HOW TO BUILD AN IGLOO

Get out in the wild, and build yourself a really cool place to stay

- ALF ALDERDSON

On a snow-covered hilltop somewhere above Vancouver, I’m surrounded only by trees, peaks, and a few apprehensive-looking individuals. The apprehension comes from the knowledge that we’ll be spending the night up here — and in order to do that, we’ll be building our own accommodation: igloos.

Fortunately, we have expert instruction in the form of Michael Harding of Westcoast Adventures, who has decades of experience building these surprisingly strong, relatively warm, and potentially life-saving structures. He provides us with the two essential pieces of kit that any self-respecting igloo architect carries as a matter of course: snow shovels and snow saws.