Digging the Pit

1.Find a site. As this shelter will be below ground, drainage and safety from vehicles, people or animals potentially passing over your shelter should take utmost priority when picking a site. It’s also nice if the soil is easy to dig through, so avoid rocky ground.

2.Measure the outline. Lie down on your back, and using a stick, draw a line on one palm’s width away from both sides of your body, starting at your shoulder and moving toward your feet, all the while following your body’s outline. Once you have completed this, draw a line to connect the two lines at shoulder-level, thereby creating a roughly triangular shape. If you don’t want to follow your body shape and have a bit more room, you can simply create an outline about 7 feet long and 3 feet wide.

3.Dig the pit. Use a small shovel, flat stone or sharp branch to dig the pit about 4 feet deep, following the line you drew on the ground. The excavated soil can be placed around the pit, so as to decrease the actual depth you have to dig. When your pit is complete, create a 6-inch-wide ledge all the way around it at a depth of approximately 18 inches. If the soils is quite loose (such as with sand) place two long poles onto this ledge on either side of your pit.

Create your Bedding

1.Set down the bedding branches. Once the pit is dug, line the pit or outlined area with branches crosswise from foot end to head end. These branches do not have to be perfectly straight but should be about 2 inches or so in diameter in order to evenly support the lengthwise layer to come.

2.Stack your branches. Next, lay branches crosswise on top of the first layer. Place the sticks side by side and carefully choose them to fit well together, with no bumps or twigs sticking out, as cushioned by a layer of leaves, you’ll be lying directly on top of them.

3.Add the debris. Now, add a 1-foot-thick layer of carefully selected dry debris on top of the latticework to complete your mattress. This is a good opportunity to introduce some ferns (for the nice smell) and beech leaves (to repel insects). Use only the fluffiest and driest of materials (where available) and filter it carefully to avoid twigs, thorns, seed pods and stones.

Building the Shelter

1.Build the structure. Mentally divide the pit in five equal sections lengthwise. Cover the bottom three fifths with crosswise branches. The branches need to be the correct length so they lie securely on both of the ledges you created, overlapping the ledges by at least 4 inches on both sides. You’ll want these branches to be the sturdiest you can find as they’ll be carrying debris and soil.

2.Cover the first fifth from the head end. You’ll be left with an uncovered fifth near the head end. This will form your entrance to the shelter. You may want to use more branches to reinforce this area and build it up to ground level.

3.Cover and insulate the shelter. Cover the entire structure (minus the entrance) with a 1-foot-thick layer of debris and a 6-inch layer of soil. You should be just above ground level at this point, so use the soil to create a bit of a mound to help rain run off, and add another thin layer of debris to the roof, if you wish, to blend the top layer into the surrounding area to decrease the visual impact.

4.Create the door. The challenge now is to create a sturdy, rainproof (where required) door. You could latch a frame together to fit or use large sections of bark. Fixing the roots of a dug-up small shrub to the door with string can provide a convenient handle.

This shelter is usually more than comfortable enough to sleep in without the aid of a sleeping bag or pad, though don’t be surprised if you find yourself having odd, “buried alive” dreams for the first few nights until you get used to sleeping in a small subterranean shelter. I have always enjoyed the low visibility and security this shelter offers, but do want to note that the shelter can really cut you off from the world around you as barely any sound travels through, and little to no light. I have woken up plenty of times only to realize that the day was already in full swing when I opened the door. It’s an easy-to-build yet strong shelter that can be readily adapted with more digging to create more space for equipment or even a small fire.

SNOW SHELTER

There are a number of types of snow shelters that can be built, but the one I will describe below is the best example of the various principles at work. It can be adjusted to suit different needs, depending on your circumstances. This design also circumvents the fact that emergency snow shelters are actually faster to build in snowdrifts or banks of snow, as snowdrifts are quite rare in most places. You will essentially be heaping snow in a big pile and hollowing it out. This is important, as very often, snow is not compact or sticky enough to dig out a snow cave. Powdery snow, however, has the amazing ability to solidify once disturbed. Another, more famous alternative involves cutting blocks of frozen snow, but for that technique to be successful, the snow cannot be powdery and some sort of a saw is needed. I have made shelters with snow blocks on several occasions, but never found it quite as convenient as the shelter I will cover here. The shelter below can be made entirely by hand, though bringing a shovel and a saw with you will greatly speed up the process.

Selecting the Site

1.Mind the dangers. The biggest hazard in relation to being out in the snow is the possibility of avalanches. If you’re building the shelter discussed here, you should be selecting level ground but should you decide to dig into a hillside instead, you need to be absolutely sure that your site is safe from avalanches. Another danger to keep in mind is the cold. Normally, it is fairly straightforward to protect yourself from the cold by wearing adequate clothing; however, when digging a snow shelter, there’s a big risk you may be sitting or lying directly on the snow for too long, which will cause the parts of your body in contact with the snow to become cold very rapidly. You also have to look out for snow gathering in your shoes or collecting on your clothes. As you will be quite warm with the exertion of building the shelter, snow may melt on your clothes and make you wet. Snow trapped on your socks, in your shoe will definitely melt. Wear trousers that can be tied around your boot, opt for snow boots designed like the home-made ones I’m wearing in the images and constantly brush snow off your clothes.

2.Prepare the site. Whenever you have picked your shelter location, you may need to create a base as the main room in the shelter, which must be a good 3 feet above ground, so the entrance can angle up from solid ground to the higher floor level of the main room.

Building the Shelter

1.Create the dome. Place all your belongings in a big pile in the middle of the base (if you had to make one), making sure there are no small, loose items that may become lost. Over this pile of equipment, start piling snow. (Creating this bulk will save you a fair bit of time when it comes to digging out the shelter.) The size of the snow dome you’re making can vary according to your own needs, but keep in mind that each of the walls will take a good foot in thickness away from the available space when gauging the size from the outside. The floor level of the shelter should also come out higher than solid ground by a solid 2 to 3 feet, so make your dome 4 feet higher and 2 feet wider than the space you’d like to have inside once it’s finished. (More on that later.) For a two-person shelter, a smooth, even dome with a diameter of about 3 to 4 yards and 6 feet of height ought to be more than sufficient. Once this dome is built, pat it all down well with your hands or a shovel and leave it to sit for approximately 20 minutes. This will give the snow time to “set” and solidify into one large mass.