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Igloo Safety
Tue Jan 04, 2005
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is The Weather Notebook. Everyone knows how pleasant
it is to lie in bed at night and listen to rain hit the roof. But, try creating that sense of
warmth and safety on Mt. McKinley, the Alaskan peak also known as Denali. For
commentator Howard Tomb, finding a shelter there was more than pleasant; it felt like
winning the lottery.
A snowstorm had pinned us down on a glacier at 14,000 feet. It was as barren as
Mars. No trees, no bushes or even rocks. Even though it was ten below zero, we
could keep reasonably warm in our sleeping bags. But at 70 miles an hour, the wind
was as loud as a freight train. The frost-covered walls of the tent slapped our faces
around the clock for four days straight. Something as simple as melting snow for
drinking water became an ordeal.
The storm finally died, and after three weeks on the mountain, we reached the summit.
We began our descent the next day and came across and we came across a freshly
abandoned igloo. It had a deep U-shaped entrance to keep out the wind, and it was
roomy enough for us to sit up inside. Instead of pitching our tent, we bedded down in
the igloo.
That night, we were woken by another storm. From inside the igloo, the wind sounded
more like a whisper than a howl. As I lay in my sleeping bag, that familiar
"rain-on-the-roof" feeling washed over me. It was intense and comforting at the same
time, like somebody had just handed me a suitcase full of money. We were checked
into the best hotel room on Mars -- and we would never see a bill. I rolled over and
went back to sleep, feeling like the fattest cat in town.
Commentator Howard Tomb spends his winters (and all the other seasons) in
Brooklyn, New York.
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