Mt. Rainier Igloo Making

My brother Daniel and I went up to Rainier and built some igloos. This picture is about 3/4 of the way complete and about 2 hours in, notice all of the blocks cut out around the edges.

This was in late winter of 2008. With record snow there was about 12 feet + snow in this area right around paradise lodge.






Here is Daniel carving out the door, with a gnarly looking snow saw.



The tricky part of staking blocks is angling them in to make the dome. You really have to have 2 people to construct one of these efficiently.



I loved the cool blue glow from inside the igloo. Here Daniel is building us a cover for the trench to help keep us warm. The cold air settles in the trench and we slept up on the platform inside and stuffed our bags in the door way.



We were actually quite comfortable. Not the worst sleep I've ever had. Here is Daniel hunkering down for the night. Also, our frozen gloves are thawing out.



We woke up to this in the morning. What a view up to camp Muir. See those deep tracks, I had to hike back to this area without snowshoes, I wouldn't recommend it unless you want the leg workout of your life! I thought I was going to die.



Here is a pic of the mountain from the paradise lot.



All of our hard work! It took us about 3-4 hours to build and we only slept in it for one night. Oh well it was worth it.



This was a last minute trip and we really didn't plan the meals out. We then remembered that we had a loaf of jalapeno bread that we picked up on the way out from my grandma's house. It was the best tasting bread we had ever had. Thanks Grandma! We toasted it on my little gas stove.



What a trip. Did i mention that we drove up here from the gate (about 20 miles) on empty. We held our breath on the way down and managed to make it to the gas station. Looks like Daniel got a little sunburn as well.