Red Heather: A personal snowcaving record....

by Christian

The winter is well over now, but I've been meaning to type down something about our record-size snowcave from this past January, before I loose the measurements... It was a great trip, with two families and 7 people total in the same snowcave. A combination of prior snowcaving experience and the help of Miriam, our favourite extra-adult, allowed us to dig out what is certainly the largest snowcave I have yet constructed - Final dimensions were 4.1m long by 3m wide, with a ceiling height of 1.2m (in the center of the sleeping platform - standing height in the vestibule). A smooth ceiling ensured not a single drip, and the ceiling thickness of 65cm meant no sagging overnight (at least, not enough to measure with our avalanche-probe ruler). In the morning I could jump on the ceiling and not punch through.

​The ski in was fairly uneventful - we made good time with N asleep in the toboggan and F skiing (being towed) beside her.  Having more adults than kids allowed for efficient digging, and conditions were perfect for skiing above the cabin the next morning. For the ski down we traded packs - I get to carry all the stuff in, but (as the better skier) am in charge of taking N in the kid-carrier pack for the ski down. This left Line with the big pack, including toboggan and some accessories we'd had inside the kid-carrier pack dangling from the outside. F let 'er rip singing "Let it go" from Frozen at the top of her lungs, along with interpretive ski-dancing, on the ski down the logging road to get back down.