Eskimo ice hut. How to build an igloo out of snow

In the conditions of the far north, building a reliable shelter is the key to survival. At the same time, such options as huts and dugouts, which are capable of saving a traveler in the forest or in the tundra, turn out to be ineffective. On far north a lost traveler or hunter can take refuge in a snowy dwelling invented by the Eskimos - an igloo.

Eskimo snow house or snow igloo

Harsh natural conditions forced the inhabitants of the north to build shelters for themselves. Construction material Snow served as the basis for building a dwelling for the Eskimos. Possessing amazing properties, it protected a person from wind and exposure low temperatures. And if you have a candle with you and light it inside, you can easily warm yourself up in such a home. In addition, snow can transmit light and water vapor. What is surprising is that when a candle or lamp burns, the walls of such a dwelling melt, but do not melt. An Eskimo house may also consist of separate ice huts connected by passages.

There are basic rules that you need to know in order to do snow igloo:

you can dig with a knife, saw, bowl and shovel;
do not make the shelter large (the smaller, the warmer);
the cracks are covered with snow;
try not to sweat (remove excess clothing);
When constructing an igloo from snow, it is necessary to use a bedding made of waterproof material.

If you try and find a huge snowdrift, then you can build in it whole house Eskimos. It looks like a cave. The entrance can be dug into the wall lower and a small corridor can be added to strengthen the structure. The diameter at the base can be 3 or 4 meters. The low construction of the entrance to the igloo is due to the fact that the warm air rising to the top does not evaporate. The heavier carbon dioxide sinks down and comes out. Lighting shines directly through the walls. You can make a window using ice instead of glass. Inside, make flooring from skins on the floor and on the walls too. Now real home Eskimos are ready. You can light a candle or fat lamp inside.

If the snow is dense, then it is possible to cut entire blocks out of it with a hacksaw. They are made from foam plastic and are suitable for constructing igloos from snow. Blocks are cut from the side of the snowdrift from where the wind was blowing. They are stronger there. The blocks are heavy, weighing about 10 kg. When building an igloo, you shouldn’t go far in search of a good crust, otherwise you might get tired, and this is dangerous in the cold. After all, there are no deer or dogs in sled nearby to transport the blocks. You need to find a snowdrift 1 m or higher in height. Next, start cutting bricks out of it. Do not move anywhere within a radius of 30 m, you need to save energy. Using a knife, you need to mark a contour in the snow, draw a circle with a diameter of 3 meters. A place to enter the snow igloo is immediately marked.

Begin building the igloo during daylight hours.
You cannot rebuild the shelter at night.
It is forbidden to leave it at night or in poor visibility conditions.
Do not place the entrance into the wind.
Have a shovel or tool on hand to clear the entry hole.
Do not build an igloo larger than 3 m in diameter (the stability of the structure is sharply reduced).
Carefully draw the circle during construction.
Be extremely careful when lighting an open fire inside (possible poisoning) carbon monoxide).
It is forbidden to sleep if there is a threat of freezing.
Drinking alcohol is also not recommended.

Dangerous! If one of the group members has a heartache or chest pain, vomiting, dizziness, tinnitus, nausea or a dry cough with watery eyes, the victim must be immediately removed from the igloo to the air. Cases have been described fatalities. You should also turn off all heat-producing devices and ventilate the room. Remember that carbon monoxide poisoning most often occurs while people are sleeping.

How to make an igloo out of snow with your own hands

One block must be placed tightly against the other by tapping with a knife. In this case, snow plays the role of cement. First you need to grind the horizontal one, and after that vertical seam. Seal the chips with snow and fill the cracks that form during the construction of the igloo with your own hands with snow crumbs. It is very difficult to cut an exit without damaging the structure. In order to make a snow igloo durable, it is important to carefully approach the details.

When the process of laying snow slabs begins, a hole will form at the top. To prevent the last top slab from sliding off from above, it is placed in the form of a wedge. Such a snow brick seems to jam the ceiling hole. It is made larger than the hole so that it does not slip through.

