HOWTO make a bulletproof snow-fort

Pykrete is a WWII-era experimental material made by mixing wood pulp with ice. It's easy to make, easy to work with, and it's bulletproof:

If so, we’d like to humbly suggest that you consider pykrete for all your snow fort construction needs. Pykrete is a composite material made of a mixture of wood pulp and ice. Named for its inventor Geoffrey Pyke, pykrete was an experimental material developed during the mad science heyday of World War II.
At a time when steel was starting to run into short supply, Pyke looked at ice, a material that can be formed for a fraction of the energy cost of steel, as a potential building tool. Early experiments ran into problems — ice is prone to being brittle — but they came across research that showed that if you mixed in cellulose with pure water, that the resulting stuff, when frozen, turned out to be quite durable.
How durable? Let’s put it this way: Would you like a snow fort that is bullet-proof?

How to Make an Indestructible Snow Fort — With Pykrete [Tim Maly/Wired]

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: happy mutants • makers • snow • WWII

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DowneastDiva

What to do when spring arrives?
- theophrastvs
  
  oo look: mud!
Andre Vandal

Didn’t Mythbusters tackle this a few years back?
- Fantome_NR
  
  yes:
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(2009_season)#Pykrete_Peril
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Demerits for not naming that episode The Truth About Pykrete.
    - Fantome_NR
      
      do I have to do everything around here?
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        I’m disappointed to note that I have to type all the way to the ‘y’ before Google suggests The Truth About Pyecraft.
Neural Kernel

I’ve been eagerly waiting for Occupy or Idle No More to start building these…
http://www.facebook.com/chris.baker.73932 Chris Baker

There was even some discussion at the time of making aircraft carriers of the material. There was a book in my high school library that discussed how the carrier would be able to last for several years before it would thaw because the wood pulp would provide insulation on the outer portion as it melted.
- jackbird
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Habakkuk
Paul Renault

What an aircraft carrier built out of Pykrete might look like.

Just look at it! It screams “Sci-fi book cover!”

http://bernardbd.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/hab42.jpg
- http://undulantfever.blogspot.com/ Bruce Arthurs
  
  TITANIC II: The British Empire Strikes Back
ravells

If we had known about this technology we could have saved Hoth.