Hailey and I both went to school in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We met our partners there, we met some of our best friends there, and most importantly we learned how to make a mean igloo.
Fun fact about the Upper Peninsula: it has a Peninsula inside of the Peninsula. Yes, Peninsula inception. The Keweenaw Peninsula juts out into Lake Superior (Check out Lake Superiors Twitter presence if you haven’t yet, very cool stuff.)
Fun fact about the Keweenaw Peninsula: It experiences some crazy lake affect storms all winter long and averages like 250 inches of snow per year. For reference, most of the Northern States that border Canada to the East of the Rockies (like Maine or Michigan) average around 50-100 inches of snow.
Why igloos?
There was a yearly celebration at our school called winter carnival and it taught us valuable life lessons: how not to pass out drunk in a snow bank and how to build ice structures.
Building ice sculptures was a bit of a tradition; however, our group of friends transitioned into making massive igloos and ice slides in our college apartment backyard.
This tradition has stood the test of time. Every year we have enough snow in Maine, Sammy and I have been building igloos for our friends to enjoy. It is such a great way to connect with friends, enjoy the winter, and move your body.
Also, Hailey and I have been talking about new hobbies/reconnecting with our childhood and sometimes a part of that is just not taking life so serious. Being silly, playing, being dumb. Being an adult is hard enough, why not take some free time to play in the snow?
igloo building
This will be an extremely low-key crash course because when it comes down to it, there are a bunch of ways to make an igloo:
- Make a sled full of slush*, pack wet snow up, let it freeze, and then keep working on it until you have an igloo.
- Make ice blocks using a mold. Freeze water in molds and then break out the ice and stack them. Pack the ice blocks with slush* until you have an igloo.
- Dig a little cave in a plowed snow hill (Please be careful of snow cave-ins with this method.)
There are more ways to build an igloo, but those are some of the main ways. We build igloos using the first method.
*To make slush, you can use a sled or a 5 gallon bucket. Add snow then add in water from the hose or from inside. The more water the better.
I swear, once your hands get wet, if you keep working they will stay warm! It is so weird.
It feels like the world is crumbling down around us, so why not take some time to make an igloo while you can? Let me know if you try making an igloo this winter!
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