The Eskimos, inhabitants of the northernmost regions of our planet, have the skills to survive in difficult climatic conditions, which any inhabitant of the middle lane would envy. One of the most important inventions of the Eskimos, time-tested, is the igloo - traditional houses made of ice and snow. We will tell about the features of this amazing structure in our review.
Researchers believe that the Eskimo tribes settled in the Arctic in the 11th-12th centuries. Today, the number of Eskimos is about 170,000 people, and they live mainly on the territory of three regions: the island of Greenland, which belongs to Denmark, in northern Canada and the US state of Alaska. By the way, the Eskimo is an Indian word, which literally translates as "raw eater", and the Eskimos themselves call themselves Inuit.
The traditional dwellings of the Eskimos are the summer yaranga - a domed structure made of animal skins and snow igloos that build the cold season. Building a real igloo is not an easy job that requires certain skills and knowledge.
An igloo can be built in a large pile of dense snow, or it can be made up of individual blocks of ice. The size of the igloo is small: about 3-4 meters in diameter and no more than 2 meters in height. If there are no suitable snowdrifts, then the igloo is built from blocks that are cut out of ice or snow. Blocks are stacked in a circle, which gradually narrows towards the ceiling. In order for the structure to acquire greater strength, it is poured with water during construction. Windows are made of ice blocks, but an igloo can be windowless. In this case, sunlight penetrates through the snow walls.
The most important thing, from the point of view of the functionality of the entire building, is the correct arrangement of the entrance to the igloo. If the igloo is built in a large snowdrift, then the entrance is made right in the floor, and a tunnel breaks through to exit to the surface. If the igloo is built from blocks, then the entrance is always made at the bottom, at floor level. At the same time, there is no door in the traditional dwelling, the entrance is always open.
Such a low entrance is made so that the warm air under the ceiling does not go outside. But the needle is open so that in a small room there is always an influx of fresh air saturated with oxygen. If there are several people in the igloo and an oil lamp or a cooking hearth, which is also used as a heater, is lit, then a lot of carbon dioxide is formed in the air, and the oxygen content decreases. The heavier carbon dioxide sinks down and out through the low inlet, and fresh air enters instead.
Despite the fact that most of the Eskimos no longer live in their traditional houses of ice and snow, there are still Eskimo communities that build igloos and fish for marine animals. In addition, polar explorers and some tourists who go on winter hikes master the technique of building an igloo, because a shelter made of snow is very convenient.
A person cannot live without a cozy home that protects him from all the troubles of the outside world. And wherever he is, the first thing a person builds a house. How to be at home depends on those natural materials that a person can find around him. In the mountains, houses are made of stone and clay, on the plains of wood, there are houses of brick, of branches, and what to make shelter from cruel winds among the realm of cold, snow and ice?
Yes, people also live in such harsh conditions. There is one northern people - the Eskimos, who came up with a wonderful house that can be built from material that is available in vast quantities in the vast expanses of snow.
An igloo is a round house that is built from large pieces of dense snow turned into pieces. In it, northern housewives managed to achieve the maximum possible comfort and coziness. Fur skins were laid out, a fire was kindled. It became warm and light. Walls from fire cannot melt, as the severe frost outside does not give them such an opportunity.
Large snow slabs were prepared for the construction of the walls. Then a circle was marked on the snow and the first layer was laid out on it. The next rows were laid with a slight slope inside the house, forming an oval dome. Gaps were left between the snow slabs. They were not joined closely. The cracks were then rubbed with snow and fastened with a special lamp with seal oil. The heat from the burning lamp melted the inner surface of the walls, the cold froze the water, forming an ice crust.
The door to such a dwelling was made (cut through) very low, or a tunnel was dug out in the snow. The inlet was in the floor and had to crawl to get home.
The houses were made quite small - a standing person could barely fit at the maximum point of the dome. So it was easier to heat houses and save valuable heat. A hole was cut in the dome to let in the air necessary for breathing. The family usually slept in front of him on beds made of snow blocks covered with skins.
Thus, the Eskimos built entire villages from the snow. Interestingly, even in a short, cool summer, the dense snow that makes up the walls does not have time to melt.
Now, of course, the igloo is becoming more of a romance than a necessity. Many modern people are happy to travel north to try to spend the night in a self-built snow house.
Yarangi
From time immemorial, man has built houses to be protected from bad weather, wild animals and evil people. Wherever a man's foot has gone! And everywhere he had to build houses. Trees were used in the forest, stones in the mountains.
Have you ever seen fur houses?
Northern residents live in such houses and they are called yarangi.
