The scoop on the Ice Hotel

The Ice Hotel - open from December 6, 2013 - April 22, 2014 - www.icehotel.com

The Ice Hotel is an art exhibition during the day from 10m-6pm when daytime visitors can have a guided tour for an entrance fee:  Adults - 326 SEK,  students/seniors - 200 SEK,
children  6-12 years -75 SEK (children under 6 years free).

Ice chapel

Ice bar

From 6pm -10am only overnight hotel guests are allowed into the Ice Hotel rooms.  In the morning, before 10am, the hotel staff is busy with an ice grinder and rakes to break up the ground that has been packed into ice from the previous days guests.  They also go from room to room with buckets of snow patching small areas.  One staff person had a garbage bag filled with warm water and was rubbing it over the signs labeling the art rooms to clear off the frost making them more legible. 

The hotel has a basic design and layout that starts with arcing metal forms.  The Ice Hotel has developed a special product/technique they call 'snice' which is a snow/ice mix (much stronger than just snow or ice) used to build the actual ice building.  Water is pulled from the Torne River and shot through a snow cannon, making 'snice' to cover the metal forms creating the thick walls and ceilings of the hotel.  After the 'snice' framework is complete, the metal forms are removed and the artistic design portion begins with ice columns, sculptures, etc. 

This is the 24th year for the Ice Hotel.  It all started when the owner was looking for ways to bring more activities and tourism Jukkasjärvi, a tiny village 200 km north of the Arctic Circle.  He went to Japan to learn about ice sculpting to add as an activity to the already established 'warm' hotel.  At the time the hotel also built an igloo for fun, people started asking if they could sleep in it and the rest is history.

Jukkasjärvi, Sweden- 1,100 residents, 1000 dogs

two Ice Hotel igloos next to the Torne River

First about 2000 blocks of ice is harvested every March from the Torne River right next to the Ice Hotel.  Throughout the winter there is a large rectangular section of ice marked off with ropes and kept clear of snow so that when it is time to harvest ice from this area it is clear with very little lines from the layers of snow over the winter. The ice blocks are stored in a large warehouse until October.

this block of ice is about 18 inches thick

In October, each year, building begins on the Ice Hotel.  Design ideas for the 'Art Rooms' are submitted by artists (there are no entry requirements) from all over the world and an Ice Hotel jury chooses new designs each year. The winning designers work in two week intervals to build their rooms.  The hotel is finished in early December.

In the Spring the Ice Hotel melts (from the top down, by design, no collapsing) and returns to the Torne River.

The most common thing for guests to do is spend one night in a warm room and one night in a cold room.  This is what we did and it gave us plenty of time to freely explore and enjoy the uniqueness and wonder of the Ice Hotel.

warm cabin at the Ice Hotel

warm room at the Ice Hotel

this room, called 'Solid Flow', was built with straight columns.  It was designed with the intention that the columns would bend and twist as the 'snice' structure settled over the season.  As Sofia says... 'whoa'!

 

hanging in the Ice bar

the girls had endless fun on the sleds provided by the hotel

Ice Hotel restaurant

nice breakfast buffet

guest ice carving results are displayed in the restaurant, the dressing room/lounge and outside the hotel.  We did not carve but clearly someone else loves bunnies just as much as Sofia does!

Sofia did not care for this tableau in the Ice Hotel warm bar

furry lamp shades