the quinzee

19/1/15

Though I went to bed early last night, I stayed up late to watch the Seattle Seahawks vs Green Bay Packers.  Which Seattle won (yay!!), 22 - 28.  This means we are going into the Superbowl!! No one else at the Chalet seemed to share my excitement for this though. 

Anyways I was able to sleep in until 8:30 because I didn't have to be anywhere until 9:30 morning meeting.  Skippy just continued sleeping throughout morning meeting.  We had quite a slow start to the morning and our main task was deep cleaning the kitchen.  Rachael was in charge of cleaning the breakfast trolley.

"This is what my life has come to... disinfecting a box of tea bags"

 

Once we had finished our jobs for the morning, including deep cleaning the kitchen (and disinfecting the tea bag boxes!), Rachael and I filmed some more of our video of the our time at the Chalet - the scene we have named 'Ice Ice Baby'.  Jen and Katrina had spent some of the morning building a Quinzee right behind the kitchen veranda.  Charlotte, Chloe and I went and helped finish it off after lunch.  Apparently patting down the outside with your hands and no gloves is funny... 

A quinzhee or quinzee is a shelter made by hollowing out a pile of settled snow.  This in in contrast to an igloo, which is made from blocks of hard snow.  The word is of Athabaskan origin, and entered the English language by 1984.  Jen sent us an email with a couple of rules:

- Never go in the quinzee along (without having someone standing just outside or with you in it)

- Always tell someone who stays outside the quinzee that you are going to be in it and when you are coming out

- Never climb on the quinzee

- Never sleep in the quinzee alone

- When you sleep in the quinzee, ensure that:

        - the air hole on the roof is open

        - the door way is not too tightly shut (a blanket is enough to cover it)

        - you have a burning candle in the hole in the wall

        - you have a shovel at reaching distance when you sleep

        - you have a shovel strategically placed close to the quinzee on the outside

- Do not sleep in the quinzee on warm nights (when the temperature is above zero celsius), or if it has started to droop.  

- Let Jen inspect it before you sleep in it and finally, the Quinzee is for staff only, unless guest want to briefly pop in to check it out while watched by staff.   

  

Dinner was Alpine Mac and Broccoli, with Apple Sauce and Peaches and Cream.  It was one of the guest birthdays, so as per Chalet tradition, we donned the tea-cosy's and grabbed our pots and pans to bang, before singing 'Happy Birthday' in as many languages as we could; English, German, Canadian French, Chinese and Spanish.

After dinner whilst we were cleaning up Katrina, Chloe and Jen began to hollow out the quinzee.  Jen had also made these really cool frozen lights which she put candles in and lit all around the Chalet. When the quinzee was finished Katrina, Chloe and Jen got enough coverings and layers on to sleep in and climbed into it.  Charlotte and I are planning on sleeping in it tomorrow night... And I thought a tent was bad!