The peoples of the North devote all their time to hunting and deer breeding, which is why it is so important for them to have houses that allow them to quickly change their place of residence. When the food needed by the herd runs out or the beast leaves, the person gathers and moves to a new place.
Would you try to transport a stone or wooden house!
This is how the yarangas - small houses made of fur - arose. They are specially designed so that they can be assembled, transported and re-installed very easily and quickly.
Wooden poles are placed around the circle,
creating the shape of a conical dome. When this laborious work is finished, the poles are covered with deer skins. The most average yaranga usually takes about fifty deer skins. But they still need to be processed (selected) first, and then sewn.
It is not simple. Imagine how much work a woman must invest in creating a family nest, because almost all the work of making outerwear for him lies on her shoulders.
She both soaks the skin and scrapes the flesh. Then the skin goes through a series of tanning procedures. Interestingly, deer skins are tanned with deer feces.
Here is the work! What modern city woman would agree to that!
Apply as even a layer of feces as possible, fold the skin and wait until it is soaked and dry.
But on the other hand, where can you find other tannins in the conditions of the Far North? And maybe it's the best of all.
Then the women scrape everything off the skins and soften the furs, smoothing them vigorously with their feet.
Cooked skins were sewn together with interesting threads. The main breadwinners in the life of people in the North were deer. Their meat was eaten, clothes were sewn from their skins, and even threads for sewing skins were made from deer tendons.
At the top, bare-skinned poles form a chimney for the hearth directly below.
Inside the outer dome there is another square tent, called the canopy. Here is a living place, it retains heat even in the most severe frost. The canopy was heated with a special fat lamp.
An interesting structure of the northern house turned out to be very economical - there was no need for a lot of fuel and special super-ovens, it was just that the ancestors of the northerners built residential thermoses or large sleeping bags.
This dwelling turned out to be so rational that even now reindeer herders use yarangas, despite the abundance of all kinds of modern dwellings. So far, there are no substitutes for what the older generations of northerners came up with.
For a long time, people have been using any material suitable for this to build their homes: someone has wood of various species, someone has clay, and someone has even found a use for snow. Yes, yes, we will talk about those very snow houses of the Eskimos, called "igloos", and so unusual for the perception of most people.
Translated from Inuktitut, "igloo" means "winter dwelling of the Eskimos". Such houses are dome-shaped buildings, the diameter of which reaches about 3-4 meters, and the height is 2-2.5 meters. The main material for the construction of the igloo is ice or snow blocks, compacted by the wind. With a large depth of snow cover, the entrance to the room is equipped in the floor, breaking through a small corridor to it. If the snow cover does not have the required depth, then the entrance is equipped in the wall, completing an additional corridor with the help of snow blocks.
Each Eskimo camp has several buildings, where up to four related families are located. Eskimo housing is divided into two types: summer and winter. The first is stone buildings located on a slope, the floor of which is deepened into the ground. From below, a long passage of stones leads to the house, partially buried in the ground. The last part of the passage, which is located above the floor, is covered with a wide slab of stone, and is at the same height as the bunks in the hut.
The house made of snow has a quite ordinary layout: sleeping bunk beds are located in the back of the room, and bunk beds for lamps are equipped on the sides. When walls are built above ground, stones or whale ribs are used, whose arcs are arranged in such a way that their ends intersect with each other (or both materials). Sometimes, when building a roof skeleton, whale ribs are used, adding props to the structure. Seal skins are tightly tied to the finished frame (which allows you to qualitatively insulate the house from ice), on which small heather bushes and another additional layer of skins are then laid in a thick layer.
Scheme of construction and arrangement of the igloo house When erecting an igloo, snow or ice slabs are used. Blocks are stacked in a spiral, from right to left. To do this, two blocks are cut diagonally in the first row to the middle of the third, after which the construction of the second row can begin. During work, each row is slightly tilted so that a neat one is obtained. A small hole that remains at the top is closed from the inside with a wedge-shaped cut block. Then the builder, who is inside the hut, closes up all the cracks with snow.
The entrance tunnel digs through the snowdrift from the outside, ending with a hatch in the floor of the building. In the event that the layer of snow is shallow, then an inlet is cut in the wall of the igloo, and a corridor of snow blocks is laid out to it.
In this video you can see the process of building a snow igloo house
Read also
Foundation pit depth
The outer entrance to the tunnel has a height of about 1.5 meters, which is why you can only walk through it with your head bowed. The entrance to the tunnel is even smaller - you can find yourself in it only if you crawl on all fours. But in the hut itself, the ceilings are quite suitable for moving freely around the room - their height reaches about 2 meters. A large Eskimo snow house can reach a diameter of 9 meters, and the height of the ceilings in it reaches 3-3.5 meters. Usually such large structures are built much less often and are used mainly for big holidays.
