Introducing WestCo 5, The Little Igloo That Could

PSA: Remember, guys, don’t build igloos.

From Jay Sharma ’16 comes a handsome photo diary of the newly founded “WestCo 5,” an igloo community that took root in the WestCo courtyard in the immediate aftermath of Nemo’s historic reign. Curiously, the structure seems to have evaded ResLife’s infamous Igloo Moratorium of 2011, but the ensuing events may well be an instructive indicator of why ResLife banned igloos in the first place.

According to Sharma, the project began with a core crew of WestCo 4 residents, centering around Hannah Salzer ’16, Angus McLean ’16, Johnny Crook ’16, and Dara Mysliwiec ’16. Then, when Sharma and other friends from WestCo 1 (Saarim Zaman ’16, Max Atkinson ’16, and Nikku Chatha ’16) joined in, the project took on a larger scale.

“Originally it was going to be a one- or two-person igloo,” Sharma explained, “but as the day went on, the building crew got bigger, and each time we went into the igloo to chill there would be a couple of people who couldn’t fit in. So in an effort to fit everyone in, we just kept making it bigger, and now it fits nine or ten people comfortably.” Well, now it fits no one, because it’s melted. But you know.

Sharma also detailed the igloo-builders’ brief but harrowing near-death experience:

At around 3:00, there were a bunch of people hanging out in there, and all of a sudden this snow plow came by and started pushing more snow onto the top of the igloo. Just in the nick of time, we caught his attention and prevented an almost disastrous cave-in. So then we thought it would be a good idea to put up some sort of indicator to not plow our snow fort. Earlier in the day, Saarim Zaman, Max Atkinson, and I had found a severed walk-signal lightpost near Church Street, so we picked it up, carried it over to the fort, dug a hole on the mound, and planted it. Then we flew Angus Maclean’s Canadian flag from it to officially establish our new settlement. The light post also looks like it could function as a periscope for strategic defense.

Don’t you guys remember the last time a WesKid attempted to build a performative settlement outside in the snow? No one has seen or heard from him since!

That’s just because he’s a CSSer, though. I’m sure he’s fine.