Ice Castle Surprise

Towering two or three stories high....

Right there on the side of the road...

I had never seen anything like these forms before.

What on earth???

How did they form?

Why were they there???

A landscape of the towering ice was taking over an area in front of the Zermatt Resort in the small town of Midway.

At first I thought I would just take a picture from the car window. Then I decided I would get out to get a closer view.

Quickly I realized that would not be good enough! I commanded Bernie to pull our car into the hotel's parking lot so I could get a closer look.

A picket fence was between a side walk and the massive forms, and a gate.

A sign on a tiny booth said it would cost me two dollars to go inside the gate. I got out of the car again, and I motioned to Bernie to join me on the path through the ice.

He waved me on; I kept going, leaving him to enjoy his nice warm car seat.

Each form was so unique!

Every direction I turned afforded me another breath taking view.

The center castle in this picture is three stories high!

Some forms were powdered lightly with snow. The forms were a pale blue, the natural shade that you see in cracks in glaciers and snow crevaces.

Coral...moss...sand castles...stamen...forests

My brain kept searching for just the right word to describe what I was seeing.

About a quarter way into the area, I met Brent Christensen, the creator of this frozen masterpiece.

He briefly told me how they were created: PVC pipe grids were used to grow icicles, which were then harvested each day. Each icicle was then "planted" and sprayed with more water. The structures have been "growing" since December, adding about three feet in height a day. The ice forms are solid ice. No internal structures are used. Brent climbs up the structures to add more and more icicles to the design.

His blog site had pictures of the project since day one. The forms really did change every single day! The night time pictures are especially wonderful. What an amazing place it would be for a wedding!

He and his family and friends tend the creations on an average of 16 hours a day. The Zermatt Resort has given him and his wife a room to stay in while the forms are being made. He and his wife are the parents of six children, ages 6-23, and this has been the first time he has ever created his forms in public. "Today" he told me "is the last day the forms will be maintained". They will now begin to slowly melt away, lasting probably until May.

How did he learn to do this?

He said he used to create them in his own backyard for fun around a small skating rink that he had made for his kids.
Next year he hopes to do it again, only with LED colored lights instead of halogen colored lights illuminating them from inside at night. And if I was in the area, I was welcome to return at dark and see the forms again for free.

Oh gee....how amazing would that be?

This is definitely on the calendar for next year!

I've walked on glaciers, flown over glaciers, and even walked THROUGH glaciers in Switzerland.

This was even more beautiful than what I had seen made by nature.

It was kind of funny; when I was first walking the pathways through the forms, I kept thinking "This couldn't have just been made by nature"; and sure enough, I was was right.

There actually was a "creator" involved.

(If you want to do a moment of deep-ish thinking, consider this fact and compare it to evolution and see what thoughts you think...)

(The ice castle actually looked better without me in the scene, but I could imagine how cool pictures of kids could be on this bench!)

The path wound through narrow passages where the ice was deep blue. Brent assured me no dyes were used; that the blue was the natural color of water.

What was more interesting: the close up view of individual icicles...

or the distant view of their towering elements?

In the center of it all: A natural hot spring fish pond, with a school of brilliant orange fish swirling like embers amidst the colorful aquatic plants.

The night time reflections on the pond must be stunning.

They had ski poles available to aid visitors footing.

I didn't grab one, it did require careful walking on the frozen pathway.

The view back to the hotel.

Next year Brent wants more to add more ice caverns to explore.

Frankly, I hope next year he can franchise this idea so EVERYONE everywhere can enjoy such a fantastic exhibit.

The caverns were amazing too...wish I could have also gone through them at night.

Capturing the height of these forms was a problem.

I wound up holding my camera above my head and clicking away at random.

Just water...slowly poured and freezing naturally. Apparently the forms change daily as the icicles form and reform with the weather.

Wish I could have seen them on a night with a golden and pink sunset!

And then there was a bit of artistic whimsy as well.

It was hard to walk away from the Land of Castles of Ice.

I meandered back to the car and to Bernie...

Bernie had indulged in a bit of whimsy himself: while I was gawking at the ice castles, he had walked over to a Swiss pastry shop and purchased a fresh strawberry studded cheese danish, and a flour-less chocolate mocha treat.

Does this day just keep getting better and better or what?

Just one view of the Swiss Zermatt hotel. It has a killer great spa too.

The bell boy was awfully cute in his traditional Swiss costume. Look at his adorable grin.

Down the street was the Blue Boar Inn, a place where I want to go to dinner some day.