To make the final decoration of housing, a lamp-bowl filled with seal oil is lit inside the room. The heated air causes the snow to melt, but the resulting moisture does not drip, but is absorbed by the snow layers. When the inner surface of the hut is sufficiently moistened, cold air is let in, due to which the walls from the inside are covered with a strong layer of ice. This technique increases the safety of heat and the strength of the walls, and also makes staying indoors more comfortable. In the event that the ice crust is absent, one careless movement is enough, as the snow begins to crumble.
In order for the strength of the dwelling to become even greater, it must stand well in the cold. Due to heating with warm air, the seams in the hut are reliably soldered, snow shrinks, and the structure itself, made of several blocks, turns into a solid solid structure.
The secrets of building a reliable igloo
- When working with blocks that are located next to each other, contact of their corners should be avoided, otherwise the structure will turn out to be unstable. For convenience, it is recommended to leave a small triangular hole at the bottom of the junction of adjacent blocks (it can be easily repaired with snow in the future).
- It is strongly not recommended to move the block installed on the wall in one direction or another, as this can cause it to wear out and lose its original shape. You can simply place the block, cut off strongly protruding parts from one side and bottom, and then carefully move it as tightly as possible to the neighboring block. Then, with the help of a saw, its final finishing is made. It is recommended to lay the slabs with the "nasty" side inside the structure, as it is more durable.
- To facilitate the work process, the upper hole in the dome can be carefully covered with one of the plates. Large gaps that are between the blocks are sealed with pieces of crust, and small ones are treated with loose snow. Through holes and crevices are easiest to see in the evening, by the light of a bowl of seal oil burning inside the needle. In addition, warm air will slightly heat the joints, which will improve the quality of the processing of holes and crevices.
- Before making a fire inside the needle, it is necessary to make a hole with a diameter of about 10-15 cm on the leeward side in the upper part of the dome and attach a smoke exhaust pipe made of strong crust to it.
People have long learned to use the material that is nearby for their needs.
(the video is even more refreshing, so watching and dreaming about snow is a must:)
What is an igloo
The igloo, translated from Inuktitut (as most Inuit Canadian dialects are called), means "the winter dwelling of the Eskimos." The igloo is a domed building with a diameter of 3-4 meters and a height of approximately human height. They build it from what is at hand, and in the winter tundra, only snow is at hand from building materials ... From snow or ice blocks compacted by the wind, they erect an igloo. If the snow is deep, the entrance to the igloo is made in the floor, and a corridor is cut through to the entrance. If the snow is not deep enough, you have to make an entrance in the wall, and an additional corridor of snow blocks is completed to it.
Alone, an Eskimo builds a spacious snow hut for his entire family in three-quarters of an hour. The strongest blizzard in the hut is not audible. The snow bricks stick together tightly, besides, the hut freezes from heating inside. They say the igloo can even support the weight of a polar bear.
From the point of view of physics
As a result of heating, the inner surfaces of the walls are melted, but the walls do not melt. The colder it is outside, the higher the heat that the needle can withstand from the inside. After all, wet snow loses its heat-shielding properties and passes the cold more easily. Having made its way through the thickness of the block, frost freezes the inner surface of the walls that has begun to melt, and the temperature pressure outside and inside is balanced.
In general, the thermal conductivity of a snow dome is low, and it is easy to maintain a positive temperature in a hut, often the heat generated by sleeping people is enough for this. In addition, the snow hut absorbs excess moisture from the inside, so the igloo is quite dry.
Secrets of the Inuit
So, an igloo is an arctic dwelling in which you can survive even without heating.
It is known that Finnish snipers and mountain rangers of the German Wehrmacht were trained in the skills of building an igloo. Today, igloo huts are used in ski touring as emergency shelter in case of problems with a tent or a long wait for the weather to improve.
However, polar travelers did not immediately learn how to build an igloo. For a long time it was believed that only a native Eskimo could build an igloo.
An Irish explorer of the Arctic and Antarctic, Shackleton, once complained about the difficult fate of the explorers of the southern mainland: “There are no Eskimos in Antarctica whom we could hire, as Peary did, to build snow houses for us.” So Amundsen, according to Shackleton, although he experienced a temperature of 62 ° C during an expedition to the North Magnetic Pole, was much happier: “It should be remembered that there were Eskimos with him who built a snow house for him every night.”
