Snow Cave

In February, we hit a bit of a “school slump.” Things had been pretty hectic. Aaron’s chemistry and calculus classes had been a pretty big drain on his energy. I was responsible for planning several programs and was sending dozens of emails and placing a comparable number of phone calls every day in frantic efforts to make everything work.

Long story short, we were frazzled, tired and sick of school. Miracle of miracles, it was Friday. I only have one class on Fridays, and one of Aaron’s was cancelled. We held a family council for 11 seconds and unanimously decided we could both afford to miss one class in pursuit of sanity.

So we skipped school. Don’t tell my mom. J

I’m not normally one to flippantly skip class, but this day was special. This was snow cave day.

Many of you might not know this, but in Rexburg, Idaho snow supply is high with incredibly low demand. As a result, you can build a snow cave completely free of charge. This was lucky for us, because we were going to need quite a bit of snow.

Between our driveway and our neighbor’s, there is a big open space that was, at the time, filled with pristine, sugary snow. It was practically begging us to build a snow cave right in the middle of it.

Aaron temporarily stole our landlord’s scoop shovel (don’t worry, our landlord loves us) and started scraping snow from the surrounding area into a big heap in the middle of the clearing. I stayed inside for a few minutes to finish dishes and start on lunch. Very wifely, I know.

By the time I got my snow clothes on and went outside, Aaron had already gotten a mound nearly as tall and big around as my height built up. I’m no professional snow cave maker, so I thought to myself, “The mound is already there…what do I do? Am I too late to take part in this fantastic adventure?”

In response to my puzzled look, Aaron sent me to the car to fetch one of his skis. I was a little confused as to what purpose this served, but I went and got the ski anyway, because Aaron always has a reason for the things he wants me to do.

My assignment was to beat the tar out of our snow cave with a telemark ski. Snow caves have to be packed down and frozen overnight so they don’t collapse when you dig them out.

Though my assignment was simple, it was a little difficult to control where the ski went. I would haul it up in the air and bring it hurtling down toward the top of the cave and it would suddenly end up almost hitting Aaron in the face.

I’m pretty sure I almost killed him at least three times. What an embarrassing headline, “Local Student Killed by Ski-Wielding Wife.” Catchy, but embarrassing. At least now I know how to use a snow ski to defend myself.

To make the situation more ridiculous, Aaron was still shoveling and hitting the snow cave at the same time. Shovels and skis were constantly flying through the air, threatening life and limb. Occasionally our tools would hit or get caught on one another, halting progress. I fell down at least once when this happened.

All the while, our neighbors were driving past, wondering why on earth there were crazy people outside beating a giant pile of snow in the middle of a clearing and falling in the snow.

The explanation is simple, neighbor people. We were taking a day off.

Our cave turned out pretty well and we were pleased at making a three-day weekend for ourselves.

Am I sorry I missed class? No. I feel confident that nothing I learned in class would have been more important than learning how to wield a snow ski in self defense.

I fail to see why they don't teach this skill in school.