Meine Freunde und ich haben 75.000 Pfund Schnee in der Nähe von Mount Baker geschaufelt, um eine Schneehöhle für 21 Personen mit Cocktailbar zu bauen

Our 2024 entry in the category of ridiculous backcountry snow cave. This is the third year I’ve convinced (tricked?) people into spending a weekend shoveling snow, and for some reason they keep coming back.

We built this snow cave over the course of two days at Artist Point, near Mount Baker Ski Resort in Washington. The snowshoe/ski to Artist Point is relatively short (2 miles, 1000′ gain), so we brought quite a bit of extra stuff. The sled of cocktail bar ingredients alone weighed over 100lb alone and required a roped haul system to get up the last hill. Other items of interest included a disco ball, a fold-up oven, literal gallons of chili and pasta, and a five foot logging saw.

The cave was a significant improvement over last year’s cave and comfortably slept all 21 of us. Amenities included a full service cocktail bar, an (unreliable) speaker system for our late night dance party, an (unsafe) sled jump, and stellar views of Mount Shuksan from the three entryways.

Fourth photo shows the blueprint of the cave that I made prior to the trip. We stayed fairly true to the original design, with only minor modifications to the sleeping layout. My best guess puts the total snow moved at 3,000 cubic feet, which translates to about 75,000 pounds. The top 5 feet was easy to shovel, but by the time we were 10+ feet down, saws and spades became more useful than snow shovels.

I will now brace myself for an onslaught of questions about the structural integrity of snow caves, given that is what happened when I posted last year…

I am not claustrophobic, but…

Leave no trace

This guy: