1. The Ice City
... by night (1:15)
... by day (0:28)
'The annual Harbin Ice Festival has been running since 1963 but has been disordered due to revolutionary alliances, eventually, the festival resumed in 1985. Harbin is the Capital of Heilongjiang a Province in China which is located in the Northern region right under the cold winds of Siberia. Harbin is the main source of ice and snow culture in the world. The average temperature in this area is between -31°C to -15°C, although the record low temperature the region has experienced was -52.3°C.
The highlight of the festival is the ice lanterns and the sculpture exhibitions. Thousand of exhibits can be viewed in this festival all made up of ice or snow which transforms the city of its normal nature into a landscape of no consequence but to surround the gleaming new city of whiteness and crystallized sceneries.
The ice and snow shows can range from small items to human size buildings and to towering pagodas, temples, and large buildings of many kind. You can also see some of the world’s greatest industrial icons being replicated in the Harbin Ice Festival like the Eiffel Tower and also the Great Wall of China.' -- Chinaveo.com
2. The Ice Palace
'Wedding at the House of Ice' (1878), by Valery Ivanovich Jacobi
'In the cold winter of 1739–1740, Empress Anna Ivanovna gave an order to build a palace made of ice in St. Petersburg. The palace and the surrounding festivities were part of celebration of Russia's victory over Turkey. She ordered the architect Pyotr Yeropkin to design the building. It was built under the supervision of Georg Kraft, who left a behind detailed description of the palace.
'The palace was 24 meters tall and 7 meters wide. Huge ice blocks were "glued" together with water. The garden was filled with ice trees with ice birds and an ice statue of an elephant. The outer walls were lined with ice sculptures. Before the palace there were artillery pieces also made of ice. The palace was also furnished with furniture made of ice, including an ice bed with ice mattress and pillows. The whole structure was surrounded with a tall wooden fence.
'The Ice Palace was built specifically to be the location of a mock wedding of two 'jesters'. Empress Anna had discovered that her son Prince Mikhail Alekseyevich Galitzine was secretly married an Italian woman. Empress Anna saw this as an affront because she was a Catholic, not Eastern Orthodox. The wife died soon after they were married, but Anna did not forgive Galitzine and decided to punish him in an unusual manner. She ordered him to become a jester.
'The Empress selected prince Galitzine a new wife, an unattractive kalmyk court lady jester Avdotya Ivanovna Buzheninova. She forced the prince to marry her and displayed the newlyweds in a procession towards the ice palace where they rode an elephant and were followed by a number of cripples. In the ice palace, the newlyweds were closed into an icy nuptial chamber under heavy guard. The couple survived the night because the bride traded a pearl necklace with one of the guards for a sheepskin coat.
'Empress Anna died the following year and the castle did not survive the next summer. The Russian reading public was made aware of Anna's mock palace in 1835, when Ivan Lazhechnikov (1792-1869) described her escapade in The Ice House, one of the first historical novels in the Russian language. The novel was made into a film in 1927.' -- ForgottenRussia.ru
3. The Ice Hotels
... in Jukasjarvi, Sweden (2:48)
'Sweden's Ice Hotel is built from scratch every year. A new design, new suites, a brand new reception - in fact everything in it is crisp and new. The Ice Hotel is situated on the shores of the Torne River, in the old village of Jukkasjärvi in Swedish Lapland. 10 000 tons of crystal clear ice from the Torne River, and 30 000 tons of pure snow generously supplied by Mother Nature are needed to build the Ice Hotel every year. The hotel sleeps over 100 guests, and every bedroom is unique. Covering more than 30,000 square feet, the Ice Hotel includes an Ice Chapel, the hotel itself, an ice art exhibition hall, a cinema and last but not least, the world famous ‘Absolut Ice Bar’.' -- ScanTours.com
... in Balea Lac, Romania (1:22)
'In 2006, the first ice hotel in Eastern Europe was built at Bâlea Lake (Romania), deep in the Făgăraş Mountains, at an altitude of 2034 m. It also features many attractions like bob-sledding and ice fishing, and can accommodate over 150 people per night.' -- Wikipedia