IN winter time, at negative temperature, a snow igloo can last from 3 to 5 months. Eskimo housing is capable of maintaining a more or less stable temperature inside. In such a room the temperature ranges from -6° to +2°. If you light a candle, you can heat the room to +16°. But the Eskimos heated the igloos with lamps containing deer or seal fat. The temperature in such a dwelling rose to +20°, despite the fact that there was a frost of -40° all around. It was hot to sit in clothes, and they undressed. A small corridor also emerged from the snow. To protect against attacks by polar bears, the igloo was covered with a large block of snow at night.

How to avoid freezing inside a snow house

After compacting the floor into the snow igloo, a layer of spruce branches or fragments of tree branches is placed on it. You need to put the skis on top, bindings down. A cellophane film, a piece of fabric or a blanket is laid out on them. The skis are laid out like a fan, wider at the head and narrower at the legs. All people should lie on one side and press tightly against each other. The weakest ones should be in the middle. In extreme cold, do not lie on your back. If there are empty ones in stock plastic bottles from water, then you can put them under yourself. It is necessary to slightly unscrew the plugs before lying down. They will bend a little under the weight and will save you from lying on the snowy floor.

It must be remembered that hypothermia of the thigh is no less dangerous than hypothermia of the chest. It is better to remove wet clothes so as not to increase the cooling. You need to take turns sleeping. During a snowstorm, do not come out of shelter. Each exit outside introduces cold air into the snowy house. A lit candle, 10 cm in size, can burn for 2 hours. It is necessary to insulate your head and legs as much as possible, and put on a hood. You cannot undress in a shelter unless your clothes are wet. If your partner is trembling, do not be afraid - this is defensive reaction body. But if a person does not react to frost, this is dangerous. You can stretch your limbs and warm up with physical exercise.

Since ancient times, people have used any material suitable for this purpose to build their homes: for some, wood various breeds, some used clay and , and some even found a use for snow. Yes, yes, we will talk about those very snow houses of the Eskimos, called “igloos”, which are 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 - 2-2.5 meters. The main material for building igloos is ice or snow blocks compacted by the wind. At great depth snow cover, the entrance to the room is arranged in the floor, breaking through a small corridor to it. If the snow cover does not have the required depth, then the entrance is built in the wall, adding an additional corridor using snow blocks.

Each Eskimo camp has several buildings, where there are up to four related families. Eskimo housing is divided into two types: summer and winter. The first is located on a slope stone buildings, the floor of which is deepened into the ground. From below, a long passage of stones, partially buried in the ground, leads to the house. 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 snow house has a completely ordinary layout: the sleeping bunks are located in the back of the room, and there are bunks for lamps on the sides. When building walls above ground, stones or whale ribs are used, whose arcs are spaced so that their ends intersect each other (or both materials). Sometimes, when constructing the roof frame, whale ribs are used, adding supports to the structure. TO finished frame seal skins are tightly tied (which allows for high-quality insulation of the house from ice), on which they then lay a thick layer of small heather bushes and another additional layer of skins.

Scheme of construction and arrangement of an igloo house

When constructing igloos, snow or ice slabs are used. The blocks are laid in a spiral, from right to left. To do this, two blocks in the first row are cut diagonally 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 row is obtained. The small hole that remains at the top is closed from the inside using a wedge-shaped block. Then the builder, located inside the hut, seals all the cracks with snow.

The entrance tunnel digs through a snowdrift with outside, ending with a hatch in the floor of the building. If the layer of snow is shallow, then an entrance hole is cut in the wall of the igloo, and a corridor of snow blocks is laid out next to it.

