Creating a survival snow shelter

One of the most important things you can learn before venturing into the back country is how to built shelter.At higher elevations the weather can be sunny one minute, then a snow storm can roll in quickly. Do not be fooled by the summer months either because in high elevations freak snow storms happen even in July.

Be prepared and educated. Never take the weather for granted because you never know from minute to minute what can or will happen. The need for adequate shelter cannot be overemphasized. A cold windy night without the benefit of shelter or fire could be your last, let alone if a snowstorm came out of nowhere, what would you do?

In higher elevations, or in snow country, a snow shelter will provide you with your best protection.Snow is an excellent insulating material. Many people equate snow with many winter tragedies, but in reality it is the best and greatest asset you have in the event of a snowstorm.

Snow shelters can be dug with an improvised snow shovel.

If possible select a site where the snow has already drifted,or start your digging around a standing tree. Be sure to build your bed platform eighteen to twenty inches higher and insulate it with evergreen boughs or bark. Throughout the construction make sure to take frequent breaks and acoid overheating yourself because sweat soaked clothing provides no insulation and also leads quickly to hypothermia.

Punch a ventilation hole in the roof by poking a stick through it, and every half hour or so check to make sure the ventilation hole is open and not snow filled from fresh snow coming down outside. the doorway should never be closed off completely because you need a small opening to insure fresh air circulation of some sorts. If available a lighted candle will provide heat and light.

Regardless of how cold and snowy it gets outside a well constructed snow shelter will not get below ten to twenty degrees. at these altitudes that can and will seem like a heat wave because temperatures have been known to plunge to minus seventy degrees easily in a blizzard. Your body temperature can actually raise the temperature inside a small one person snow cave to forty five degrees, so be careful because it is not recommended that the temperature should be higher than freezing inside . If the temperature does rise above freezing the roof can and will begin to drip leaving you wet and again risking hypothermia.

Always remember to repeatedly check your vent hole and also keep your snow shovel handy in case you end up having to dig yourself out after a raging storm. There are also many ways to modify a snow shelter such as th one described. It really all depends on the items you have available to you, the loaction and how deep the snow at the time of inception.

Use your ingenuity and follow these basic guidelines and in the event of emergency, you will be more than prepared.