Dome sweet dome

BUILD AN IGLOO (provided it’s 28 degrees or colder) by stomping on the snow to create a floor, sawing blocks of snow -- 2 1/2 feet long by 1 1/2 feet wide by 1 foot deep -- for the walls and angling the blocks in a spiral pattern while being careful to leave vents at the top. Or to engineer a quick shelter, dig a 6- to 7-foot snow trench and then cover it with a tarp or pitched roof made from snow blocks.

RENT AN IGLOO for $575 for two at the Aurora Ice Hotel, above, about 60 miles northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. The igloo and rooms inside the nearby hotel include beds, a fireplace and martini glasses (good for about six drinks) sculpted from ice. Fiber optics provide interior lights. One disclaimer: The year-round hotel melted in June under the 24-hour arctic sun. It reopens Dec. 31 with steel rather than wood arches, a new cooling system to prevent summer dripping, and fire extinguishers and smoke alarms mounted in each room as redress for past fire code violations.