In this video you can watch the process of building a snow igloo house

The external entrance to the tunnel is about 1.5 meters high, which is why you can only walk through it with your head bowed. The entrance to the tunnel is even smaller - you can only find yourself in it if you crawl on all fours. But in the hut itself, the ceilings are quite suitable for freely moving around the room - their height reaches about 2 meters. Large snow house The Eskimo can reach a diameter of 9 meters, and the ceiling height in it reaches 3-3.5 meters. Typically, such large structures are built much less frequently and are used mainly for major holidays.

Secrets of building a reliable igloo

When working with blocks that are located next to each other, you should avoid touching their corners, otherwise the structure will become unstable. For convenience, it is recommended to leave a triangular hole at the bottom of the junction of adjacent blocks small sizes(it can be easily sealed with snow in the future).
It is highly recommended not to move a block installed on a wall in one direction or another, as this may cause it to wear out and lose its original shape. You can simply place a block, trim off the strongly protruding parts on one side and below, and then carefully move it as close as possible to the adjacent block. Then, using a saw, its final finishing is carried out. It is recommended to lay the slabs with the “crust” side inside the structure, as it is more durable.
To make the work process easier, the upper hole in the dome can be carefully covered with one of the plates. Large cracks that are located between the blocks are sealed with pieces of crust, and small ones are treated with loose snow. Through holes and the cracks are easiest to see in the evening, by the light of a small bowl of seal oil burning inside the igloo. In addition, warm air will slightly heat the joints, which will improve the quality of processing of holes and cracks.
Before lighting a fire inside the igloo, you need to make a hole with a diameter of approximately 10-15 cm on the leeward side in the upper part of the dome and attach a smoke extraction pipe made of strong crust to it.

Interior of an igloo

The interior of the igloo is usually covered with animal skins. Traditional fat bowls act as sources of light and additional heat. When arranging a bed, the Eskimos use two layers of reindeer skins, one of which is laid with the flesh up, and the other with the flesh down. In some cases, in addition to deer skins, old skin from a kayak is used, which allows you to get a very soft and comfortable sleeping place.

During the daytime, the Eskimo hut is so bright that you can easily read or write in it without the need for additional lighting. At the same time, in sunny weather ice walls can cause such glare that it causes what is called snow blindness. When the polar twilight begins, the Eskimos can insert windows from thin lake ice into the walls of the hut, cutting small holes for them above the entrance. Zhirniks, used for heating and lighting the living space, provide soft and diffused light, which is enhanced by reflection on the ice dome.

Don't know how to entertain yourself and your child on New Year's holidays? Build a fairy tale with your own hands. Building a mysterious Eskimo igloo is not an easy task, and the more valuable the result will be. Follow our instructions carefully, and the snow hut will definitely decorate the winter yard of your dacha.

The construction of an Eskimo snow igloo house is a rather interesting idea that not only you, but also your children will like.

Tools you will need for work:

Probe for measuring snow.
Saw.
Kingpin.
Roulette.
Rope.
Shovel
Small bayonet blade.

Looking for snow

Work on an igloo begins with a blank wall material, and for this you need a fairly thick layer of snow. Because the optimal sizes for a block it is usually considered 600x450x200 mm, then the thickness of the snow at the excavation site theoretically cannot be less than 20 cm, but in practice you should look for a “quarry” of snow pie at least half a meter deep.

All necessary measurements we do it using a special probe, which can be purchased in a store or from a pre-marked metal rod.

Preparing the quarry

Before starting to manufacture wall material, the working quarry must first be prepared. For this:

We dig a trench at least 70 cm wide and 60 cm deep. If the thickness of the snow layer does not allow this, then simply to hard ground.

Important! The front wall of our trench must be perfectly flat - these are the edges of our future “bricks”.

We remove all crumbly snow at the excavation site and level the working area.

Preparation of blocks

We cut the blocks out of the snow pie entirely, while achieving their most ideal geometry. The more accurately the dimensions are met, the easier it will be to build. In total we will need about 50 snow bricks per igloo.

Preparing the construction site

You can only build an igloo in deep snow, no thinner than 40-60 cm, otherwise there will be problems with the “correct” arrangement of the entrance. If there is no such layer of snow in the place planned for construction, you need to make it yourself, simply by dumping it in required space big snowdrift. Then we level the construction site and compact it with snowshoes. For our work, a patch with a diameter of 3-4 meters will be enough.

First row

Before we start laying the first row, we make markings. To do this, we hammer in a kingpin in the center of the area we have compacted and tie a piece of cord or clothesline to it, on which we set a distance of 1.05 m. We mark the latter with a knot.

Now, using this “compass”, we draw a circle on the site with a diameter of 2100 mm - this will be the outer boundary of the snow wall.

WITH inside circle, strictly along its perimeter we build a snow wall exactly one block high. All bricks in the masonry should be heaped inward at approximately 17°; more precisely, we control the angle of inclination using our measuring rope. Since the igloo has the shape of a regular hemisphere, the measured 1.05 m will not only be the radius of the Eskimo dwelling, but also the distance from the center of the site to any point on the snowy facade.

When the perimeter is laid out and the blocks are fitted to each other from the formed snow ring, you need to cut out the screw with a hacksaw.

It is this spiral shape of the first row that is the main secret of the northern builders, which Europeans have been unraveling for centuries. Laying along serpentine lines is the only option to get a third support point for the “brick” and not fall.

Thus, each block rests not only on the row below it, but also on the side edge behind the standing wall element.

Further masonry. Keystone

Important! Because the mason is inside closed loop, For further work a helper is needed. It is he who must supply the snow blocks.

There is nothing complicated about the spiral masonry itself; you just need to follow a few basic points.

Tilt angle

We control the angle of inclination as before using a piece of rope tied to the king pin. Only such a measure will allow us to build the right dome.

End trimming

For denser masonry, we cut the ends of the snow bricks at one angle.

The direction of the cut of the right edge of the block is set by the already familiar lacing.

We file down the left end, focusing on the already finished cut of the previous element. Sawing is done with an ordinary saw.

Keystone

The keystone is more difficult to trim. You need to work from the inside, focusing only on the finished working planes of already laid blocks.

Digging the exit

After finishing the masonry work, you can think about the door. This is the tunnel under the wall of our snowy hut (that’s why we needed deep snow on the construction site); it is this design of the entrance that ensures the free flow of oxygen into the room, but prevents warm air from escaping from the hut.

From the street, the “undermining” is decorated with snow blocks, making from the latter a kind of short snow pipe.

Video: how to build an igloo with your own hands

Facade finishing

When the walls are laid out and the entrance is equipped, we trim the sharp corners with a saw and seal the masonry joints with loose snow. That's all.

Finish facade finishing the needle can be trusted to nature itself. The very first snowstorm will turn our building into a cozy and warm snow house in which you can wait out almost any frost.

Don't be lazy, build a real Eskimo house out of snow - the children will thank you.

An igloo is a dome-shaped hut made of snow. Where there is no forest, this building can save you from the cold winter night. And if you build it in the forest, it can survive the entire winter due to its strength. The height of the igloo is usually one person's height, and the diameter depends on the number of people settling in for the night. The skills of how to build an igloo must be developed long before a planned trip to the steppe or tundra, because when extreme circumstances arise, especially in frosty and windy weather, efficiency in constructing a snow shelter is important.

Igloo

The igloo is built from bricks made from compressed snow. Ideally, the shape of the building should be round, since the area of a spherical hut can reduce heat loss. In addition, this form gives strength to the structure, despite the fragile “building material”. If the igloo is built in deep snow, the entrance to it is dug in the ground, and if the depth of the snow cover is shallow, a small corridor is attached to the hut, which protects the building from wind penetration inside. Warming inside such a home occurs with the help of a candle. The walls will melt a little, but not melt, forming a thin ice crust from the inside. The walls of the needle are capable of transmitting light and water vapor.

