PREVIEW
Ice Castles
Open until March or ice melts
Hawrelak Park
Tickets: $10.95 to $17.95. Visit www.icecastles.com
If you’ve never visited the ice castle now open in Hawrelak Park, it’s an alluring and mystical world of snow and ice, a maze of dream-like icy walls that transport you to a different dimension.
Just staring at the acre-sized ice castle, a four-year-old girl compares it to Elsa’s palace in Disney’s animation Frozen. A 10-year-old boy might envision a deserted alien fortress in the distant universe.
For the less abstract thinker, the castle’s sparkling deep blue stalactites and stalagmites spark images of the Rocky Mountains’ magnificent ice-covered waterfalls. It can be whatever you want.
The fourth edition of Ice Castles is a marvel of gnarly icicles that appear suspended in animation. Once inside, the natural flow of time stops in this life-size frozen playground that changes shape day by day and shifts mood hour by hour.
“Mother Nature gives us the carved walls from the volatility of temperature, snow, wind and humidity. We control the direction, but Mother Nature gives us the design,” says Christian Denis, lead ice artisan and site manager.
Every year, the ice structure’s characteristics vary. This year, the region’s capricious slush and icy weather created more humidity than usual. However, what humans saw as a climate hurdle, Mother Nature simply carved organically into her sculpture.
“The humidity created a different density. Some pockets are super dense. Notice the deep blue. That’s thick dense ice, much like a glacier.”
This year’s enigmatic stronghold is the tallest so far – about 40 feet high with a wall density ranging from 10 to 15 feet deep. Returning features include a throne-room, a burbling fountain, three areas of slides, a complex maze, a wood-burning fireplace, tunnels and a massive viewing platform that oversees the entire castle.
Aiming to dazzle visitors, organizers have added thousands of programmable lights built into the ice. Dramatic lighting reveals new and different facets of the ice structure as well as providing a fresh esthetic appeal.
For instance, at the fountain, a series of programmed rainbow lights dance across the water.
“Light distorts when it travels through water and creates a neat effect.”
The blueprint also calls for three dome rooms, including one that is 12 feet high.
“They work well and look gorgeous. One room will even be black light. We like to experiment.”
The 24-foot by 16-foot high pixel wall is back with computerized light patterns sweeping across the icy screen to the sound of music while the maze has doubled in size and intricacy.
“We’re going to have a lot of lost children. This is going to be a blast. Actually, you can be in any part of the castle, and you can get lost. Other past designs were more square cut. This is more organic and arching – more enclosed.”
Ice Castles, the Utah-based company that conceived this dramatic landscape, started work on Nov. 23. The formation is built from a patented technique fusing icicles onto a base and gently spraying them with water.
About 25 professional ice artisans grew, harvested and planted 10,000 icicles on the castle daily.
The placing of icicles and spraying is repeated for weeks, growing the walls higher and thicker. With tweaks here and there, arches, tunnels, globe rooms, mazes and slide areas slowly take shape. No two castles are ever alike.
As Denis points out, “It’s magical. We’re just big kids playing in snow and ice. We just get to use big tools and machines. But it’s magical and I hope everyone who comes feels the magic.”
Tickets range $10.95 to $17.95. For hours of operation and ticket information, visit www.icecastles.com.
Ice Castles knows first-hand how cold Alberta winters become and how thousands of people do not have warm outerwear. The company has partnered with United Way’s Coats for Kids and Families program to collect new or gently used winter coats, scarves, toques and gloves.
“We usually get lots of children’s coats, but we really need men’s winter coats,” says Earl Pasechnik, manager of United Way in-kind exchange.
“When we receive coats, we take them to Page for cleaning. And I can’t stress this enough, if you donate, please make sure the zipper is working.”
The clean, ready-to-wear coats are taken to the United Way warehouse where volunteers divide them into groups. Anyone needing a coat can call 211 and an operator will direct the caller to the nearest coat distribution centre.
