Snow Cave Cabaret

A man walked down the mountain in his socks. He complained that his
boots were frozen so he couldn't put them on. It had been one of those
nights.

I had woken up in a three bedroom snowcave with a guest bed that we
had dug two days before. The man had shared the single icy guest bed
with one of the women that had come up to the Snow Cave Cabaret late.
He was unceremoniously dumped off the thermarest that he was sharing
prompting him to pack up and leave in his socks.

It was a typical Hans event in that nothing was typical about it. Hans
had turned a get-drunk-in-a-snow-cave event into a full on disco in a
snowcave. The dance cave walls were covered in blinky lights and the
walls were etched by dozens of fingers.  I left the dance cave soon
after spotting a dancing Zebra. She was complete with long tropical
feathers coming out of her ornate mask. The cave was getting too warm
and crowded so I exited past the 10ft high snow pillars and other
works of snow art to the luge track. Short but steep with a wicked
corner luge tracks are Brenton's specialty. This one was no exception.
His luge tracks seem to be rated on the ability to draw blood. Going
face first on a crazy carpet into a banked corner will do that. A
participant emerged with a beard of snow and blood running off the
bridge of his nose. The crowd watching cheered like crazy.

The event had almost been a disaster as the first dance cave collapsed
while it was being dug. It was a victim of eager haphazard digging
that destroyed the structural dome shape it should have been. Three
diggers were buried in the collapse and quickly removed. The show had
to go on and another cave was dug. Sleds were used to drag snow up out
of the trench to the dump zone and the new cave quickly took shape.
With high ceilings and room for thirty to dance it was usually well
beyond capacity. Scores of others hung out outside or had their own
private parties in the dozen or so sleeping caves littered around the
site.

Our cave was no exception and up to a dozen stood in the corridor or
sat on the beds bathed by tealights in the snow walls.

Hans Snow Cave Cabaret is always a night to remember.

In other news my Brazilian visa has finally been approved. I leave for
Brazil Friday!!!!!