Project for niece and nephew grows into massive snow fortress

It’s every child’s dream: an 11-foot-tall, multi-room snow fort.

Karl Mehler of Crooked River spent 120 hours over the months of November and December to build the massive snow fortress in front of his parents’ home.

“The idea was first to make a Christmas gift, a place to play for my niece and nephew when they came for Christmas,” he said. “I didn’t intend for it to be more than seven feet tall, one room and I just got started and it got away from me when I realized the potential to just make it bigger.”

The snow castle features three rooms, with one large enough for an adult to stand in, and another with ordinate arches. The roof is about three feet of packed down frozen slush, solid enough to hold an adult and high enough for a launching-off point for a slide.

“My niece and nephew absolutely loved it,” Mehler said.

Now Mehler wants to share the snow fort with the world. He’s invited the public to come over and check it out, for children to come and have fun playing in the fort.

“The idea is to offer them coffee or a hot chocolate and a treat or a cookie,” he said. “It’s just something fun for little kids – and big kids.

“I’m curious to see where it goes and if people will come out.”

Mehler began the fort in the third week of November. He spent the first week shovelling snow, packing it down and burrowing into it. He then ran out of snow, so he brought in six truckloads of snow from the end of the driveway.

He had made the snow there in lines ready to move when there was some freezing rain. The snow got so hard he had to saw it into block. When it got to the point that he was lifting 80-pound blocks, he decided to make it into smaller bricks and started building the fort with that.

“It just happened out of necessity,” Mehler said. “I was running out of snow and I just started experimenting.”

Mehler classified the density of snow and  used the high-density snow as blocks, the stuff cut out of snowbanks to fill in cracks and the light stuff that he shoveled up to fill space. He also used slush – what he termed ‘slush-crete’ – and tromped it down using plywood for the parts of the fort that had to be really solid.

The thing he would change next time would be to not build the fort so close to the house.

“We have a Christmas tree and you’ve usually got the view of the valley and now the view is snow.”

More information about the snow fort can be found on Facebook at Crooked River Snow Castle Cafe. Those wishing to visit are asked to phone ahead at 306-873-2850 so Mehler can prepare. Mehler asked for those wanting to have a snack to give a small donation to cover expenses.