Phase III: Snow hole

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"Snow holes are snow joke" Friday 13th February.

We've been preparing the snow hole for a number of days now. Piling snow onto it in the evenings ready for it to be finalised today, the last day of our survival challenge.

Last night was the coldest night I've ever spent. At one stage I woke up with the feeling of claustrophobia. It was dark. I've never liked the darkness, I always like to be able to see something. At another point I woke up and wondered if I died in my sleep. The temperatue got noticeably colder as the night went on. We had decided to turn in early and go to bed at 7.30. By 10pm it was obvious to me that this was going to be a hard night. Ice was forming on the inside of my bivi bag due to condensation from my breath. Ice dust was starting to cling to my sleeping bag. I had to cocoon myself, the air felt too cold for my to leave anything exposed.

Fire watch came at 11:30pm. A number of people were shaking in their sleeping bags around me. I offered up my ahnd warmer that I'd just activated to Heather, and told MAtt he needed to get a hot drink inside of him. Despite the shelter the air was very cold, the fire was struggling. I took it upon myself to make a bottle of hot water up to keep me warm. I managed to get the fire going again for the next person on the shift. Stuffing down a load of frozen haribo I returned to my bag with my new hot water bottle. That thing got me through the worst of it last night. Well until 5qm came. Second firewatch - we had gone to bed so early that the watch had gone round twice. No one was hyperthermic. The fire outside was warmer than the one inside so the cold ones had congregated outside sacrificing sleep for warmth. I thought my toes were getting close to frostbite, they were numb. I used a couple of charcoal based toe warmers and stuck them to my socks, they provided a little comfort, till the shift was over and I could return to bed. The fire was almost dead.

Night 2 of 3 survived. We found out in the morning that it had gone down to -32c (-26F). I never realised it was Friday the 13th until later.

The snow hole is building. We're digging it out. One to two people inside sculpting the snow, shoveling the snow near the entrances, where another member of the team shovels it out. It's hard to hear them, the snow absorbs the sounds of everything.

This is where we'll be sleeping tonight on top of the snow. We have constructed an extension to the existing hole with an interconnectting tunnel due to the differences in the strength of the snow. The older hole has become harder because the snow is more compacted, but still needs re-working.

It's feels warmer now than last night and I'm hoping the temperature will be wamrer.

Tonight I'll eat some more of my rations. I've already lined up my treacle pudding, fruit dumpings and the farmers pork pot. I feel excited about being so close to the end. We've already heard that the challenge will end at 6am. The instructors will be putting the stove on for us to return to.

I have the same feeling as I did as a child waiting for Christmas Day. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

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Photos

All asleep in the hole
The snoring wasn't as loud this night. The snow seemed to asorb sound

Candle at the base of my Bivi bag.
This was used to detect levels of oxygen in the hole. If the candle went out, it meant oxygen had reached dangerous levels and we had to evacuate.
The thermos was full of pine needle tea. Ready for my turn to watch the candle.

Comments

[Julia]

Wow
It sounds like you have a really tough time up in the northen part of my home country. I must say that you are very brave, when you finally get out of your cold hole then see to it that you go and eat some really good swedish food. Good luck!