The Work of the Gapers
What is more fun to do around Christmas time than playing in the snow? Of course, you have to have snow to play in so Ken organized a group from Trinity and Hillcrest to go up to Mt. Hood and enjoy the snow. There
we found snow, intertubes, and the perfect packing snow. The intertubing was fun, the snowball fight was more fun, but the highlight of the day was the igloo.
After calling a truce, the two opposing teams set about tirelessly building an igloo. One snow fort was dismantled in order to add to the other, and slowly, the
walls of the igloo encircled the builders and began to grow. The roof was going to be the biggest challenge. We figured that we'd build until the roof caved in and just see how far we could get. We kept building and building. Katie and David tirelessly rolled huge wheels of packed snow down the slopes to use as building or packing material while others stacked, supported, and packed what snow was brought to them. And there were, of course, the necessary supervisors. Before we knew it, the roof was leaning, but not 
falling, in, and the hole at the top was growing smaller and smaller. After 4 1/2 hours of working, the last block of snow was hoisted up to the last opening and packed in place. We were done!
Our megagloo had drawn quite a crowd of people stopping by now and then to see what we were working on and how it was coming. Some even brought snow or helped us lift the blocks and pack them in place. One of the workers came out as we were finished. "Are you from around here?" she asked.
" We've been watching you work all afternoon and figured you must be gapers(people who don't live near or see snow and so play tirelessly in it when given the opportunity)." We assured her that we were from the area and did come up to Mt Hood regularly. "All the workers are excited to get off work so that we can come hang out in the igloo," she said. "Do you know how many it will fit?" Since we didn't know, we decided to find out, and all fifteen of us plus the 
worker crawled into the igloo. It was tight but not too bad, and while we were all in there, we sang some Christmas carols - an igloo has pretty good acoustics. By that time, it was getting late and dark so we crawled back out and headed home. We left the igloo for the workers to enjoy later that night - the work of the gapers.
What is more fun to do around Christmas time than playing in the snow? Of course, you have to have snow to play in so Ken organized a group from Trinity and Hillcrest to go up to Mt. Hood and enjoy the snow. There
we found snow, intertubes, and the perfect packing snow. The intertubing was fun, the snowball fight was more fun, but the highlight of the day was the igloo.
After calling a truce, the two opposing teams set about tirelessly building an igloo. One snow fort was dismantled in order to add to the other, and slowly, the
walls of the igloo encircled the builders and began to grow. The roof was going to be the biggest challenge. We figured that we'd build until the roof caved in and just see how far we could get. We kept building and building. Katie and David tirelessly rolled huge wheels of packed snow down the slopes to use as building or packing material while others stacked, supported, and packed what snow was brought to them. And there were, of course, the necessary supervisors. Before we knew it, the roof was leaning, but not 
falling, in, and the hole at the top was growing smaller and smaller. After 4 1/2 hours of working, the last block of snow was hoisted up to the last opening and packed in place. We were done!Our megagloo had drawn quite a crowd of people stopping by now and then to see what we were working on and how it was coming. Some even brought snow or helped us lift the blocks and pack them in place. One of the workers came out as we were finished. "Are you from around here?" she asked.
" We've been watching you work all afternoon and figured you must be gapers(people who don't live near or see snow and so play tirelessly in it when given the opportunity)." We assured her that we were from the area and did come up to Mt Hood regularly. "All the workers are excited to get off work so that we can come hang out in the igloo," she said. "Do you know how many it will fit?" Since we didn't know, we decided to find out, and all fifteen of us plus the 
worker crawled into the igloo. It was tight but not too bad, and while we were all in there, we sang some Christmas carols - an igloo has pretty good acoustics. By that time, it was getting late and dark so we crawled back out and headed home. We left the igloo for the workers to enjoy later that night - the work of the gapers.posted by In The Potter's Land | 9:52 AM
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