The Canadian Viljalmur Stefansson was the first to learn how to build an igloo in 1914. He wrote about this in his book and in articles, but even from them it was not easy to learn how to do it. The secret of building an igloo lay in the special shape of the plates, which made it possible to fold the hut in the form of a “snail”, gradually tapering towards the arch. The method of installing the slabs also turned out to be important - relying on the previous ones at three points.
Experience shows that for a person who knows how to build an igloo, it is enough to have a saw and a shovel to quickly build shelter, wherever night or bad weather overtakes him.
Life under the snow
The Eskimos skillfully turn their winter settlements into a complex complex of snow buildings and, in bad weather, can visit neighboring huts without leaving the surface. Rasmussen, in his book The Great Sledge Way, tells of snowy villages with covered passages between igloos, of entire architectural ensembles erected by the Eskimos with amazing speed, of large huts-houses.
“The main lodging could easily accommodate twenty people overnight. This part of the snow house turned into a high portal like a "hall" where people brushed off the snow. A spacious bright annex adjoined the main dwelling, where two families settled. We had plenty of fat, and therefore 7-8 lamps burned at a time, which is why it became so warm in these walls of white snow blocks that people could walk around half-naked to their fullest pleasure.
Snow hut interior
The interior of the igloo is usually covered with skins, sometimes the walls are also covered with skins. Grease bowls are used for heating and additional lighting.
The Eskimos cover the bed with a double layer of reindeer skins, with the lower layer laid with the skin up, and the top layer with the skin down. Sometimes under the skins they put old skin from a kayak. This three-layer insulation serves as a comfortable soft bed.
Sometimes windows of seal intestines or ice are arranged in the igloo, but even without that, the sun penetrates the igloo right through the snowy walls with soft light of different shades.
At night, one candle lit in the hut brightly illuminates the snow-white vault, and at the joints of the bricks this light breaks through a thinner layer of snow.
Outside, in the frosty darkness of the night, the igloo glows in a web of blurred lines. This is truly an extraordinary sight. No wonder that Knud Rasmussen called the igloo "a temple of festive joy among the snowdrifts of the snowy desert."
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The igloo, translated from Inuktitut (as most Inuit Canadian dialects are called), means "the winter dwelling of the Eskimos." The igloo is a domed building with a diameter of 3-4 meters and a height of approximately human height.
They build it from what is at hand, and in the winter tundra, only snow is at hand from building materials ... From snow or ice blocks compacted by the wind, they erect an igloo. If the snow is deep, the entrance to the igloo is made in the floor, and a corridor is cut through to the entrance. If the snow is not deep enough, you have to make an entrance in the wall, and an additional corridor of snow blocks is completed to it.
Construction process:
1. Using a cord, draw a circle-floor of the hut. The diameter of the igloo is determined by the number of group members. However, it is desirable to start learning how to build it from a small size.
2. The place for building the igloo is selected depending on the availability of solid flooring. Plates for the first row are cut out in size 60X40X20 cm, and for the next - somewhat smaller. They are placed on the inside surface.
3. The slabs of the first row are set at an angle of 20-25° and cut obliquely in order to lay out subsequent rows in a spiral with an increase in inclination per turn by about 5°. In this case, the angle of inclination of the upper rows will be about 45 °, and the diameter of the hole will not exceed 50-70 cm.
4. The reliability of the igloo design is achieved by the spherical shape, the laying of plates with a spiral and the shape of the plates, the outer edge of which is larger than the inner one, which prevents the plate from falling inward.
5. The stable position of the slab (for example, No. 36) will be at three points of contact: along the bottom face - two corner points (A and B), and with the previous slab (No. 35) - the upper right corner (C). A noticeable convergence of at least two of the three contact points deprives the plate of stability.
6. Before installing the next plate, it is given the shape of a trapezoid of the desired dimensions. Fitting of the slab is carried out on the wall: the side edges of adjacent slabs are cut so that reliable contact is achieved at all three points.
7. Finally, the slab is placed as follows: first, vertically on the lower edge, then, slowly tilting it up into the hut, they achieve a snug fit of adjacent slabs at the top point (B). The desired inclination is achieved by cutting the edge or lightly tapping the plate from the outside.
8. All vertical joints of the plates of the lower row must be overlapped by the plates of the upper row, and some plates (for example, No. 37 and 45) overlap two joints, otherwise, with a decrease in the diameter of the helix, the plates decrease so much that the reference points approach each other and the plates in the upper rows lose stability.
9. The hole at the top is closed with a plate - after leveling the upper edge of the last spiral.
10. The gaps between the plates are plugged with pieces of dense snow and clogged with loose snow.
11. Traditionally, the entrance to the needle is made in the form of a hole below the floor level. In our practice, the hole is arranged at floor level and closed from the inside with a backpack or a curtain (material, foam mat, etc.).
