The importance of ice in Swedish Lapland extends far beyond the hype of ICEHOTEL. In the beginning of time, after the inland ice retracted, the ice on lakes and running water was already an important factor when the reindeer migrated. And following their trace, nomadic man. The ice age shaped the landscape we live in, and ice shapes the day-today life we lead. Today we go skating, fishing and driving on the frozen ice. Of course we build hotels and cool our drink by the fireplace too, the only thing that’s different there is the size of the cubes. Water in its frozen form is one of the corner stones of Swedish Lapland.
There is a theory that says that the entire Earth was once covered in ice. That would then explain why we can find enormous erratic boulders in the middle of the Namibian desert. The theory is usually called ’Snow Ball Earth’. A suitable name. Swedish Lapland is very influenced by the latest ice age, the ice that receded ten thousand years ago. The land is still rising by the coast and the Swedish mountains have very rounded peaks. The peaks never reached the surface of the ice, instead they were sanded down by a kilometre-thick sandpaper, which is what the inland ice in effect was.
2. pack ICE tours
At the edge of the ice, where it meets the sea, the power of weather creates the landscape of winter. The different currents and changing wind directions pack the ice into a mighty scenery. Here you can discover real ice bergs and a calm night might provide you with flawless, new ice for an exciting ice-skating adventure.
3. ICE music
The coolest winter music experience in more ways than one. Tim Linhart’s ice musicians in Luleå invite us to a concert where the ice speaks. This personifies the Arctic in a wonderful way – professional musicians who let the voice of ice speak inside a cosmic igloo.
www.icemusic.com
4. ICE hotel
More than 25 years ago Yngve Bergqvist looked out from the Inn in Jukkasjärvi and thought that there must be a way of developing the destination for winter. Up until then it had been a summer destination because of the midnight sun. But inspired by Japanese ice artists Yngve got the idea to construct a hotel out of ice. The first modest igloo was 60 square metres, but an instant success. This year’s ice hotel is made using 1,000 tonnes of ice in the form of blocks from the Torne River, and 30,000 cubic metres ’snice’, a special kind of artificial snow that’s made especially for the hotel. Speaking in terms of snowball wars that’s 700 million snowballs. And of course Yngve was right: today more visitors come for the ice than for the midnight sun.
www.icehotel.com
5. ICE wedding
A church has always been part of ICEHOTEL as a place to celebrate. Weddings and christenings have been part of its history since the first ICEHOTEL was built. The ice church is transient; the ice always changes. Your wedding will take place in a building that’s unique, just like your ceremony. And the wedding night? Yes, you can spend that, too, on ice.
www.icehotel.com
6. ICE harvest
It might sound a bit weird, but every year has its own particular ice. No ice is exactly the same. 2015 was a very good year for ice, for example. Every block that was sawn out of the Torne river was a couple of inches thicker than the year before and also extra compact and transparent.
www.icehotel.com
7. ICE bar
A whole bar made of ice that became a successful export. Sometimes as a pop-up bar in the various metropoles around the world, but also as a constant feature in the city rhythm of Jukkasjärvi, Stockholm and London for example. At ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL you can enjoy a drink in subzero temperatures, surrounded by ice from the Torne river.
www.icehotel.se
8. ICE skating
A sense of freedom, speed, wind, and adventure. The joy of first ice can be experienced in many different ways. For the regulars, it’s that first, swaying ice they want. In October the first mountain lakes start to freeze, then the bigger running waters in the forest land and finally the archipelago in the Bothnian Bay freezes. It’s a mare tenebrosum for all adventurers on skates. The sea of the unknown – there to be explored.
9. ICE kick
In the Swedish cult classic ’Sällskapsresan 2, Snowroller’, a kick-sled fascinates the English gentleman Algernon Wickham- Twistleton-Ffykes, a.k.a. ’Algy’ as it passes by on the roof rack of a Volvo 245. And Stig-Helmer explains in his best Swenglish that: “We call it a kick”.
10. ICE hoovering
From the hotel at Brändön a hovercraft takes you on an unforgettable tour of the archipelago, above ice and perhaps open water. By hovercraft you can get close to the outer rim even when the ice won’t hold heavier vehicles. After a while you get used to the intense experience and start taking in the landscape. And somewhere there’s both seal and sea eagles to look for.
