Igloo Construction

Peter: 15th Feb 2006 - 19:43 GMT

wow, simply amazing. im really glad you posted these photos. i know i speak for most of us when i say id love to see more... the images youre bringing here, from such an interesting new place (at least to me, anyway) are great. this is stuff id certainly not get to see otherwise... cool!

jack: 15th Feb 2006 - 21:16 GMT

really great photos. when i was a kid in brooklyn we made snow hills and dug deep into it and made believe it was an igloo. i wish i could take my wife and visit your country sometime. we saw the movie snow walker and we were impressed with the people. we are looking for some good novels that depict life with eskimo's.

GGP: 15th Feb 2006 - 22:36 GMT

I love the spiral curve of the roof--like the shell of an ice-snail. what an extraordinarily handsome, elegant design. it makes the buildings going up every day here in Brooklyn look like crap from hell.

Guy McLaren: 16th Feb 2006 - 06:07 GMT

This is one more thing to add to my to do lists.

Note to self.. Visit somewhere you can help build an igloo.

Catherine Penfold-Waxman: 16th Feb 2006 - 14:17 GMT

I think that Guy (in South Africa) and EvilGentleman (in North Canada) should house swap for two weeks.

EvilGentleman: 16th Feb 2006 - 14:35 GMT

LOL, thanks for the suggestion, cat. But I no longer live in northern Canada, I am now in suburban Montreal. The only dangerous animals here are the 'throw the meat patty and rough up the lady bike courier' types that exist in all urban centres. Although I am sure Guy would fancy a new environment to aim his considerable skills at, for a change of pace for a bit. (I wonder what would happen if you yelled at a polar bear in Afrikaans?) I would LOVE to see Africa, but I know too little of the risks involved to go traipsing across the veldt just yet. Those giraffes may LOOK like vegetarians, but the thought of discovering a hitherto unknown carnivorous variety sends chills down my spine.

Hungery Ham: 20th Feb 2006 - 00:22 GMT

Beautiful pics there Eveilgentleman, your the dogs balls.

Arsaniq in Ontario: 21st Feb 2006 - 12:34 GMT

Thanks EvilGentlman for posting your igloo shot. Now it may have new life outside my favorite wallpaper of all times : shot of the finish roof.

And yes I miss Kangirsujuaq :) and the Inuit and the fun they find in life. Hopefully more than your excellent pictures will survive white man's invasion and barbaric treatment of nature and its habitants. Polar bears shouldn't pose a threat in a few years, they all be extinct by a warming planet, so maybe a swap with an african photographer will be possible in a near future. Still have to work on that canibalistic giraffe!

EvilGentleman: 21st Feb 2006 - 15:05 GMT

Arsaniq, for your compliments, nakurmiik.

The finishing the roof pic is of Aquuja Qisiiq, by the way. I am thankful he let me take it. I have so many pics of Kangirsujuaq that I took from 1999 to 2005, I may never get them all sorted out, but I will try.

I believe the north will survive, but unfortunately, it will be heavily damaged first. The ozone layer is healing a bit now, but global warming is still accellerating. The bears, I worry about a lot, but all we can do is hope. It seems ironic that after 500 years of native people telling the most educated scientists among the colonials that they must respect nature or die, that it was a bunch of stoned tree-hugging hippies that finally understood the situation and started the chain reaction that has resulted in their attempting to patch things up too late. But some action is better than none at all.

As far as giraffes go, I am now afraid to go to Toys 'Я' Us, cuz I find their mascot, Geoffrey the Giraffe looks outright evil and I have horrible nightmares now. Somehow, I hope I survive this crisis. We shall see.

Rapunzel: 10th Mar 2006 - 15:04 GMT

THANK YOU!

That is one of the most beautiful things I've seen in a long time. I don't get to see snow much Down Under. No one understands the insulating properties of snow here.

A beautiful sight and site. Hope I can be there some day....

immanuel: 27th Nov 2006 - 08:47 GMT

cool im doing research and im in fourth grade so thats kinda weird but i need to kno how the inside of an ignk uloo looks like and ive found it thank you

EvilGentleman: 29th Nov 2006 - 17:05 GMT

You're welcome, Immanuel. Good luck with your project.

doc cunningham: 1st Jan 2007 - 01:23 GMT

Lot of work and beatiful completion..been into survival skills for many years and long treks....what do you line the ground to keep clothes and supplies dry....many places in travel have no sticks or bones unless taken by seas, rivers etc....in all my travels and adventures i never got the chance to ask this question...have some history for me evil! Do you personally practice survival skills in the north? I am from the northern usa and would enjoy chatting with you if you or friends do...love to learn...and learning is survival! Good of you to share!!

