I is for Ice Caves

I is for Ice Caves



Well "I" is a hard letter to represent. I had to think real hard. This is another scouting story.

My favorite scout camp bar none was a large affair in Manning Park. RoVent (combination of Rover scouts and Venture scouts) was the yearly winter camp. Located at Cambie Creek in Manning Park, 600+ people would gather in the freezing cold to camp, and be retarded in that special scouting kinda way. There was a policy against digging snow caves, but rules always applied to other people. One year, John and myself dug a massive snow cave. You had to jump down into a 6ft hole, get down onto your hands and knees to crawl through a U bend tunnel to get into a large chamber. Big enough for two people and all their junk and still had room to spare. It was a claustrophobic nightmare! Absolutely dead quiet, and if I remember correctly It got up to a balmy 7'c. That's a big improvement from the -15'c + windshield. All those silly people sleeping in nylon tents on the surface...I pitied them!