Now, obviously ICEHOTEL is not up and running yet this year. The hotel opens in December, so they’re only in the planning stages for this year’s hotel. However, even though it’s not cold yet, they already have most of the ice that they’ll need. (The snow is what they’re waiting for.) Each March, when the ice from the Torne River is at its thickest, they harvest it and store it for use the next year. That way, they can open the hotel much earlier and don’t have to wait until the ice is thick enough to use.

    Susanna Porter Öhman, Camilla Bondareva, & Magdalena Sjödin of ICEHOTEL have been kind enough to fill me in on some of the details and allow me to use some photos of ICEHOTEL on ice carving secrets. Below, I’ve included a few more shots of the hotel. Later, I’ll post some more, as well as some of the many interesting aspects of the hotel’s construction and operation. All of the photos in this entry are © ICEHOTEL and may not be used or distributed without permission from ICEHOTEL.

the massive metal forms used to create ICEHOTEL. snice is sprayed over the form and allowed to freeze. then the form is lowered and removed. photo Ben Nilsson/Big Ben Productions

ICEHOTEL in progress, showing the shapes from the forms in the previous photo.
photo Ben Nilsson/Big Ben Productions

one of the artist suites in ICEHOTEL: “Leaf by Niggle.”  (from 2007-2008, artists: Cui Wei & Yi Du) photo Ben Nilsson/Big Ben Productions