Entrance pit to snow cave
I went with the Mountaineers to Stevens Pass, WA to learn how to dig a snow cave. We put on our snowshoes and spent the morning hiking in. We found a steep sloped area with a good deep accumulation of snow and then we got out our shovels and started digging. I was teamed up with one other person. We started by making a five-foot entry tunnel directly into the slope and then beyond that we created a dome-shaped room. The greatest amount of work in digging a snow cave is in clearing the snow. After about four hours we had finished. We cooked dinner and then we went on a tour checking out the other caves.
Entrance pit to snow cave
Some of the more ambitious teams had joined forces and dug pod-style caves where there is a single entry tunnel branching off into multiple domed rooms. One team had even carried in a battery pack and a string of electric lights to put outside the entrance to the cave. Another team had dug a spiral staircase entryway. Since the entire cave is a smooth white reflective surface, a single candle is enough to illuminate the entire room so most rooms had small candle shelves carved out.
Entrance tunnel
Snow caves are surprisingly comfortable. We had deliberately made the floor of the cave higher than the entrance. This design keeps the temperature inside the cave just above freezing even if the temperature outside is much lower. Also, inside the snow cave it is silent even if there is a high wind outside. That night I was warm and dry and I slept comfortably.
My cave-mate's sleeping platform (I took this shot while sitting on my own sleeping platform. The whiteness of the snow makes it hard to make out the walls but on the right side of the picture you can see shadows made by the roof of the cave. There is just enough clearance to be able to sit upright.)
We spent the following day practicing building emergency snow shelters. These shelters can be built in forty-five minutes and are less protective than snow caves but are substantially better than being out in the open. Because snow caves take so much time to build (now that I know how to do it I think I could probably make one in about three hours) they are usually only built when people are staying in the same place for more than one day and can reuse them.
When it was time to go home, we removed the wands that we had used to mark the area around the cave and then we filled in the entryway to prevent other backcountry travelers from crashing through an unexpected hole in the snow pack. And then we hiked back out. The snowshoe course is now over but the snow remains.