How to make an igloo out of snow: basic rules

Snow igloo

The tools used to build a snow hut are a knife, a saw, a shovel. If necessary, you can use a regular iron bowl. It is necessary to take into account that, than smaller sizes home, the warmer it is, so you shouldn’t make it too spacious. If the group consists of more than 4-5 people, it is better to build two igloos. The gaps between the bricks must be filled with snow. While inside the igloo, you will need to remove your outer clothing to avoid sweating. It is advisable to use waterproof fabric as bedding inside. To cut blocks, you do not need to go far from the designated area, otherwise you may get tired. You need to find the nearest snowdrift at least 1 meter high and start cutting. In addition, you need to follow the basic rules:

Construction of the igloos must begin before dark.
Rebuilding the shelter is strictly prohibited at night, as is leaving it at this time of day.
The entrance should be located on the leeward side
Inside the shelter you should always have a shovel or other tool to clear the entrance of snow.
Care must be taken when breeding open fire inside the shelter because there is a risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.
You should not drink alcohol inside the igloo or sleep if you are in danger of freezing.
The entrance to the igloo should be located below floor level. This will ensure stagnation warm air, outflow of heavy carbon dioxide and oxygen supply.
Tip: If you build an igloo on a slope, you will need to spend less effort building walls because there are fewer bricks to form.

How to make an igloo out of snow with your own hands: material

Making bricks from snow depends on its structure. If the crust is hard and durable, use a saw (you can use a shovel or a hacksaw) to cut out blocks slightly smaller than standard gas silicate bricks. Usually the dimensions are 60x40x15, but for the bottom row you need to make larger blocks for stability. Wet snow is difficult to cut, but it is sticky, and you can stick bricks. In order to mark the shape, you need to use a rectangular blank made from any available material. You can do this manually, choosing the size by eye. Bricks from loose snow are difficult to make without a blank, since it will crumble. The snow is placed inside the mold, compacted and moistened. After removing the mold, the blocks will harden in the cold. Thus, you need to make the required number of blocks depending on the size of the igloo. You need to cut blocks from a snowdrift on the side from which the wind blows. But still the best snow for the construction of a snow shelter, dry snow with a density of 0.25-0.30 and having a uniform structure is considered. Snow with a denser structure has greater thermal conductivity, weak adhesion and fragility (at low temperatures).

Beautiful igloo

Before you make an igloo out of snow with your own hands, you need to mark the area of the building. Use a knife to mark a round area with a diameter of 3 meters, marking its center with a stick. You should immediately mark the entry point into the needle. As noted above, it needs to be arranged on the leeward side. But, if the parking is planned for a long time, the entrance is arranged at a right angle to the windy side. The circle should be made as regular as possible, and no more than three meters, since otherwise the stability of the igloo will decrease. After marking, the site must be leveled and compacted. Layout snowy home should be such that the couch is placed opposite the entrance and above it.

There are two ways to lay bricks: circular and spiral. In the first case, the blocks are laid row by row, in the second, only the bottom row consists of rectangular blocks, and all subsequent ones are trapezoidal in shape. When laying spirally, after forming the bottom row, any three bricks are cut diagonally (any bricks can be cut, except those located near the entrance area). The third block is cut to half. Next, the laying of the second row begins: the brick is placed in the recess of the third, cut brick, then the next one is laid.

Longer and wider snow bricks are laid in the bottom row, with a gap between them to avoid being squeezed out under the weight of the upper rows. Blocks with defects cannot be used.

To obtain required angle slope, you can trim already laid bricks, or create the desired slope before laying. To prevent the top snow bricks from falling and increase their stability, you need to make a bevel between the top and bottom bricks, for which a cut is made internal corner the upper brick for its tight fit to the lower one. During laying, each brick is tightly adjusted to the adjacent one, and is gradually processed outer wall. All cracks must be filled with the snow formed during fitting; it acts as cement. Around the bottom Part of the igloo needs to be built from the remaining blocks to protect it from the wind, which can blow snow between the bricks of the first row.

