by Joel Maillet, a.k.a. Avalanche Kid
Years ago the Snowking gave me a book titled, Ice Palaces. I take it down from time to time when I am searching for inspiration. In the book it describes how, 130 years ago, in places like St Paul, Minnesota and Montreal, Quebec, ice-harvesting ice was a huge industry.
A passage: “The 1888 ice palace (of St. Paul), replete with turrets, arches, sculpture, and battlements, covered almost an acre. It included 55,000 blocks of ice and stood 130 feet tall.”
When I read these descriptions and look at the accompanying images, it seems like a total fiction – like the lost city of Atlantis. These huge ice castles would hold elegant fancy dress balls with a couple thousand people on skates! And there I find my inspiration for the Snow Castle at Snowking's Winter Festival, and I start to imagine …
I imagine ice: ice walls of herringbone pattern, ice staked two stories tall, ice walls facing south creating a greenhouse area for parents to sit in. I imagine cutting larger and larger ice blocks to incorporate more sculpture and ice architecture into the castle.
If we mechanized our ice harvest, heck, we could make The Snow & Ice Castle. This year, I cut a 10-foot long trench into the lake ice without having it flood, then I covered with a snow tunnel I’m calling it the ice cellar.
I dream of a playground where adults, kids and toddlers can play, and inclusive space for many abilities and ages with mazes, climbing walls, slides, swings, and more! We’ve talked about a lover’s swing, what a great photo op that would be!
A games table, like shuffleboard or crokinole for the adults. And slides, we’ve done dual racers, how about quad racers? I’ve been dreaming of a helter-skelter (a downwards spiral slide) for a few years now.
Maybe people could rent skis or skates and get active, or head out on a guided tour. The castle could be a gateway for a whole bunch of winter activity on the bay. How about a skating moat around the castle?
The Snowkademy fills me with imaginings too, that is the junior snow builders camp we’ve been doing for March break for the last few years.
What if every kid in town got to spend a week outside learning the skills to build with snow and ice? What if learning the ways of snow and ice was valuable curriculum to the schools?
Seriously, Yellowknife could become known for world-class snow and ice builders and carvers. And imagine the castle we’d build with a trained army of young builders and carvers!
My greatest ambition in building the Snow Castle is to inspire people like the Ice Palaces book does for me. I am always eager to hear what people have to say; what they would build using ice and snow and how the castle could improve.
After all, this castle belongs to you, the Yellowknifers who turn out to use it.