Experience shows that it is less laborious to build two small interlocking igloos than one large one for the whole group. In any case, beginners should disregard this advice.
As a result of heating, the inner surfaces of the walls are melted, but the walls do not melt. The colder it is outside, the higher the heat that the needle can withstand from the inside. After all, wet snow loses its heat-shielding properties and passes the cold more easily. Having made its way through the thickness of the block, frost freezes the inner surface of the walls that has begun to melt, and the temperature pressure outside and inside is balanced. It is known that Finnish snipers and mountain rangers of the German Wehrmacht were trained in the skills of building an igloo. Today, igloo huts are used in ski touring as emergency shelter in case of problems with a tent or a long wait for the weather to improve.
An Irish explorer of the Arctic and Antarctic, Shackleton, once complained about the difficult fate of the explorers of the southern mainland: “There are no Eskimos in Antarctica whom we could hire, as Peary did, to build snow houses for us.” So Amundsen, according to Shackleton, although he experienced a temperature of 62 ° C during an expedition to the North Magnetic Pole, was much happier: “It should be remembered that there were Eskimos with him who built a snow house for him every night.” The Eskimos cover the bed with a double layer of reindeer skins, with the lower layer laid with the skin up, and the top layer with the skin down. Sometimes under the skins they put old skin from a kayak. This three-layer insulation serves as a comfortable soft bed.
The igloo is a forced invention of the North American Eskimos. If the Arctic had an abundance of firewood, the Eskimos might have invented wooden houses. But the miser-nature provided them only with snow, however, in unlimited quantities. The Eskimos sighed and sighed and turned ordinary snow into an extraordinary building material, confirming in the most unexpected way the primordially Russian proverb - the need for inventions is cunning. Judge for yourself.
Snow is easy to handle. From it you can cut any building structures - bricks, blocks, panels, beams, etc. If you wish, you can put together a typical life-size nine-story house with porches, benches at the door and even baths, bathrooms and gas stoves, fashioned all from the same snow. The creative possibilities here are limited only by the imagination of the author. No equipment is required to carry and lift the blocks - a snow brick measuring 100 × 60x20 cm can be lifted by one person. Let him try to do the same with concrete! Another important detail is the complete absence of a shortage of building material, which in the central regions is offered in unlimited quantities from November to April, in the Arctic almost all year round. You don’t need to break through funds, write out outfits, stand in line—and even then you don’t have to! Take a shovel and rake yourself as much as your soul asks for! The only negative is the impossibility of exporting to countries with a hot climate.
So, the building material was found. Now I will bring to the attention of the reader the project of the dwelling itself. What kind of house is this - an igloo?
Imagine a huge, three meters in diameter and a little less in height, a cup fashioned from snow, turned upside down. Neither the wind is terrible for her - thanks to the spherical shape, the wind flow does not crush the walls, but, as it were, flows around them, nor frost. Strength? At least the three of you get in. Eyewitnesses say that such a snow house can withstand the visits of a polar bear, and there are five centners of weight in it!
Dimensions? Not limited. Here is how the Danish traveler-ethnographer Knud Rasmussen describes the igloo-house: “In the main dwelling, twenty people could easily accommodate for the night. This part of the snow house turned into a high portal, like a hall, where people brushed snow off themselves before entering the living quarters. On the other side, a spacious, bright annex adjoined the main dwelling, where two families settled. We had plenty of fat, and therefore 7-8 lamps were burning at the same time, which is why it became so warm in these walls of white snow blocks that people could walk around half-naked to their fullest pleasure.
And this is already a word about thermal comfort. In the igloo, if desired, you can arrange the tropics. You can plant stoves in an igloo, kindle fires (if you are not afraid of smoke), install potbelly stoves, you can even arrange a steam room! But how is it? Why does an igloo, heated from the inside, not melt? After all, even near-zero temperatures are disastrous for snow.
Very simple. Let's say the temperature inside the igloo has risen to + 20 ° C. It is quite natural that the walls flowed. But wet snow, as you know, loses its heat-shielding properties, it passes the cold more easily. Having made its way through the thickness of the block, frost freezes the inner surface of the walls that has begun to melt. The temperature pressure outside and inside is balanced. Therefore, the stronger the frost outside, the higher the heat that the “needle” can withstand from the inside. "Floating" walls
Of course, if you raise the temperature inside the needle above + 30 ° C, then it will drip from the ceiling. But this is not the biggest inconvenience: it is enough to build an impromptu gable roof by throwing a rectangular piece of plastic film over a stick stuck into the walls so that people stay dry. Water will roll into corners and freeze on the snow.
