On February 21st our Outdoor Ed class went on a winter camp and returned the next day. We snowshoed from the high school all the way out to Gaug Lake, which took us about 2 hours. When we arrived at our destination we split into groups and piled snow for our quinzees. We let them sit for about 2 hours then we dug out the inside while we waited for our supper.

During the over night trip I learned many different skills. I learned that I am capable of doing more than I thought, such as the 2 hour walk going out there and back with all my gear on my back. I also realized that you have to pack different kinds of clothing even for one night. Another skill that I learned was how to build a quinzee, before we left for this trip we practiced building them outside of the high school. You should also pack some extra food and drinks, such as granola bars and water.

There were a lot of things on our trip that I enjoyed but the thing that I enjoyed the most was digging out the quinzee. I enjoyed this the most because I like to build all kinds of things and building a quinzee was new to me so I thought it was very interesting, especially how warm they stayed at night time even though it was pretty cold. The food that we had out there was another thing that I enjoyed a lot.

There wasn't very many parts of the trip that I didn't enjoy. One part was when I went to sleep because I had to sleep on a hard lump of snow but it was still really comfortable for sleeping outside in the winter time. Another part that I didn't enjoy was the walk out there because we had to carry big backpacks with all our gear in it.

There are some things that I would do differently if I ever went again. I would pack a lot more extra food just to snack on while I'm sitting around the fire and also more drinks such as water or gatorade. I would also let the pile of snow for the quinzee sit for maybe 3-4 hours depending on the weather before I start to dig out the snow. This would be a good idea because it would make the quinzee a lot more stable and the snow on the inside would be harder for your bed area instead of sinking down into the snow.

I would defiantly do this trip again even if it wasn't for marks. It would be a fun trip to do with my family or a group of friends. Now that I am familiar with the conditions it would probably be a lot easier to do certain things such as building the quinzee.