... in Alta, Norway
'If there is such a thing as a rustic ice hotel, the Alta Igloo Hotel in the northeast corner of Norway would be it. The rooms are not very large, and low ceilings make them a bit claustrophobia-inducing. Apart from its 80 beds the Alta Igloo Hotel houses suites, an ice gallery, an ice bar, an ice chapel and several lounges. The service building contains a luggage room where bags are stored safely during each stay. The rooms contain only beds, while other facilities such as toilets, changing rooms, showers and sauna are in the warm service building to ensure comfort.' -- The Travel Channel
... in Kemi, Finland (1:00)
'The Mammut Snow Hotel is not an ice hotel per se as it is made entirely of snow. Many of its furnishings and its decorations, such as the ice sculptures, are made of ice. It is located within the walls of the SnowCastle of Kemi, which is the biggest snow castle in the world . It includes The Mammut Snow Hotel, The Castle Courtyard, The Snow Restaurant and a chapel for weddings, etc.' -- Wikipedia
... in Quebec, Canada (4:41)
'Quebec's Ice Hotel is the creation of Jacques Desbois, who decided to try out the concept after reading about Sweden's Ice Hotel. Construction of the Ice Hotel begins every year in mid-December, the entire process lasting a month and culminating in the official opening in mid-January. Steel moulds and wooden walls are put up to form a skeleton of the hote; snow and ice is blown into the moulds. When the structure is frozen and secure, the wooden moulds are removed, leaving a hotel completely built of ice. In March, as the weather begins to warm, the Ice Hotel is manually thawed and removed until the following December.' -- Quebec-Travel.com
... in Fairbanks, Alaska (4:51)
'Aurora Ice Hotel is the only hotel in the United States made entirely of ice. The first year of operation, the hotel was shut down by Alaska's Fire Marshall until all rooms had smoke detectors and fire extinguishers installed. Six themed rooms, an ice bar, five fiber optic lit ice chandeliers, and a wedding gazebo make it quite a tourist attraction. It is situated next to what is billed as the world's oldest and largest Snow and Ice Museum.' -- Hotels.about.com
Designing an Ice Hotel by Robbie Moore: Every November, teams of international artists are brought to the village of Jukkasjarvi in Swedish Lapland to build a hotel from ice and snow. A few are veterans, like Australian designer and photographer Daniel Rosenbaum; others are students, architects, industrial designers, sculptors, painters, jewellers, textile designers, theatre designers, NASA shuttle designers, graffiti artists and comic book illustrators, who have never worked with ice in their lives.
For the Icehotel artists, ice is much more inspiring than industrial materials. It doesn’t create clouds of dust, unlike modelling with foamed plastic; there is no sense of wastage if things go wrong, unlike designing with wood or metal. Ice yields to a chainsaw like butter; a blade can be stabbed into it without risk of kickback; it can be sculpted rapidly, if you know the correct technique. It can be backlit, and imprints the smallest details; it is strong enough to be used for structure; but it is also temporary, and all the hard labour, triumphs and mistakes of the Icehotel artists are washed away into the Torneälven by midsummer.
The concept and structure of the hotel were pioneered in the 1990s by architect Åke Larsson and sculptor and land artist Arne Bergh. They set upon the largest and safest possible snow-built form for the hotel suites, and invented a methodology for simple duplication. Steel framework domes set on skiis, or huge red inflatables are used as moulds for all the suites and public spaces. Blanketed with a metre of snow thrown up by a machine, they hold their shape as the snow sinks, compacts and binds around them. The steel frameworks are hammered free and slid out with a tractor, and the inflatables are simply deflated and removed. The Ice Bar mould leaves a space inspired by the Basilique Cathedral in Reims; the mould for the suites leaves a dark, seven-metre-long void, with a chapel-like catenary arch roof vaulting four metres into the air. Ice pillars give extra support to the huge arches over the public spaces. (cont.)
