Snow fort
Encyclopedia
A snow fort or snow castle is a usually open-topped temporary structure made of snow
Snow
Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...

 walls that is used for recreational purposes. Snow forts are generally built by children as a playground game or winter pastime
Hobby
A hobby is a regular activity or interest that is undertaken for pleasure, typically done during one's leisure time.- Etymology :A hobby horse is a wooden or wickerwork toy made to be ridden just like a real horse...

 and are used as defensive structures in snowball fight
Snowball fight
A snowball fight is a physical game in which balls of snow are thrown with the intention of hitting somebody else. The game is similar to dodgeball in its major factors, though typically less organized. This activity is primarily played during months when there is sufficient snowfall.Today, the...

s. They are also built and used for make-believe games
Children's games (role play)
Cowboys and Indians is a very old childhood game, with roots extending further back than even the romanticized historical period from which it springs...

 such as "house", "store", or "community", a game where multiple forts are build in a group. Along with the snowman
Snowman
A snowman is an anthropomorphic snow sculpture. They are customarily built by children as part of a family project in celebration of winter. In some cases, participants in winter festivals will build large numbers of snowmen...

, it is one of the two structures commonly built by children out of snow.

Snow structures made for sleeping are called igloo
Igloo
An igloo or snowhouse is a type of shelter built of snow, originally built by the Inuit....

s when made from snow blocks and quinzhee
Quinzhee
A quinzhee or quinzee is a shelter made by hollowing out a pile of settled snow. This is in contrast to an igloo, which is made from blocks of hard snow...

s when made by hollowing out a pile of snow.

Variations

A snow fort consists of walls of piled and compacted snow. They may be "open" or "closed", that is, a person in the snow fort may be completely surrounded by the walls on all sides, there may be a "door", or the person may be completely exposed except in one direction. The last variation is used for snowball fights where opponents have forts facing each other and attack exclusively from their own fort. Existing structures such as the walls or concave corners of a building can be used as part of the snow fort, allowing for faster and easier construction. A snow fort can also be a tunneled-out burrow built in a large snow drift.

Although the most common way to pack snow for a fort is by piling, pressing, and/or carving out snow by hand, possibly with the aid of a snow shovel, other ways exist. One way is to roll out several large balls of snow - possibly weighing over 200 lbs. each - as if making a snowman, lining them up in a protective barrier, and using loose snow as mortar to hold them together. Another way is to create cylindrical snow blocks by shovelling snow into a five gallon bucket and then compacting it. If made out of wet snow and left to freeze overnight, these blocks become almost indestructible. They can be difficult to stack into a stable defensive structure, but they can double as unwieldy yet powerful missiles capable of punching holes in enemy snow forts, knocking over a grown man, etc.

Snow forts are usually at least knee-height and one-roomed. Forts built for snowball fights may be higher, and ones built for "house" may have lower walls and multiple rooms. When used for snowball fights, snow forts often have sections where the wall is lower, through which the occupants throw snowballs.

Finland

The SnowCastle of Kemi is the biggest snow castle in the world, built in Kemi
Kemi
Kemi is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located very near the city of Tornio. It was founded in 1869 by royal decree, because of its proximity to a deep water harbour....

 in 1996 Since then the world's largest snow castle has been rebuilt annually in Kemi. The area has varied from 13,000 to over 20,000 square meters. Highest towers have been over 20 meters high and longest walls over 1,000 meters long. Sometimes there have been three-story buildings there. The SnowRestaurant has ice tables and seats covered with reindeer
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...

 fur. The ecumenical
Ecumenism
Ecumenism or oecumenism mainly refers to initiatives aimed at greater Christian unity or cooperation. It is used predominantly by and with reference to Christian denominations and Christian Churches separated by doctrine, history, and practice...

 SnowChapel decorated with ice sculptures has seen numerous weddings with some couples coming from Japan and Hong Kong. There is also a SnowHotel in the snow castle. The hotel has double rooms and a honeymoon suite with ice decorations.