The best for building an igloo is medium-density snow, which is slightly pressed by the foot. It is easy to cut, durable, not heavy. Most often, snow of this brand is found in open, wind-blown spaces, on the tops of ridges, bare hills, near uneven terrain, near large stones, slope bends, and sastrugi. The depth of the snow cover at the site of the future quarry should not be less than 0.6–0.7 m. will just slide down).
The quarry is a pit 1 × 1 m in size and 50-60 cm deep at the edge; with a long knife, brick blocks are cut out with the heel of the ski. We once used an ordinary spruce stick as a cutting tool, but the productivity in this case, of course, drops by 2-3 times. If the snow is evenly dense in depth, it is convenient to cut narrow, vertically standing bricks. If only the top layer of snow is strong, the blocks are cut horizontally.
The block cut from four sides is separated from the snow monolith by a light kick along the bottom edge. As the quarry lengthens, the blocks are trimmed only on three sides. The first 15-20 blocks, which will serve as the foundation of the future igloo, are made as large as possible, up to 100x50x30 cm.
After harvesting the blocks on a horizontally trampled platform, a circle is drawn using a rope compass or a long stick. The diameter of an igloo designed for one person should be at least 2.4 m, for two - 2.7 m, for three - 3 m, for four - 3.6 m. The indicated dimensions will provide the person with the greatest comfort, but in emergency cases such an igloo can accommodate a double number of residents.
Along the perimeter of the outlined circle, the first row of blocks is laid out from the outside, after which it is cut diagonally, along the entire length, up to the bottom edge, so that the beginning of the spiral is formed. The first block of the second row is installed on the formed step. The laying of blocks of the lower rows goes with a 25-30-degree collapse inside the circle. The slope of the blocks of the upper rows can reach 40-50% deviation from the vertical.
When building, you need to remember a few little secrets. In no case should adjacent blocks touch the lower corners, otherwise they will be in an unstable position. Vertical joints of blocks in adjacent rows should not match. It is not recommended to move the installed block back and forth along the wall, as it wears out ^ and loses its original shape. Bricks-blocks are du4sche to lay a more durable, nastovoy.khtoronoy needle inside.
The upper opening in the dome is closed with one polygonal slab or 2-3 flat ones.
long blocks laid close to each other on the last row of bricks. Large gaps between the blocks can be filled with fragments of crust, small ones can be covered with loose snow. The cracks and through holes in the dome are best seen in the evening, when a candle is burning inside the igloo.
Under the finished igloo dome, a laz-tunnel breaks through from the leeward side. As with the construction of a cave, one must strive for it to be located below the floor level. If the igloo is standing on fine snow, it is permissible to cut an inlet in the wall at ground level and close it with a door block
Inside the igloo, especially if the entrance is punched at floor level, you can arrange a couch 30-40 cm high.
If it is planned to make a fire in the igloo, then in the upper part of the dome it is necessary to cut a hole with a diameter of 10-15 cm, to which a pipe cut from a strong crust with a through hole for extracting smoke should be attached. At the same time, a fire in an igloo must be made from dry, low-smoking firewood and very small in size. In case of strong smoke, an additional window can be cut out in the dome, which is subsequently closed from the outside with a block.
The igloo is one of the most reliable snow shelters that can protect a person from any vagaries of the weather. Suffice it to recall that the Eskimos, living in the harshest conditions of the polar Arctic, until recently did not know other winter dwellings at all! Perfectly mastering the skills of snow building, any Eskimo, according to Knud Rasmussen, could single-handedly build a spacious igloo that can accommodate 4-5 people in just 3/4 hours! Modern man, of course, cannot afford such speeds.
Even a well-equipped traveler with experience in the construction of blockhouses takes 1.5-2 hours to build a medium-sized igloo. For beginners and etrt, far from Eskimo, the result should be increased by at least 2 times. When the construction of the igloo is carried out by 2 people - one cuts and transports the blocks, the other lays out the dome - the time costs are reduced by 30-35%, but no more.
In any case, the construction of the igloo should be started long before darkness, fatigue, weather changes. Saving time in such cases is unacceptable!
Let me give you a few more tips.
You should never try to build a large needle at once. The complexity of building an Eskimo snow hut increases in direct proportion to its size. If the construction of a 2-meter needle is available to any beginner, then even an experienced professional cannot always master a 3-4-meter needle. In cases where a large group of people gets into trouble, it is much easier and faster to build 3-4 or 10 small needles than one large one.
