Wintercamp Reflection

PAD3O Wintercamp Reflection

This is my first year taking Outdoor Education. So one of the first overnight activities I did was sleep in a quinzhee. I think the quinzhee could have been better but a few things I think I did well were showing up every day for the building. I know that doesn’t sound like much but for are group we were going to have five people in it which is a lot for a quinzhee. So the building aspect was very important. But a problem we had was that for the first 2-3 days we had people away so it would be only maybe 2-3 people working on a quinzhee for five. Another thing I think i did well though was when we first started carving into the quinzhee. I had never built a quinzhee before but when you’re first starting to dig in it, it’s kind of creepy since it’s so narrow and even though you know that it’s stable and the snow wouldn’t collapse on you, you still are precautious. The final thing I thought I did well was setting everything up for when going to bed with putting down the tarp and sleeping bags. And with putting everything away in the morning so there was no mess.

Like I said at the beginning with building the quinzhee it was harder than other groups since we had to make it for 5 people but we had only 2 or 3 people working on it. The main problem was the size, there was only 3 people sleeping in it and it was me, Brett, and Jaden. And even with only 3 people it was pretty cramped, height and length wise. Another problem I had with the quinzhee was my feet being very cold in the night. It wasn’t so cold that I got frostbite on them but it was very uncomfortable to sleep with them like that. I don’t think are cool sink was the problem with this, I think it was just too close to the cool sink or that I did not have very good socks on the situation.

5 things I would recommend for someone building there first quinzhee is to make sure people come for the days of building it. Cause if you want to have a good size quinzhee and be comfortable in it, you will need all of your group to help with the packing of the snow and piling. Another thing I would recommend is to layer up for the night. Because even though you might have the best quinzhee in the world, it is still winter time so make sure to wear extra socks and long underwear. Another thing I would recommend even though our group did not do it is to have candles in your quinzhee, just for some type of heat. My fourth recommendation would to eat a proper dinner since you need energy so your body can stay warm for the night. And my final recommendation would to try to stay near the fire at the end of night before you go to bed. So that when you get in your sleeping bag you won’t need to warm up since you will already be warm.