For most people, camping season starts in early summer. For a few hardy UW students, it started in March.
This spring, UW Recreation staff led a small snow camping expedition to Lake Easton State Park. The overnight trip offered lessons in the basics of snow camping, snowshoeing and survival skills like building quinzhees, shelters made from large piles of loose snow.
To build their quinzhees, students piled snow into mounds and left them to harden. Then the mounds were carefully hollowed out. Sticks and poles poked into the structure helped guide student Samantha Lieberman as she removed snow from the inside.