After this, the cracks inside the igloo are sealed, a trench is formed up to the entrance and covered with blocks. While it is being formed from the outside by one builder, the second is paving an exit into it from the inside. The entrance hole in the wall of the igloo is carefully cut out with a hacksaw. The block cut out at the entrance will subsequently need to be moved towards the entrance hole in order not to release heat and to protect it from snow drift and wind.

At the top of the igloo, the arch of the last block row creates a hole that needs to be sealed with a wedge-shaped brick. In order for it to tightly close the hole, the size of the brick should be slightly larger than it.

After the igloo is erected, holes must be cut in its walls for ventilation against the accumulation of carbon dioxide.

I first came across the video by accident. And then I dug around on the Internet and found instructions in Russian. This is also not superfluous, because the video is from Canada and it is in English.

The Arctic Training Center, located in the village of Puvirnituk, a few kilometers from Nunavik (Northern Quebec), teaches survival skills and the art of igloo building. Teachers from the Inuit tribe teach disciplines necessary for life in this inhospitable region.

Paulusi Novalinga, 56, was born and raised in an igloo. For many years he hunted and fished with his father, as their ancestors had done, and traveled across the frozen desert on dog sleds. Times have changed now, but 12 years ago Novalinga helped found a “school of survival” in an attempt to save ancient skills from oblivion. The school accepts young village boys and trains outsiders - military personnel, polar pilots, tourists.

The ideal material for building an igloo is deep, dense snow that falls during one good snowfall. Such a snow mass does not have layers that could later cause the destruction of the building. In addition, it is better to take snow from the windward side of the hill, since under the influence of the wind it is packed into a denser mass.

When trying a crust with a “panak” (homemade machete), they choose the most appropriate place and cut out rectangular building blocks. One such brick weighs approximately 10 kg, and its texture resembles foamed polystyrene.

A circle three meters in diameter is drawn on the snow crust. The first block is laid upright directly on this line, cutting the left edge so that it coincides with an imaginary vertical plane passing through the center of the circle. Then they take the next block, trim its right edge so that it fits closely to the left edge of the previous block, and move the blocks together. You need to carefully monitor which side of the block should be facing up and which side should be facing inside the needle. The Inuit believe that improperly laid blocks can cause storms.

After inserting the next block, you need to cut out the excess snow from the middle of the bottom edge. To do this, “panak” is inserted into bottom seam and they scratch there with a blade. Here it is - the secret trick to building an igloo! Each block should rest on the underlying row only with its lower ribs, working like a small arch. The blocks climb up in a spiral. With each turn they are placed with an increasing slope into the building. Upper blocks are laid almost horizontally.

Their own binding bonds operate here, since snow at the microscopic level is constantly in the process of melting and freezing. But now the last block has been inserted, having irregular shape, and the igloo is ready. Novalinga won one of the competitions by building such a dwelling in 20 minutes.

For the Inuit, an igloo is a home and hearth, the center of their universe. But as an attribute Everyday life it is already erased from their memory. Someday Novalinga will stop teaching others the secrets of building igloos, and this art will fall out of the hands of the people for whom it has been the basis of life for many centuries.

How to build an igloo

Material

Dig a trench in the snow, well compacted by the winds. This will help you cut out your first snow blocks. Using a snow knife or saw, cut out blocks measuring 30 x 60 x 45 cm.

Foundation

Select the center of the future igloo and draw a circle around it with a diameter of 2-3 m. Lay out the blocks along this contour, adjusting their edges so that they fit tightly together.

Construction

Cut off the top underneath inclined plane, which should start between two blocks and continue half the perimeter of the bottom row. Align the top surfaces of the blocks so that they coincide with an imaginary line from the top outer edge of the blocks to the center of the floor of the future igloo. Each freshly laid block should rest on the base only with its lower ribs.

Output Formation

Dig an entrance tunnel. It is better if it faces down the slope to better retain heat.

Last steps

Eskimo ice hut. How to build an igloo out of snow - the home of the Eskimos