How to Make an Emergency Camp in the Snow

If you're caught in the wilderness during a snowstorm, it's a good idea to be able to build an emergency snow camp. Hypothermia is a life-threatening condition, and you have a limited amount of time to prevent it. There are specific things you can do to survive the cold until help arrives.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Start working on your camp as soon as you realize there's an emergency and before you get too tired and cold. Utilize everything you have to construct and insulate your shelter from wind and moisture.
2. Determine in which direction the wind is blowing and build a barrier against it. If there's enough snow, use it to build walls to deflect the wind, which is one of the greatest causes of loss of body heat. Utilize fallen trees, big rocks and other natural barriers when planning your wall.
3. Protect yourself from moisture. Construct a lattice type roof made of branches and cover it with a plastic trash bag or tarp if you have one. If not, use evergreen branches, leaves and clumps of moss to insulate and construct a roof. If the snow is extremely heavy and these things are unavailable, construct a snow cave out of compacted snow.
4. Dig a trench if you happen to have a shovel. Make it waist deep, a little wider than your shoulders and about 6 feet long. Insulate the sides with packed snow and lay branches across the top, anchoring them down on the sides with packed snow. Then you can lay your insulation and roofing materials on top of the branches. Angle the entrance so you can crawl into the trench without disturbing the roof.
5. Leave clues on the outside of your shelter that will lead rescuers to your site, even if the snow continues to fall. Put a piece of brightly colored clothing on a stick and place it in an open area or arrange a pile of brush in a distinctive manner. Consider anything out of the ordinary that'll draw attention to the area where your camp is located.