These words, from my cousin, Elijah, were not what I wanted to hear, deep in the snowy wilderness, minutes before the sun disappeared for the day.
It’s not like I was inexperienced at this. Elijah and I had both hiked across mountains, our most recent trip together being a 12-day trek in the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan only months before the pandemic.
But this time, I was in such a rush to reach the snow, I had forgotten to check my tent to make sure I had the one thing that would keep it up – the poles.
“I guess we’re sharing tents tonight,” my cousin said, with a hint of frustration.
We were in the Snowy Mountains, on a hike to nowhere in particular. The mountains had received record-breaking snowfall the week before, which meant we would need extra gear. Snowshoes were a definite, to keep us from sinking into the soft snow, especially as we each had a 20kg bag strapped to our back.
“Time to get digging,” I said, as we broke our gaze away from the haze of orange being cast across the surrounding mountains.
From a safety perspective, digging a snow cave requires experience, but it’s actually easy.
The shovel glides into the snow like a hot knife through butter. But a sleep-safe snow cave must be more than a simple hole; you need to be sure the weather conditions are cool enough to keep the snow structure rigid and have a backup plan for the unlikely event of a collapse. Mine was an extended floor base that protruded out further than the overhanging snow above. I finished it off with a deeper pit at the foot of our cave which was designed to capture the settling cool air and keep it away from our bodies overnight.
Cave dug, I got to work on a fire, knowing Elijah would crank up his gas cooker and get a celebratory drink ready. As we shared a bowl of slightly burnt spaghetti bolognaise, washed down with a plastic flask of red wine, I reveled in the peace and serenity. Often you don’t realize how heavy life’s stresses can be until you strip them all away in the wild.
And if you are wondering whether it was warm or not, I had to de-layer twice in the night, waking Elijah in the process. But that’s payback for his chainsaw snoring!
This article originally appeared on Escape and do not necessarily represent the views of australiaexploring.com
