Cousins Stefan Sabados and Patrick Madureira have been busy.
The pair spent the last month shovelling snow from their grandmother’s backyard in Kitchener, Ont. into recycling bins, hosing it down, freezing it, and slowly, painstakingly, building an igloo. Literally, it was snow brick, by snow brick.
Their goal was to surround themselves in a symbol of winter to watch the Winter Olympics. They met their goal, and says Sabados, ever since sitting down for the opening ceremony, it has all been worth it.
“It doesn’t matter what it is – figure skating – moguls, or skiing – as soon as you see the Canadians come up – everybody goes nuts right?”
Watch: The science of an igloo
Today, Sabados and Madureira and their friends screamed with joy as Canadians won gold and silver in the Men’s freestyle skiing event. Sabados proudly called the win “two firsts” for Canada.
All the while, Madureira flipped small finger steaks on the hibachi centred on the icy floor of the snowy globe.
The idea for an igloo came to Maduriera first.
Clearly Sabados agreed. The men spent over 100 hours before and after work to build the structure.
“We put in hours, upon hours every night” recalls Sabados.
They figure it took about 400 snow bricks for the igloo to take shape. Each one was pasted together with wet snow, then glazed over with water. Sabados says it was a hard, physical job.
“We got quite a bit of work done in the first couple of days. We thought we’d be done in a week, but it took us a month and two days before we were actually finished.”
In the end the size of the igloo rivals that of a downtown bachelor apartment. It spans about 16 feet and is eight and a half feet high. There is a large vent hole in the centre to allow the barbecue smoke to escape. When the guys want to keep some heat in, they cover the hole with a child-sized umbrella. Otherwise, they heat large rocks on the barbecue when there isn’t food on it.
The most heat however, comes from the cheering section. The backyard spot has garnered quite a bit of neighbourhood attention. As the igloo’s official founder, Madureira is loving it.
“It’s definitely worth it. Seeing Canada kick ass in the Olympics… why not?”
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