inuk from Kangirsujuaq: 7th Jan 2007 - 06:15 GMT

Hello Sean, I know you, you know me, cool pictures

EvilGentleman: 8th Jan 2007 - 14:20 GMT

Nakurmiik, hope all is well there. Nuut said things were pretty normal when she went back for Christmas. I opted to stay down here and spend time around my family, since I had been away from them for so many years.

shreyas: 17th Feb 2007 - 07:11 GMT

nice,beautiful,good,fablous,great.as we can't see the regions of cold these photos helps us to see it.as i am an indian.thank you.

dean: 8th Mar 2007 - 14:47 GMT

I'm viewing your photos from Vermont. We got lots of wind blown snow here this year, so I tried (once again) to build an igloo in the back yard. I failed again, for about the 10th time in my life. I did however get closer than during other tries. I really can't blame the snow conditions - the blocks were quite firm. I just don't have the Inuit touch. Your photos are inspirational, and give some additional clues on the fine art of building these structures. Thanks so much for posting them. I'll keep trying and will keep enjoying my attempts - even when they fail.

EvilGentleman: 12th Apr 2007 - 05:50 GMT

dean, I believe the consistency of the snow should be such that when you move it around, it sounds similar to styrofoam. Has to be pretty cold for it to get that way. Vermont just might be too warm and moist for the proper snow to form. If you have access to a walk-in freezer, maybe you can cut some blocks, then store them till they are slightly freezer-burnt.

But keep in mind that I personally never built an igloo either.

Good luck next year.

EvilGentleman: 9th May 2007 - 02:24 GMT

maps.google.ca/maps?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&q=&t=k&om=1&ll=61.595119,-71.965417&spn=0.002486,0.007231&z=17

EvilGentleman: 22nd Aug 2007 - 21:11 GMT

A very belated reply for doc cunningham, who posted on New Year's 2007. Sorry for the late reply, but I just noticed your comment now. I have so many posts that I do not see all the comments related to them unless thay show up in the "recent comments" sidebar, and I was offline during the holidays, so I never saw that particular comment until today.

As far as I recall, the traditional Inuit method of covering the sleeping area is with a layer of small twigs (dwarf trees are available in almost all areas where Inuit live, usually pine and birch, but the further from the treeline you get, the more sparse and bonsai-tree sized they become).

Furs are usually placed on top, for both padding and warmth. It is actually quite easy to sleep naked in an igloo during minus forty degree weather, even if you have no fire, so long as you have some furs handy. And while it may be chilly to get dressed in the morning, it is nowhere as cold as one may think. This information is how Inuit friends (and my wife) have explained it to me.

In modern times, the layer of twigs is either not as thick, and covered with an intermediate layer of cardboard, or sometimes the twigs are not used at all, depending on the cardboard supply. Plywood can be used as well, but it is rather inconvenient to lug around when hunting, although some hunters put plywood on their qamutiqs (sleds), and could then unpack the sled and remove the plywood the cargo is sitting on for use in the igloo. And the furs have often been replaced (or supplemented) with high-quality sleeping bags.

Alas, I have no survival skills of my own, except that I know to not to spit on Hell's Angels and cops.

An interesting footnote, though. The traditional method of making dogsleds when dritwood and whalebone were unavailable is one of the most innovative I have ever heard of. Blocks of ice with interlocking frozen fish embedded in them for strength. Amazing what they can do with so few materials at hand. And if you get really stuck, you and the dogs can eat some of the sled.

Vera: 17th Sep 2007 - 05:02 GMT

Wonderful Igloo. My 2 sons are boyscouts and they go igloo camping every winter (weather permitting) usuall near Paradise on Mount Rainier in washington. They have made snow caves, a-frames and igloos but nothing quite as wonderful as yours! Thanks for posting your photos

EvilGentleman: 17th Sep 2007 - 15:16 GMT

Thanks, but credit must go where credit is due. The igloo in the pictures was built by the Inuit men of the village of Kangirsujuaq, Quebec. Kangirsujuaq is my wife's hometown. I am a Mohawk Indian, and I have never made an igloo. I just took some pictures because I found it fascinating. I was lucky enough to have a lot of Inuit explain to me the process of igloo-making, but I never tried it myself, because there were always experts around, and I did not want to get in the way.

mae annanack qisiiq: 1st Nov 2007 - 18:19 GMT

i remember this igloo it was beside the baseball field i think it was 2004 years ago.

EvilGentleman: 2nd Nov 2007 - 16:41 GMT

Yes Mae, these igloos were beside the baseball field. The last two pictures are from the igloo you probably remember, which was built in March 2003.

All the rest of the pictures are from the igloo that was built there in March 2001.

I don't know if you would remember, but just after I took the photo of Aquujaq finishing the top of the 2001 igloo, some teenagers ran across the top of the igloo, which weakened one side of it pretty badly. It caused an inward bulge above the sleeping platform, and part of that wall collapsed the next morning onto some ladies that were sleeping in there.