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Snowcaves


skyclimb

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Beck said:

but the real inuktitut language still has over 100 different words for snow and ice in its many forms-

let's get the ukiuq (winter) started -some aniuvak (snow on hillside) will make for fun skiing... just don't fall in the quaminiq (tree well!)

 

 

the inuit live above (north of) treeline - they don't have a word for tree well wave.gifwave.gifwave.gif

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Dru said:

Beck said:

but the real inuktitut language still has over 100 different words for snow and ice in its many forms-

let's get the ukiuq (winter) started -some aniuvak (snow on hillside) will make for fun skiing... just don't fall in the quaminiq (tree well!)

 

 

the inuit live above (north of) treeline - they don't have a word for tree well wave.gifwave.gifwave.gif

 

I think it's time for Beck to leave the igloo. the_finger.gif

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hey, I'm just telling it like it is. It's a word, there's an inuit word for tree well. their language is well documented at the arctic cultural institute. I wrote a short paper on it. tree well, "quaminik" one of the words in the inuktitut 'dictionary'.

 

I'll make sure to ask an inuit next time i run into one.

 

I'm still going for a tarp over a trench than an igloo or snow cave for most quick trips. if your buddy wants to build a quinzee or an igloo, let them. But people should dig a couple for practice in case you absolutely need one sometime, or for a big base camp somewhere...but get your buddies to do most of the digging... volunteer to melt water and make dinner...

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I'm sorry you feel so slighted, CJF, but if you are getting wet from sweat, you probably have too many clothes on. In the scenario you described, I'm not sure which would be better to remove - the shell or the long underwear top, but that combination, or perhaps those garmets combined with your other clothes, are keeping you too warm if you are sweating and that is what is getting you wet rather than precipitation or the fact that you are lying in the snow. I quite often dig a cave with just my raincoat and no layer underneath.

 

Whatever you do, you've already hinted that the goal should be to get as few items wet as possible. You may be smarter than the average bear, but I am constantly amazed at seeing my skiing companions sweat it out as they climb up hill with a sweater underneath their goretex and then they are too cold to sit there and eat lunch at the top. Similarly, most of my buddies seem unable to fathom the idea of stripping down under their shell gear while digging a snow cave. Wet clothes are pretty much the enemy, eh?

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Bug said:

If you are implying that Nanook would have troubles similar to yours you missed the point. Practice will help you to build a better igloo.

 

jesus, bug, give me credit for some level of humility...

 

nevertheless, while my survival skills are not in the same league as someone like Nanook, practice has taught me that under certain combinations of temperature and type of snow, building an igloo is more difficult than some other kinds of snow shelters. for example, around here, where you often have a combination of soft snow and not-very-cold temperatures, the only way to get decent blocks for building is to stomp out a "quarry" and wait for it to freeze up. in the time that this takes when it is 30 degrees out, you could dig three caves of equivalent size. OTOH, when it is cold out, the quarry forms almost instantly and the igloo almost builds itself because the blocks adhere to each other as you place them. i suspect that an Inuit would not build an igloo just because he "could", but rather would choose whatever was expedient for the situation in which he found himself. of course, in balmy 30 degree temps., he might not bother to make a shelter at all.

 

my comment about nanook's death was more related to the harshness of his environment.

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mattp said:

I'm sorry you feel so slighted, CJF, but if you are getting wet from sweat, you probably have too many clothes on. In the scenario you described, I'm not sure which would be better to remove - the shell or the long underwear top, but that combination, or perhaps those garmets combined with your other clothes, are keeping you too warm if you are sweating and that is what is getting you wet rather than precipitation or the fact that you are lying in the snow. I quite often dig a cave with just my raincoat and no layer underneath.

 

Whatever you do, you've already hinted that the goal should be to get as few items wet as possible. You may be smarter than the average bear, but I am constantly amazed at seeing my skiing companions sweat it out as they climb up hill with a sweater underneath their goretex and then they are too cold to sit there and eat lunch at the top. Similarly, most of my buddies seem unable to fathom the idea of stripping down under their shell gear while digging a snow cave. Wet clothes are pretty much the enemy, eh?

I always take all my clothes off to dig a snow cave. The first few minutes must be hard to watch. moon.gifpitty.gif

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Beck said:

actually, bug, that is incorrect. The inuit peoples have over 100 words for snow in their language inuktitut, which means, rather redundantly, "To sound like an inuit"

 

here are some examples of inuit words for snow.

 

Aput -snow

piqtuq -blowing snow

quinzhee -snow shelter

sitilluquq -snow making cracking noise

pukak -first layer of snow

imalik -wet snow

 

additionally, ikuktitut was the subject of as famous anthropologic scam and resulted in a contrived, made up inuit language to be legitimized with anthropologists. I'm not refreshed on the whole story, but a couple british researchers made up a language with over three hundred words for snow, and this is where that misconception came from , bug.

 

but the real inuktitut language still has over 100 different words for snow and ice in its many forms-

let's get the ukiuq (winter) started -some aniuvak (snow on hillside) will make for fun skiing... just don't fall in the quaminiq (tree well!)

 

Take your paper up to Alaska and see what they say. I only know what a Eskimo told me. But he didn't go to college.

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Beck said:

 

and a tent isn't too bad if it's lightweight and you've got a snugglebunny. Then the 14 hours of winter darkness don't seem so bad....me and this swedish girlfriend, we used to LOVE going winter tent camping! And I remember the time, me and another girlfriend and a german girl we knew, it was a dark and stormy weekend in a VE-24...

 

Three girls in a VE-24? smileysex5.gif Tell us more!

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Dru said:

Calabi-Yau Manifold in Hilbert Space

That's all conjecture. What I wanna know is this: Is sex possible in eleven dimensions?

Furthermore, if you position yourself properly, maybe all the water generated while digging the cave can drip into a dimension that's curled into a loop too small to observe, leaving the snow camper dry and cozy in their four-dimensional realm of experience (space-time).

I don't trust a string theory unless it's 9mm+ and treated to be water resistant, with a belay partner on the other end who has 10^6 essentials for every unit volume in phase space.

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