When hiking and backpacking in the winter, having the knowledge and preparation to easily build a snow shelter is an essential skill. Some people even prefer snow shelters over tents during the winter because they are quieter and warmer than even the best 4 season tents on the market, which can be very pricey too. Even for people that do not plan on spending any overnights in the backcountry during the winter, knowing how to quickly construct a solid snow shelter is a good skill to have in case something unexpected happens.

Forming the base of a snow shelter after selecting a site

Types of Backcountry Snow Shelters

There are two main types of snow shelters, quinzhees (also known as a snow cave), and igloos. Neither are quick to make for someone that needs shelter fast. A quinzhee is made by hollowing out a settled mound of snow. Unfortunately it can take 12 to 24 hours for snow to naturally settle into a hard enough pack after shoveling it into an 8 foot snow pile, and is very dependent on the type of snow. Stomping on the snow while you are piling it up can help the process along, which will give quicker results but it’s still not fast enough for an emergency shelter. An igloo on the other hand is built from blocks of snow that are formed. Forming these blocks takes the right kind of snow and is even more time intensive, but igloos are much stronger and considered semi-permanent or permanent with the right kind of maintenance along with cold enough temperatures.

In Colorado specifically, our skiing is world renowned because of our champagne powder. Unfortunately this kind of snow is terrible for snow shelters as it doesn’t like to settle densely enough to prevent a cave in, even with extensive work hardening. This means extra thick walls need to be built and a lot of snow shoveled to make a suitable shelter, which can take a lot of time and energy. Instead I prefer a different approach that's much quicker, no matter the snow type and quality. My method is a suspension roof snow cave, and with practice I can easily build one in less than an hour, and it only requires that two things be brought into the backcountry: a small avalanche shovel and a small tarp.

How to Make a Quick & Easy Snow Shelter

To begin, I like to select a site that is relatively flat and is not in an avalanche prone area, preferably in or near a treed area if possible. Look for a flat snow surface, which will help you avoid obstacles like rocks or downed trees that may be hiding under the snow. Then stomp out a circle around your designated site to help you design a symmetric pile. If you are using snowshoes, keep them on; otherwise take off your skis for the next part. You’ll need a sturdy metal lightweight snow shovel, which is part of my avalanche rescue kit and has an extendable handle to make snow shoveling easier on your back. Unlike a real quinzhee, you only need to pile the snow around 3-4 feet high; work to harden it by walking on it with your snowshoes as you build up the snow pile. If this is going to be used for more than one night, take a little extra time and pile it up higher so that you have more room to sit up when it’s finished.

Once you have made your pile and you feel that it’s sufficiently hardened by being able to stand on top of it without sinking into the snow, figure out which side will be the entrance. You want the entrances to be downhill and downwind to help keep snow from getting inside when the wind blows, and to make it more comfortable to sleep in so that your head is above your feet. At the entrance, start to dig out the center of the pile until a horseshoe U is formed into the original round pile. This should be slightly wider than your shoulders and long enough that you can fit your entire body inside without being uncomfortable.

Use the shovel to carefully cut the walls of the shelter so that they are straight up and down, giving you maximum room and keeping the walls strong. Once the snow cave is wide and long enough for you, it’s time to build a suspension roof. The roof requires the second item, a tarp. You don’t need a fancy tarp. For example, a classic "blue tarp" as shown in the photos will run you about $10-20 and you can choose from lighter or heavier-duty options if you'd like. There are lighter options, but the nice thing about a cheap tarp is that it won’t matter if it gets abused. That said, if you're looking to go ultralight in regards to the tarp, you can take a look here at Zpacks, but you will likely want to use trekking poles and skis instead of branches if you go ultralight.

Next, use trekking poles, skis, dead tree branches, and/or other similarly shaped items to span between the two walls to make the roof support. The tarp is then placed over them, sealing the roof and completing the shelter. I personally used twigs as stakes for the tarp and then bury the edges in snow to seal the shelter from the majority of the wind. Some people may choose to add some snow to the top of the tarp if it’s flat enough to help keep the tarp from accidentally blowing away and to insulate your shelter a bit more, but normally the tarp material is too slippery to make this easy. Using small tree branches around the edges of the tarp to dam in the snow on top is a good idea. If I do add snow on top, I take care to not overload the suspension roof as tree branches and trekking poles may bend easier than expected. Keeping the inside as narrow as possible, again just wider than your shoulders, will help keep the bending forces low.

Lastly, building a two person suspension roof shelter is much more difficult because the size of the tarp needs to be much bigger, and the roof will need to be built with a lot of long and thick tree branches that may be hard to find since trekking poles won’t be long or strong enough. A better option for two or more people may be a tool like the Grand Shelters Ice Box igloo making tool.

Editor's Note: This trail tip by Ted "tmountainnut" Ehrlich originally appeared in Issue 20 of TrailGroove Magazine. You can read the original article here.