4. The Iglu-Dorf
'Iglu-Dorf igloo village lies high above the town of Zermatt, in the Swiss Alps. Creator Adrian Gunter built his first igloo, with the help of friends, in 1996 to get an early start on skiing the next day. Since then a small empire of igloo villages has sprung up across the Swiss Alps. Inuit artists create traditional Eskimo artworks in the walls throughout each Village. Beds in the Iglu-Dorf are raised platforms made from snow, topped with foam pads over which sheepskins are spread. Expedition sleeping bags up to -40º C are provided. Prices start at 99 euros ($134) for a standard igloo and 159 euros for a "romantic" igloo, which is a private room or suite for two. A "romantic-plus" suite gets you your own toilet.' -- Cicily Corbett
5. The Snow Fort
Killthecorporacy shows you the Snowy Fortress of Doom (4:12)
Funnyfilmers3355 shows you his Saskatchewan snow fort (2:52)
MagnusDonvon shows you his Snow Fort 2007 (6:33)
'Snow forts consist of walls of piled and compacted snow. They may be "open" or "closed", that is, a person in the snow fort may be completely surrounded by the walls on all sides, there may be a "door", or the person may be completely exposed except in one direction. The last variation is used for snowball fights where opponents have forts facing each other and attack exclusively from their own fort. Existing structures such as the walls or concave corners of a building can be used as part of the snow fort, allowing for faster and easier construction. A snow fort can also be a tunneled-out burrow built in a large snow drift. Snow forts are usually at least knee-height and one-roomed. Forts built for snowball fights may be higher, and ones built for "house" may have lower walls and multiple rooms. When used for snowball fights, snow forts often have sections where the wall is lower, through which the occupants throw snowballs.' -- Wikipedia
How to Build a Badass Snow Fort by Dethroner.com: 'One of the best things my step-father ever taught me was how to build a proper snowfort. Oh sure, I’d carved out a few cubbies in snowdrifts before, but nothing like the labyrinthine lairs I soon began developing like missile bases under the snow. Assembling a good snow fort is an all-day endeavor. It’s work. But the rewards—a toasty nest in which a kid can kick back with a candle, some cocoa, and a few books for a few hours—are totally worth it. If nothing else, it’s an early lesson that the best things sometimes take a little sweat'.
6. The Ice 'M'
'Publicity stunts are a way of life in Vegas, and frequently they go awry. So, I was somewhere between dubious and indifferent when Nathan Burton (the second most famous magician named Burton to work the Vegas Strip) announced that he would freeze himself in a 15 ton block of ice to endure 24 hours while surrounded by 95 showgirls. The goal, as I understand it, was for Burton to stand still and awake while inside the ice without touching the ice. This was sort of confusing to me as a magic trick. But I got the promotional idea: the ice block was shaped like the letter M, and thus the event called attention to the name change of the shopping mall Desert Passage to Miracle Mile Shops. Nathan Burton stepped inside his ice M with showgirls in the morning around 11 AM (predicting he would last for 24 hours). Anyway, Burton and the showgirls wound up lasting all of 7 1/2 hours in the ice. The press release blames unanticipated heat and wind for forcing Burton to reluctantly end the stunt for safety reasons. Heat and wind in Nevada in May? Who would have thought that could be possible?' -- The Los Angeles Times Blog
7. The Ice Sculpture
'Ice Sculpture Destruction' (0:37)
'Bad Kid' (0:08)
'Quentin Tarantino smashes my ice sculpture' (0:11)
8. The Snow Globe
'Precisely when the first snow globe, also called a waterglobe or snowdome, was made remains unclear, but they appear to date from France during the early 1800s. They may have appeared as a successor to the glass paperweight, which became popular a few years earlier. Snow globes appeared at the Paris Universal Expo in 1878, and by 1879, at least five companies were producing snow globes and selling them throughout Europe. Snow globes became popular in England during the Victorian era and, in the early 1920s, crossed the Atlantic to the United States of America where they became a popular collectors item. In the United States, the first snow globe-related patent was granted in 1927 to Joseph Garaja of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.' -- Wikipedia
a. Scunnard a.k.a. Jared Pappas-Kelley's 'Snowglobes People Have Given Me'
b. Jill Ann Loew's Snow Globe Museum
c. Andy Zito's Snow Globe Collection
d. The NYC Snow Globe Collection
e. LA Law's Corbin Bernsen, Snow Globe Collector and His 7000 Globes
f. Snow Globe Collection for Sale
9. The Ice Cube
'Pagophagia (a form of pica, a craving to eat unnatural articles such as rocks, paint or dirt) is a little known term that is not known by many physicians. It describes the act of ingesting excessive amounts of ice cubes. I am writing this today to alert patients and physicians to the symptom of pagophagia and its variants. Pagophagia is never volunteered by patients it must be pursued by questioning. When asking an anemic patient about diet you should always inquire about ice cube eating. Now that there are new water bottles ice cube eating has been modified by some to bottle freezing. The patient will often take their water bottle and place it in the freezer and when just right the inside of the bottle will be liquid and ice cold. I have been told by patients that that is the best water there is. Other patients will go to fast food portals and order extra large iced tea or cokes with a large amount of added ice just to get their teeth into the ice cubes for as long as they last. Others will just sip on a glass filled with plain ice cubes. What’s going on here? No one knows for sure.' -- Glenn Tisman, MD
The Ice Chewers Bulletin Board
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p.s. Hey. I'm still gone, but I am on way back to Paris and to this blog's control booth at this very moment. There's a rerun post for you. Hope you dig it. I will see you with a new post and a p.s. and whatever news and whatever else I have to tell you tomorrow.