Snow

[Jafo]

Do you ever add any bracing to your yurt when the snow gets that deep like in some of your pics?

[Tree Bones]

I have had four feet of snow with no problems, except I have to dig down quite a bit to get in the door. The slope of the roof and vinyl I use work well. I set up a yurt on Donner Pass this summer where they get 10 to 15 foot of snow so we will get a full blown test this winter.

[Corinarose]

Having a fire in the woodstove helps keep the snow from building up. If the sun is shining the snow just slid off of my roof last winter.
Corina

[Karl]

Did you use a roof rake at all? We are planning on getting one just in case it gets really bad.

[Corinarose]

I did not use a roof rake, but last winter was mild. Mostly snow just fell of the roof~ the first time I heard it , it scared the dickens out of me I thought the whole place was coming down~very noisey!
I have heard if you do use a roof rake to use the kind with rubber on the end so you dont hurt the roof. They are not easy to find but I think you could also add it to a roof rake~a home made version

No fire for me yet Still toasty warm in here. But I have learned some tricks, once it gets cold out and the sun goes down it gets chilly. Brought some wood in just in case
Corina

[Karl]

We will definitely get a rubber edged rake. The stove ran great today and now there is only a fine ash left in the stove. It is currently 22 degrees warmer in the yurt than outside. We are now testing the

insulation

to see how long it takes to lose the heat with the stove off.

[Tree Bones]

I have never used a roof rake. The snow always slides of the roof of the yurts I make.

[Taiga Marthens]

I have a 24 ft. Pacific Yurt in Teton Valley, Idaho. We are at 6500 ft, with really big long winters. I have had the yurt up for 6 years, but it has never been left empty over a winter. This winter I am hoping to leave it empty and am worried about the snow building up and not sliding with out any heat from inside. We have put in support beams on the ends of most of the rafters and also have put in 3 rows of cable through the rafters in the roof. We where also planning on putting up support beams underneath the

dome

. I am wondering if anyone has experience leaving their yurts empty during the winter and how they fared with heavy snow loads?

[Tree Bones]

I don't have any experience with a Pacific yurt but they do have about ten of them at Yosemite Lakes Campground and I know they have done well there. The elevation is only about 4000 feet. We do get three to four feet of snow there.

I have several yurts that are unoccupied during winter and when the sun comes out they warm up and the snow will sluff off.

I set one up on Donner pass this summer. It is at 7,000 feet and they are putting a support under the hub. They expect ten to fifteen feet of snow. It will be unoccupied most of the time. I will be able to tell you how that goes in Spring.