Our Winter Training Brought Staff to Brainard Lake for Snow Shelters, Wilderness Medicine Scenarios, and Joyful Learning in Winter Conditions
Written by CI Field Instructor Hailey Schmidt. Cottonwood Institute staff kicked off 2026 with a chilly and fun-filled winter training. Though the wintery weather has been lacking in the front range this season, we were able to find a cold and blustery day up at Brainard Lake Recreation Area. The goals of this trip were to enhance winter programming through quinzee building and snow science as well as prepare for the potential challenges of leading outdoor trips in cold weather.
We started our day meeting up at the CI gear room to pack the necessary gear and build our lunches. It is worth mentioning that our very own Erin Angel provided us with a delicious chickpea salad for sandwiches with incredible toppings such as a variety of home-pickled veggies. Everything tastes better outside, and a thoughtfully made meal enhances the experience. However, this is not a food blog, so I digress.
Once we made the journey up to Brainard Lake, we bundled up and packed our sleds at the trailhead, trying not to blow away in the very windy parking lot. We donned our snowshoes and started to make our way down the trail. On our short walk, we identified animal tracks and looked for a proper spot to build a quinzee. In not too long, we found the perfect open area with deep enough snow.
In our clearing, we learned about the basics of building a quinzee, including proper sizing, location, and techniques. While building our quinzee, to really practice our instructor skills, some staff members were assigned instructor roles, while others were told to act as students with varying degrees of interest in the activity. This brought out a lot of ideas for keeping all students engaged. It also brought out some star-quality acting and many giggles. We piled snow into a dome shape, packed it down, stabbed it with sticks, and left it to sinter. Vocab word! Sintering is the process of the snow grains melding together, strengthening the walls of our quinzee.
While our quinzee sintered, we ate our lunch (again, yum!) and practiced some hypothermia medical scenarios. Running through scenarios helps instructors practice wilderness medicine skills and prepare us to care for students on our trips. We discuss preventive measures, identifying when problems are arising and how to mitigate them, and how to handle medical emergencies if they do occur.
After lunch, we got back on our feet and began to dig our quinzee out. At first, this process is slow and can only be worked on by a couple of people, so while some began the process, others huddled around to learn about snow science. This included digging a snow pit and analyzing the layers to examine the history of the snowfall and snowmelt so far this winter. Snow science is a great opportunity to discuss the impacts of climate change, how avalanches occur, and to share knowledge and wonder about snow crystals. Finding excitement and joy in snow science inspired us to bring these topics back to our students.
As the quinzee was hollowed out, more people were able to join in and finish up the process. Once complete, the inside of our quinzee was a 5-foot diameter, soundproof dome with a pale blue glow. Naturally, we had to pile everyone in. All 12 of us packed in like sardines to debrief our day and share hot chocolate and Tim-Tam cookies. It was easy to feel all of the gratitude in our little snow shelter. Just another day in the Cottonwood Institute office!
Of course, the quinzee could not be our office forever, so we crawled our way back out, snapped a group photo, took one last admiring look at our work, and destroyed it! We cleaned up our clearing in the trees, careful not to leave anything behind except for our footprints, and made our way back down the mountain. And with that, our winter training was complete, leaving us feeling more prepared, joyful, and connected.
