Snow Days on a Hole New Level

Waking up to no school and loads of snow everywhere outside is probably one of the best feelings in the world, but on Thursday morning, I was wondering how I would tackle on this task of building a snow fort. Living in a city with houses packed together and not a lot of trees, I wondered how I would make this fort. My first attempt at making the fort was Thursday afternoon. The snow went up to my knees which was very exciting.

I decided to make some snow bricks to build my fort, which failed miserably. The snow was still coming down, making the fresh snow break apart easily and hard to work with. So, I decided to try again another day.

On Friday, I thought about building my fort again. Looking outside, I saw piles and piles of snow outside, and realized how I could build my fort! So, I began looking around to find a pile of snow that I would be tall and wide enough to fit 2 people. Luckily, I found a pile of snow at the end of my driveway. Here's a picture of the pile I decided to use:

I then shoveled more snow onto the pile to make it taller. Finally satisfied with the height for my shelter, I sprinkled water on it to make the snow more stable, hoping it wouldn't collapse when digging into it. After sprinkling with water, I let the pile sit over night so the water would ice up and keep the snow together.

On Sunday afternoon, I began to dig a hole into the pile of snow to create my fort. I began by digging at one face of the pile with my hands, creating the entrance to the fort. The entrance was approximately 1.25 feet wide at the base and 1.5 feet in height.

It took a while by hand, and I could feel my toes and fingers freezing, so I decided to switch to a shovel. I used the back side of the shovel to loosen the snow, and then used a broom to sweep out the snow since the shovel did not fit. Soon enough, I was able to fit my legs all the way into the hole. I used my feet to gently kick the walls, making the space in the shelter taller and wider. Soon enough, I could almost sit up in my fort!

As I continued to make the space inside the fort bigger, a tragedy occurred- a large chunk of snow above the entrance loosened itself, creating a 4.5 inch hole in diameter above the entrance. Even so, I continued on to making the space bigger to be able to fit myself. 

After a long time of digging, I was finally able to fit myself into my fort. The space inside was now 2.5 feet tall, 2.5 feet wide, and 4 feet deep. Also, the hole looked like a nice little window!

Satisfied with the size, I found a large, clear plastic bag to place on the ground of my fort to keep me dry.

And I was done! A shelter made out of snow, and I had to say, it was quite nice inside. 

I was even able to lie down on my back!

A blurry pic of me having the time of my life in my newly built snow fort just moments before my phone slipped out the grip of my gloves and onto my face (: