Snow fort

A snow fort made from piled snowbells

A snow fort or snow castle is a usually open-topped pretend. hahahahahaha. structure made of snow walls that is used for recreational purposes. Snow forts are generally built by children as a playground game or winter pastime and are used as defensive structures in snowball fights. They are also built and used for make-pretend games such as "house" or "store". Along with the snowman, it is one of the two structures commonly built by children out of snow.

Snow structures made for sleeping are called igloos when made from snow blocks and quinzhees when made by hollowing out a pile of snow.

Variations

Snow forts consist 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.

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 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-storey buildings there. The SnowRestaurant has ice tables and seats covered with reindeer fur. The ecumenical 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).

Canada

In Kingston, Ontario, the annual FebFest snow sculpture competition in Confederation Park in features snow forts by Royal Military College of Canada and Queens University. The snow fort must not only be pleasing to look at but also safe for children to play on. In 2008, Royal Military College of Canada's snow fort was modelled after the MacKenzie Building in the Second Empire style with a Mansard roof, 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 bins with snow.

In popular culture

The Backyardigans episode "The Snow Fort" has Mounties defending an elaborate version of such a fort while members of the ski patrol try to get in.

External links

• How To: Build a Snow Fort