What’s a typical Canadian winter day without some fun in the snow?

I wanted to share with you a really cool structure that my dad made over the last few days. My dad is an outdoorsy-type of guy and has been interested in reading and learning about camping in the wintertime. When I was younger, he took my sister and I camping over March Break in Algonquin. Camping is definitely in our family!

In one book he was reading, it gave instructions on how to build shelters in the snow. He decided to try to test out the book’s instructions by building one of these structures. It’s not an igloo where you build the walls of the structure one block at a time, but is called a Qhinzee (also spelled Quinzee)! It’s an Athabascan native word. Basically, it involves a lot of piled snow and a good shovel! My dad asked me to help him a little bit, as it is very time-consuming and a lot of physical labour!

Take a look at the video below to see what I’m talking about!

Of course, safety is the most important factor when building one of these. Don’t build one of these without parent supervision and follow all safety measures!