BUILDING AN IGLOO

Few years ago I was really bored so I started scrolling through Youtube. I was watching random stuff, clicking on related videos when the current video was over and I stumbled upon a video called "How to build an Igloo". It was the middle of the summer but I said "what the hell" and started watching. The video woke up my inner child and made me realize that I never successfully made a snow fort of some kind and I said to myself "This winter we (my brother and me) are making an Igloo if it's the last thing we do!". Zagreb usually has a decent amount of snow in the winter so I was confident that we'll at least have a chance to try.

And so it was! Around Christmas time snow started falling and we got about 20 cm/8 inches of snow which was perfect. We called a few friends to help us and rushed to the back yard. We had no idea how hard it was going to be, all we knew was that we don't want to make a snow "mountain" and than dig into it, we want to make a "real" Igloo using snow cubes. And so the 5 of us started out 5 hours long project. We cleared a bunch of the snow, drew a circle for our igloo and started producing snow cubes.

For making snow cubes we had a few plastic containers, bowls and a wash basin. The wash basin turned out to be the best for making snow cubes. It already had a slight angle on top and that's the principle of making a dome, an Igloo. Every cube has to have a slight angle/slope on top so when you pile your block one on another it starts going inward and forming a dome.

All that is easier said than done...The snow cubes (blocks) often just won't stay together and break if the snow is not wet enough, and the amount of snow needed for a small igloo is much more than we thought. We cleared our whole back yard and we really have a big back yard.

We had ups and downs, one of our friends got too tired and too cold and left, and a few times we almost gave up because it was taking us forever. But we didn't quit and I'm so glad we didn't, because when we were finally done it was all worth it and AWESOME!


You could easily fit 5 people inside, maybe even 6, and you could almost stand inside. We had a small camping light inside and it felt perfect; it was even much warmer inside than outside! So for all of you who are maybe thinking of doing it, do it! Call up a few friends and have some fun. This year when it snows we'll try and make 2 Igloos and a tunnel that goes from one to the other. Wish us luck!