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CATHERINE WINTER: If you drive into Embarrass anytime in the next few weeks, you won't be able to miss the snow forts. A couple dozen white mounds are scattered in front of the Timber Hall, the community center in Embarrass. Some were built with a front end loader. Volunteers piled up the snow and then tunneled in. And some were built using a fabric mold, like a tent, invented by Randi Buehler of Winnipeg, Canada.

RANDI BUEHLER: We have panels that you put in a circle and you fill full of snow. The best way to visualize it is imagine a beach ball cut in half, and you'd have these pie-shaped pieces. And so you keep filling it up until you get the shape of a dome or a half circle. Take the panels off. You're left with a solid mound of snow in the shape of an igloo, which you then hollow out.

CATHERINE WINTER: Buehler's invention is one of the pieces of equipment testers will check out in Embarrass over the coming weeks. Several dozen volunteers will sleep in the snow shelters to test clothing and equipment this week, and some will continue testing through February.

The idea of testing camping gear in Embarrass was born last year, when Minnesota set a new record low temperature, 60 degrees below 0. Four people who heard record breaking cold was on the way, decided it would be a lark to camp out in Embarrass.

RICHARD WATSON: It was cold.

CATHERINE WINTER: Richard Watson of Ely was one of the four campers.

RICHARD WATSON: There were some exciting moments when you wake up in the morning and ice crystals are falling in your face from your own breath. It's refreshing.

CATHERINE WINTER: Watson says he had good equipment and was never too cold. But he says the ratings manufacturers put on gear, saying it's good to 20 below 0 or 40 below 0 aren't always reliable.

RICHARD WATSON: Last year, in examining the clothing that I had and some of the gear that some campers from Minneapolis brought up, it became evident that one weak link in your gear could be disastrous at real low temperatures. One of the fellows had a pair of boots that, at normal temperatures, behaved very well, kept him warm. When he came into the Timber Hall after being out all night at the 64 below, it sounded like he was walking with wooden shoes. The rubber was so solid.

CATHERINE WINTER: Watson says not every company can afford to send its equipment on a polar expedition to test it, and lab tests aren't always accurate. He thinks Embarrass can turn its abundant natural resource, the bitter cold, into a moneymaker by holding an annual equipment test.

The city of Embarrass invited various companies to submit gear and clothing. Volunteers will test sleeping bags and pads, hats, mittens, jackets, stoves, boots, and even a couple cell phones to see if they do what the manufacturers say they'll do.

RICHARD WATSON: This will be a pass or fail test. The gear that passes will have an emblem that the retailers or manufacturers can use for a year at no charge past the America's winter challenge.

CATHERINE WINTER: Organizers of the gear test have also put together a number of related events open to the public, including dog sled rides, equipment sales, and lectures on such topics as snowshoe making and crossing the Arctic Ocean.

Roland Fowler, the official weather observer for Embarrass, says residents hope to make it an annual event. Fowler says people in Embarrass are used to seeing the temperature drop to 40 or 50 below 0 every winter. He says you just have to dress for it.

ROLAND FOWLER: The day that Governor Carlson shut the schools down, we did have a 32 below, and we had probably a 10 or 12 mile an hour wind. And I was cleaning the roof off our town hall. But I was well-dressed, and I wore a face mask. And I was comfortable doing it.

CATHERINE WINTER: Fowler says, so far, this winter hasn't matched last year's record-breaking cold. It's only gotten down to 39 below 0. But he says, typically, this week is one of the coldest in the year. Perfect weather for camping.

I'm Catherine Winter, Mainstreet Radio.