A person who undertakes the construction of an igloo for the first time can be advised to first fold a small - 1.5 m in diameter - snow hut. This will help to understand its design features, master the construction technology, and eliminate many common mistakes for beginners. In case of emergency, you can always spend the night or wait out the bad weather in such an experimental igloo.
You must always be prepared for the fact that the construction of the needle will have to be repeated many times. And don't give up and don't despair! And work as much as it takes to build warm housing. At least twice as long as you have to stay in it.
We once moved a similar snow hut seven times, taking a total of six hours to build! The almost finished structure crumbled at the slightest touch. And I had to start all over. And on the street, by the way, it was night, -38 ° C and the strongest wind was blowing, with snow drifting. And we were on a bare rocky patch inside a cloud that had crawled onto the ridge. And we also had a burnt out bulb in a flashlight, and we had to highlight the fire of three cigarettes simultaneously put into our mouths. I really wanted to retreat then, because it seemed: it was impossible to build even a doghouse out of such a crust. But we continued to cut and put blocks. And the eighth attempt was crowned with success. It was then that we realized that the success or failure of snow construction depends not on the quality of the snow, but on the builder's obstinacy!
If the classic spiral needle for one reason or another does not work out, it can be advised to build according to a simplified, non-spiral scheme. By the way, travelers very rarely build a correct spiral needle, usually each group develops its own, simplified construction scheme for a circle. To build an igloo, first of all, you need to choose a flat area with dense and deep snow. Loose, fluffy, snow is not good.
With the help of a rope and a knife, draw a circle that will determine the size of your home based on the following calculation: for one person - 2.4, for two - 2.7. It must be remembered that the larger the hut, the more difficult it is to build. If there are many people, then it is better to build many small igloos. Each Igloo brick "falls" not so much down as sideways, leaning on its neighbor in a spiral below. Thus, it is possible to assemble a sheer vault of large diameter, if you accurately maintain the pitch of the spiral and the curvature of the circumference of the hemisphere, which is convenient to control with a knot on a regular rope from a peg in the center of the building. Windblown snow is an excellent building material, like Styrofoam. Having a long thin knife, a light duralumin plate and a hacksaw, you can build a warm cozy hut - an igloo from it. I was struck by the strength of fragile snow, turned into a needle! In the morning, leaving the place of spending the night, they tested it for strength. The snow dome easily supported the weight of four hefty men!
In a seemingly small igloo, five to seven people, the entire tourist group, are accommodated with great comfort. When a candle burns inside, you can read a book. When the stove is on, the thermometer under the dome shows +20 degrees. It is quiet and warm inside in any blizzard... To learn how to build an igloo, I had to read a bunch of books, diaries of famous polar explorers, advice and recommendations from tourist authorities. At first, we took advantage of Berman's vague recommendations. Construction took more than 5 hours, physically and mentally exhausted 12 people, and only seven fit inside. The igloo was far from practical use: - (Here is what the famous Piri wrote in his diary: ... There were two Eskimos with me. Every evening, armed with long knives, they chose a snow puff, and rather quickly built an igloo ... - Meager, but very useful information... It remains to take an interview with his companions :-) Once I came across an amazing book by William Stefanson "Hospitable Arctic" (If you find it - be sure to read it!) In order to adopt the survival techniques of the Eskimos, he lived for six months in their tribe. And then, he led a series of awesome polar expeditions. Everything is laid out in the book...
The four of us built the "fastest" needle for seven in 45 minutes! This is commensurate with setting up a tent, but of course, much more comfortable.
The initial stage of building an annular igloo is no different from building a spiral igloo - a quarry is laid, a circle is drawn in the snow, and the first row of blocks is laid out. Just don't cut it diagonally. It is enough just to put the last brick in the row non-standard, 30-40 cm higher than the rest. To it, tilting and slightly pushing it inside the circle, lean the first block of the second row, to that, in turn, another one, and so on. So that the installed blocks do not collapse inward under their own weight, they must be supported.
It is most convenient to work with three people - one person brings the bricks inside, the other sets, adjusts, grinds them to the already standing blocks, the third keeps the entire unfinished row from falling. The last laid brick wedged the finished row-ring, preventing it from collapsing. When working alone, the task is somewhat more complicated. In this case, it is necessary to lay the pre-prepared blocks inside the needle. Each block installed on the bottom row, as well as any other block that is in an unstable position, should be supported from the inside with a ski or a stick stuck into the snow. With some skill, you can adapt to keep the row from falling with your knee, hip, shoulder, while simultaneously setting the next block. Fixing the last brick ensures the immobility of the entire row. Due to the 30-40° inclination and protrusion of the snow bricks inward, the rings of the rows gradually narrow, forming a regular hemisphere igloo. You can push the blocks when the row is completely finished.
