Quinzee Building

Step 8 The horror... the horror... (I loathe the smell of quinzees in the morning)

One last thought: If you ever sleep in a quinzee (or igloo for that matter), I highly recommend that when you wake up in the morning, the first thing you do is pack up all your gear, shove it out the hole ahead of you, then get out yourself and never go back in again. I once made the mistake of waking up, crawling out of the quinzee to take a pee, and then going back in to pack up. You would not believe the STENCH in there! Granted, perhaps our choice of chili for supper the night before was not the best planning, but I guess that over the course of the night one gets used to the little odors as they accumulate inside the quinzee. Be warned though, stepping out & getting a breath of fresh air in the morning only primes your olfactory sense to receive the full brunt of that special horror on one mind-numbing shot.

Remember, friends don't let friends back into the quinzee in the morning.

Comments

[legolass69]

CO2 is heavier then thin air. When you breath it stays in the shelter. So holes does not not work. You should make a drainage channel both sides of quinzee. They must be gradient through the gate and if the gate is higher then the ground level CO2 will be flow outside of the quinzee. And remember it is not only the smell, lack of oxygen cause not only uncomfortable sleeping...

[vermontardis]

True. I have made snow shelters in which you sleep on a raised platform and that way you're warmer and you can breathe clean air.

[romedeiros1970]

CO2 is indeed heavier than the rest of the air, but the normal movement of air due to wind and thermal differences do not allow CO2 to settle. Trust me: I am a Chemist. The drainage channels are a great idea, especially to allow colder air to sink out a little, keeping the warm, stanky air inside. They also allow liquid water to pool away from sleeping bags if the shelter gets too warm. I still prefer igloos, but great instructible!

[fordman15243]

I never trust anyone who says "Trust me"... o.O

[wrique]

Well stated, romedeiros1970. I agree, the convective movement of the air certainly does negate the subtle differences in the densities of the various gasses. Don't forget, there are warm bodies in the middle of the quinzee and cold ceiling & walls on the outside. The air does move around quite nicely. Now in my initial write-up, I did neglect writing about poking a small hole (1 inch or so in diameter) in the wall of the quinzee. It was an oversight on my part, but a good number of people have made comments about it already. However as I've commented elsewhere already, most people don't appreciate just how porous snow is, and much air exchange can take place through it.

[vermontardis]

One idea for the stench problem is to leave a vent hole about four inches wide at roughly the halfway point on the side of the quinzee. You should have this anyway so that you can glaze the interior with a candle or something without suffocating. It actually doesn't let out that much heat, and you're at the bottom anyway. In the long run, it may make you warmer because now you can block the door and still be able to breath. Another heat-saving technique is to dig down, across, and then up to begin hollowing out the inside.

[sparky12345]

you could use it for nerf 

[gtothemoney]

o ya for sure.
me and my friends do it all the time. we actually got a 5 foot fall once all the way around and we were able to sit upright in are quinzee. and for fun we laid in some plywood and a tarp. we even got a torch (i dont small torch i mean this thing shoots a 4 foot flame) and made an ice layer on top and bottom.

[Magpie15]

 I have built and slept in quigloos (same idea as quinzees) for several nights with three other people and never had a problem with the smell. Granted, we weren't very good at patching the hole on top from how we hollowed it out, and I think that could have helped air it out.

Another tunneling idea: have one person start at the top, and one at the door, and have them dig a chute until they meet. It should follow the slant of the quigloo wall, and be a good foot thick (at least). Once the top and door person's tunnels meet, the top person hollows out the quigloo from the top down, sending the snow down the chute. The door person then clears it away from the door, making new mounds that can be carved into walls (or a kitchen, if winter camping.) The top gets plugged up with snow blocks before the quigloo is too unstable, and the top person says inside hollowing out until it is big enough for someone else to come in the door and help hollow. It took us less than two hours to hollow this way, and make a space big enough for four people to sleep comfortably. 

[strangequark88]

Great instructable. I haven't built a quinzee in years, but it brought me back to some great back country experiences. Given a lake situation you can usually find some wind blown snow near the edges and built an igloo. That is how I passed my back country tour leader course, when all I had was my snow saw, and not enough time to wait for the snow to coalesce for a quinzee.

[A good name]

Amazing instructable! loved it! (Too bad it's late right now or I'd make my own... tommorow I suppose :)

[Traveler55]

I've made plenty of quinzees, just never knew there was a name for them. I made them for the kid and his friends when he was much younger. It lasted most of the winter. a great play house for the kids and grandkids. I incorporated a sleding hill into one. (we had lots of snow that year.) I did add a vent hole which seemed to help with the smell problem. put it on the up wind side and cover it with a wind sock. It helped somewhat.

[irish death1]

Maybe you could add a little hole on one of the sides to ventilate the air.

[Kalara]

What a cool idea. I wish I had seen it earlier in the season when the snow was deeper. I would have been fun to try with my pack of Freshmen.