Relative Something

When you take on a project like building an igloo, there is a bit of a compulsion that sets in, driving you to somehow succeed despite any number of pitfalls that may arise. I have witnessed it several times, both in myself and also in the friends and family that I have enlisted to help me over the years.

One year, we didn’t tilt the walls inward enough during the setting of the first few rows of blocks, and it ended up getting taller than we could handle. That one ended up becoming a 2-room igloo, because we needed to build a wall across the middle in order to hold the top pieces that were getting out of reach.

I have learned that it helps to have an architect on your crew. This year, I was inspired to involve our friends from Guatemala, the Morales family, in building an igloo, and as luck would have it, Marco is an architect. He understands the shape of the catenary curve that we try to achieve with the Grand Shelter’s Icebox igloo frame.

I am far short of being able to boast any substantial skill in actually completing a full igloo with the Icebox frame, but I have started plenty, and closed a few of them with some unspecified techniques. Yesterday’s fits right in with the rest, except it also happens to be the largest igloo I have ever tried to build.

Marco says to “go big” and so we did. Day-1 was a smashing success, with the snow becoming sticky enough in the temps near freezing, but day-2 became more difficult as the weather turned extremely cold. After a number of blocks failed when we approached the top rows which lean in dramatically, we decided to abandon the Icebox fixture altogether and venture out to our own designs.

We tried a couple of ideas, and eventually ended up using branches as support for the last few blocks. It was so tall, some of the blocks ended up being at the limits of our reach. I decided that the Inuit people would probably have used branches, too, if they had them. It does sort of add a Native look to it, in my eyes.

Marco said we moved into a bit of a Mayan arch technique at the end. After showering some snow across the top to fill in the gaps, we had the effect of an igloo with a bit of a hairdo. Most importantly, we had finished what we set out to do, which was no small feat, with the primary builder being from Guatemala and his having to work in extreme bitter cold.

It was an effort and a result for which we can both be proud.

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