belong to Michael Harding, igloo evangelist. An outdoor guide with baby-blue eyes and snow-white hair, Harding has raised untold hundreds of igloos in this corner of western Canada. “They’re warmer than tents,” he’d explained earlier this morning as we climbed into the back country of the mountains outside Vancouver in his late-model Nissan Pathfinder. “They’re soundproof. They’re practically cozy.”
I’ve joined him and another guide for a one-day crash course in igloo basics, dragging along a friend from Vancouver for this most Canadian rite of passage. Not that I’m planning an assault on K2 any time soon. But even for armchair adventurers, there’s just something about an igloo.