There are also ice decorations in Lainio Snow Hotel (near Ylläs and Levi, Finland
Levi, Finland
Levi, located in Finnish Lapland, is the largest ski resort in Finland. The resort is located in Kittilä municipality and is served by Kittilä Airport and Kolari train station. At a latitude of 67.8° north, it is located approximately north of the Arctic Circle.The Levi fell is at an elevation of...

).

Canada

In Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...

, the annual FebFest snow sculpture
Snow sculpture
Snow sculpture is a sculpture form comparable to sand sculpture or ice sculpture in that most of it is now practiced outdoors, and often in full view of spectators, thus giving it kinship to performance art in the eyes of some. The materials and the tools differ widely, but often include hand...

 competition in Confederation Park features snow forts by the Royal Military College of Canada
Royal Military College of Canada
The Royal Military College of Canada, RMC, or RMCC , is the military academy of the Canadian Forces, and is a degree-granting university. RMC was established in 1876. RMC is the only federal institution in Canada with degree granting powers...

 and Queens University. The snow forts must not only be pleasing to look at but also safe for children to play on. In 2008, Royal Military College of Canada
Royal Military College of Canada
The Royal Military College of Canada, RMC, or RMCC , is the military academy of the Canadian Forces, and is a degree-granting university. RMC was established in 1876. RMC is the only federal institution in Canada with degree granting powers...

's snow fort was modeled after the MacKenzie Building in the Second Empire style with a Mansard roof
Mansard roof
A mansard or mansard roof is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterized by two slopes on each of its sides with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper that is punctured by dormer windows. The roof creates an additional floor of habitable space, such as a garret...

, and a central tower incorporating a working clock, flanked by projecting end towers and a slide. Both teams worked through the night, filling rectangular recycling
Recycling
Recycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...

 bins with snow.

The Snowking Winter Festival
Snowking Winter Festival
The Snowking Winter Festival is an annual festival held each March in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada.The festival is a major winter tourist draw to Yellowknife. It centres around the snow castle, built from snow with window panes of ice. Each winter the castle is built on Yellowknife...

 is an annual festival held each March in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The festival is a major winter tourist draw to Yellowknife. It features a huge snow castle with window panes of ice built on Yellowknife Bay, on Great Slave Lake
Great Slave Lake
Great Slave Lake is the second-largest lake in the Northwest Territories of Canada , the deepest lake in North America at , and the ninth-largest lake in the world. It is long and wide. It covers an area of in the southern part of the territory. Its given volume ranges from to and up to ...

. The castle is designed and the construction is supervised by Snowking, Anthony Foliot. The design evolves every year and the castle has grown to include an auditorium, cafe, courtyard, traditional igloo, slide, parapets and turrets. Once the castle is completed, it becomes the center of winter arts activity in Yellowknife. This month-long festival includes concerts, art shows, children's theatre, and fireworks shows. Carvers augment the castle with snow and ice sculptures.

In popular culture

The Backyardigans
The Backyardigans
The Backyardigans is a Canadian/American 3-D CGI-animated children's TV series, created by Janice Burgess. It features five animal children, who imagine that their backyard becomes an adventure place. It is a coproduction of Treehouse TV, and the Canadian animation studio Nelvana. Debuting on...

episode "The Snow Fort" has Mounties defending an elaborate version of such a fort while members of the ski patrol
Ski patrol
A Ski Patrol is an organization that provides Emergency Medical and rescue services to skiers and participants of other snow sports, either at a ski area or in a back country setting. Patrollers are trained in Basic or Advanced Life Support to stabilize and transport patients to definitive care,...

 try to get in.

The Dog Who Stopped the War
The Dog Who Stopped the War
The Dog Who Stopped the War, or in original Quebec French La guerre des tuques, is a French Canadian comedy/drama film from Quebec, directed by André Mélançon...

(1984) is a cult movie and box-office hit in Québec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

. Half of this movie revolves around a very elaborate snow fort.
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