(I've seen the menu: mega yum!)

Midway, a town that I plan to explore more this spring.

I've got a feeling it has a lot more surprises to be discovered.

I am still just amazed at the surprise that it had for us on Saturday. What a bit of serendipity that Bernie had chosen to drive home a different way than before.

There's a first time for everything

I love the chance to try something new.

Was I ready for a first time out on snow shoes at age 55 years and 10 months?

Absolutely!

And it only took me a few minutes to figure out how to put the shoes on.

(Bernie was right there to tell me the buckles go on the outside of the foot. Duh.)

My DIL loaned me her snow shoes; Bernie rented his.

A 45 minute drive over to Soldier's Hollow, and we were ready to hit the trails.

Or would have been, except B.s snowshoe had a broken strap holder!

I was simply flabbergasted that he was able to just reached into this pocket and pull out a plastic tie down (the green little bit that you can see in the picture above).

He was able to cinch the strap down in a jiffy. Now I'm thinking I should start carrying a few of those handy items in my purse along with all my other "might need" emergency paraphernalia.

Posing beside the Olympic sign, I asked Bernie if snowshoeing was an Olympic event.

(Answer: No)

The snow was a tad slushly, and the air was quite warm except when a breeze kicked up.

I kept thinking of my semi-slutty girlfriend who used to ski in springtime wearing just her bikini.

Wonder how snowshoeing in a bikini would be?

Especially at my age.

Hmmm...maybe that "first time" should remain a "never going to happen" opportunity.

I couldn't have asked for a pretty place to take a shake down walk.

And it didn't take long to discover what interested me most: all the animal tracks in the snow!

Now what kind of animals makes this cute little barefoot print?

I'll be scouting out a book on animal tracks before we head out again.

I totally do not understand why white snow photographs up close looks blue, but that fact does help one see the tracks better.

I'm thinking these are deer track?

(I'm also thinking that I need to get my camera lenses cleaned...those spots are from lens dust, not an animal.)

My favorite trail picture of the day.

No, wait...I think this is my favorite!

Bernie liked this one with the paths intersecting.

I'm guessing rabbit tracks. Really, I have never studies animal tracks before.

It amuses to me to see how the snow both hides and reveals the activities of those that live in the wild.

Other tracks are much easier to figure out....

Of course we had to snowshoe up to the tiny cabin at one end of the valley.

This scene gave me flashbacks to the famous novel "Mrs. Mike" by Freedman.

If you haven't already read it, RUN to the library and check it out.

If you haven't read it since you have become an adult, read it again.

It is simply an amazing true love story between a young girl and her Mountie.

The tiny cabin had a small wood burning stove inside. If I was making this cabin my home, my Mister would be hearing some serious nagging about caulking up those gaping walls before I would even try to heat up the place with some firewood.

The shed and a small corral were just a bit up the hill. Dang, I hate it when there is no information about a place like this.

The red barked trees branches added a nice pop of color to the landscape.

B. is looking good! He starting to look more like a skier than a surfer now after all his time on the slopes.

I'm digging this activity!

It was so good to get out and hike around, use our walking sticks again, and just enjoy being together on a Saturday afternoon.

As we trudged along we both recalled our walk about high up in the mountains of Switzerland.

That was a few years back; but we remembered the time we rested on the trail's bench overlooking the snow covered mountains and talk about our dreams for the future.

It was during that conversation that we decided we wanted to live someplace where we could enjoy the changing seasons, and take hikes and explore the outdoors. We made a pact that that would be our future, God willing.

It was just awesome to see that day's dream for our lives has come so beautifully true.

How far did we hike? If you enlarge this picture you will see the words "cabin" in white. Just below it is a small thing that is the cabin that we went to, and we made a big circle getting and returning from there.

A pretty good walk/hike for a first time out!

Oh come on...it wasn't that far!

Bernie had packed us a picnic; we returned to the parking area and noshed on an Oriental salad, shredded beef burritos, and a nice glass of white wine.

I've discovered drinking a glass of wine after exercise sure help to keep the muscles from being sore later.

Or at least that's what I think happens!

We finished our meal, packed up and hopped into our car, GREATLY enjoying the heated seats on our tired legs and back.

Bernie headed a slightly different way home, driving through the small Swiss settled town of Midvale. I was enjoying seeing the cute little houses with typical Swiss cutwork and murals decoration, when suddenly I saw something so astonishing that I turned to Bernie and shouted

"STOP THE CAR!!!!"

To be continued....