Yeah I read it, that was a good story. I have done a little winter camping as well. The best trip was when we snowshoed in-country about 4 miles then built quanset huts out of snow. The snow was about 10' deep. I didn't know it at the time, but the summer after I went backpacking in the same area and noticed that all the snowmobile trail signs I'd seen the winter were about 15' off the ground.

The 2-man huts we made were about 15' in diameter, and were built by piling snow into a huge mound and packing it down. After the mound was big enough we dig an entrance below the snow level and hollow out the inside. then we carved 2 sleeping platforms above the level of the door to help trap the heat. Then we pked holes for ventilation. One candle burning in the hut kept the place cozy. It was tiring work to buid, but a lot of fun. (One drawback is you get soaked in sweat and snow building it, so a change of clotes is a good idea once its completed) Morning was a bit clausterphobic however as everything had compressed during the night. Since that trip I've been trying to think of an invention to make the process faster. One idea is to have a collapsable geodesic dome (made similar to the poles of a dome tent) which you can lay a tarp over. After packing the snow on top, you could go inside collapse the dome and pull out the tarp. Add ventilation, and its complete. Something like that could also be sold as an emergency shelter for skiers caught in an avalance. One day I might actually work up a prototype and test it out.

I've been compass reading with a map, since I was a kid, so I feel pretty comfortable finding my way by landmarks as long as I have a decent map. One thing about those 7.5 minute maps is I always seem to want to hike right at the edge of the maps, so I always had to buy a couple of them. since then I have found an amazing shareware program that I use to print out my maps before I go, so the local map store hasn't seen me in a while. The program is called USA Photomaps. I also use it a lot professionally since it also gives you nice aerial photos of the same area. http://jdmcox.com/ I import the aerial photos into AutoCAD and draw over top of them when doing quick and dirty site studies for clients looking for property.

Steve G.