To do this, literally millimeter-by-millimeter sawing of the joints of the blocks, shifting them towards themselves, inside the needle. With some skill, it is possible to achieve that the top row will protrude deeper than the underlying one by more than a third of its thickness. The hole remaining in the upper part of the dome is closed in the same way as in a classic igloo. The protruding corners of the blocks inside the needle can be cut off with a saw (Fig. 196).
If the igloo dome cannot be closed, you can complete it in the same way as when building a snow hut. Lay improvised beams on the edges of the walls, which are covered with a piece of cloth or plastic wrap. Cover the resulting flat roof with a layer of snow. In a German place with a brain-crushing name - Mitterfirmiansreut, people went even further. Here, in December 2011, an entire church was built from snow and ice. The construction of such an object was not a simple experiment. It had its own history. In 1910, a severe storm prevented parishioners from reaching the local church. Then they decided to build a temple from the most affordable materials. And so the idea of the amazing snow church was born. Snow and ice proved to be quite durable material. During the month, the church receives a large number of parishioners. However, after this period, it begins to collapse.
In cases where it is not possible to prepare a large number of blocks, and there is enough snow
To do this, a circle with a diameter of 1-1.5 m is outlined on the surface of the snowdrift. Snow is raked out of the circle to a depth of at least 1.5 m. A deep round pit is obtained. Along its perimeter, a small dome is constructed from blocks laid in rows according to any of the described methods - spiral, annular. Of course, such a shelter turns out to be very cramped, but its internal volume can be increased by undermining the walls to the sides. Moreover, the largest amount of snow should be chosen in the lower part of the pit adjacent to the floor, the smallest - with a wide base and a narrowed neck, closed from above by a small dome. There is no need to fear that after construction is completed, the cut edges of the pit will not withstand and collapse under the weight of the walls. The built dome, gradually sagging and thawing, acquires solidity, due to which the pressure on the “foundation” is balanced. But, of course, you should not overdo it with undermining. The most convenient, from the point of view of organizing everyday life, and at the same time a strong shelter, where the angle of inclination of the walls of the pit is equal to the angle of inclination of the walls of the dome (about 40-50 °), that is, in fact, one wall is a continuation of the other. But, of course, each construction is individual, and the angles of inclination of the walls depend on the strength of the snow.
Finally, if the crust has not yet properly caked and has a layered structure, you can build a needle from flat, 10 cm thick or less, pancake-shaped blocks. To do this, the bricks are laid flat in such a way that each upper row protrudes into the circle a third deeper than the lower one. The rings of the row will gradually narrow until they close. The hole in the center of the dome is closed with one flat slab with a ledge at the bottom.
However, it should be remembered that an igloo built from flat blocks is not sufficiently stable, and therefore its diameter should not exceed 1.5–2 m. Otherwise, the dome igloo-zhet just collapse inward. You can increase the internal dimensions of the shelter by undermining the walls to the sides and removing a 30–50 cm layer of snow from the floor.
In the mountains on large slopes, in the presence of a strong crust, it is possible to build a block half-cave. To do this, you need to find a natural niche-depression in the rock and lay its open part with a wall of snow blocks. It is better to dig the entrance from below under the finished wall
On snowy slopes, a niche is dug with the help of an improvised tool and is also closed with a wall of blocks.
The described designs are far from exhausting the list of snow shelters used in the practice of emergency situations. Victims often use shelters that include elements of a variety of designs. It all depends on the specific conditions of the accident and the capabilities of the victims.
The use of open fire inside snow shelters is fraught with a certain danger. Incomplete combustion of certain combustible materials can release carbon monoxide into the surrounding air, which is deadly to humans.
Cold night in a snow shelter
Sit close to each other, trying to reach the maximum area of contact between the bodies.
Fasten all buttons, zippers, tighten the cuffs of the sleeves and legs, put on the hood.
Wring out wet clothes. Drink hot tea, coffee, broth. Keep your feet and head as warm as possible. There are sugar and fat-containing foods. Mark the location of the shelter. Sit on an insulating pad. Have a tool in the shelter for clearing the inlet.
Warm up your hands if necessary. Perform other physical activities, warming up the muscles.
Focus on shelter. Leave people unattended. Undress in the shelter. Stay in wet clothes. Drinking alcohol. Sleep at risk of freezing. Leave open flames unattended. During construction, locate the entrance to the wind. Lie down and sit in the snow. Overheat and sweat while building shelters.
Rebuild the shelter at night. Leaving the shelter in the dark of Feu & Urgent Necessity.
