How to Keep Your Snow Fort in This Week's Heat Wave

With temperatures this week slated to soar into the mid-30's, there are likely many Southwest Minneapolis children whose snow forts are likely to melt.

That sad fate could be postponed, though, if they built their next creations out of an exotic-sounding, yet simple winter substance called Pykrete.

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An 86/14 mixture of water and wood pulp, the material melts much more slowly than traditional ice and snow, and is even stronger than concrete in certain respects. Its properties—and low cost—are so remarkable, it was even planned to be the main building material for an absurd-sounding Anglo-American plan to build a giant, "unsinkable" aircraft carrier in the North Atlantic to help fight World War Two.

In addition to building some new decorations on Lake Harriet, pykrete is also potentially good at making "snow" forts that can stand up to the sun for longer periods of time than a traditional fort or igloo. 

A step-by-step recipe for making pykrete can be found on the website Indestructibles.