11. ICE driving
These days, the car-testing industry in Arjeplog, Sorsele and Arvidsjaur is world famous, and an exciting form of entertainment driving has been developed in connection with it. Mercedes just wrote on their Facebook page that they found ’heaven on earth’ for their driving events in Sorsele, and Land Rover have made an amazing film about the perfect copy of Silverstone on the ice outside Arjeplog.
12. ICE art
Nature’s own creative spirit is born out of the meeting between water and cold; it’s fantasy that runs free. They say there no two snowflakes alike, and the same is true for natural ice. It freezes in different ways and at different speeds, with different effects and different mindsets. And sometimes it becomes amazingly beautiful like here, outside Årrenjarka, when meltwater freezes again after a cold night.
13. ICE swimming
Skellefteå’s fascination with winter bathing has also resulted in regular winter swimming competitions. For the last four years, international championships have attracted participants from all over the world to Skellefteå. The participants often compete in water just 0.1 degrees ‘warm’ – at distances ranging between 25 and 200 metres using breaststroke and freestyle. The championships are held in early February every year.
www.darkandcold.com
14. ICE breaker
To deliver goods to Sweden’s northernmost parts there are a number of ice breakers stationed in Luleå to keep the Bothnian Bay ports open. Some years they work around the clock and other winters they are mostly found docked, all shiny. But for those who wish to engage in their own ice-breaker adventure, we recommend Piteå Havsbad.
www.pite-havsbad.se
15. ICE bath
Whether ice baths are good or bad for an elite sport professional has been discussed frequently. But the British long-distance runner Paula Radcliffe used to take ice baths, for example, and she won quite a few half marathons and marathons during her career. But of course there’s a difference between the heart of a marathon runner and a normal person – switching from a hot sauna to a black hole made in the ice of a lake can put a strain on your heart that you should take into consideration. But even so: there is nothing more refreshing than a four-degree-Celsius bath when it’s twenty minus in the air. The sensation of ice-cold water being warm is an amazing experience!
16. ICE climbing
Here today, gone tomorrow. There’s only ice during the right season. Ice climbing is a simultaneously cool and sublime adventure. In the shade of the mountains’ north-facing sides the ice in Swedish Lapland keeps its high quality during a very long season. Ice climbing makes you focus properly and not think about anything else, challenging your physique as well as your mind. Abisko Ice Climbing Festival February 25–28 is the occasion for all ice climbers, of course.
www.abiskoiceclimbing.com
17. ICE hockey
Where there is cold, there is ice. Where there is ice, there is ice hockey. The region is known from taking great pleasure in ice hockey. Ask anyone you meet here in Swedish Lapland who their favourite player is and you’ll get an answer: ’Krobbe’ Lundberg, ’Hårde-Hardy’ Nilsson, ’Homer’ Holmström, Börje Salming and his brother ’Stygge Stig’, or a variety of other names will be mentioned. The region is also known for its successful teams. Skellefteå has made it to the final the last five years running. And the derby between Luleå and Skellefteå, that people in Piteå call the ’derby between Pite North and Pite South’, is a Swedish classic.
18. ICE fishing
The author Jim Harrison, Legends of the Fall, called ice fishing ’the moronic sport’. But even if it can be slightly monotonous to stare down a hole in the ice with cold toes, that statement might be a tad unfair. When a large arctic char bites it’s even exciting! And in Swedish Lapland it’s not uncommon that we build ourselves a little house – an ark – to sit in when we’re out ice fishing.
19. ICE roads
The last time Sweden was in a war, in 1809, the Russians walked across the Bothnian Bay. Using frozen water – lakes, rivers or even the sea – is a common way of finding the fastest road. In many places inhabitants help making the ice (read: the road) thicker by pumping up water on top of the ice, which then freezes. Because it’s a lot colder on top of the ice than underneath. One familiar ice road is the one in Avan, along the road between Boden and Luelå, or in Rödupp west of Överkalix. It’s quite amazing to be able to take the car out to Hindersön in winter to have waffles at Jopikgården. The photo above shows an ice road in Saxnäs, near Sorsele, across the biosphere reserve Vindelälven.
20. ICE church
Since the first Ice Hotel – the one called ARTic hall – was built in Jukkasjärvi weddings and services have been part of the experience. The most unique thing about getting married in a church made of ice is of course the fact that it never looks the same. Ice is a living, perishable material. Like they say: ice churches come and go, but love goes on. www.icehotel.se
21. ICE blue
Blue, blue eyes. There are few things as icy blue as the eyes of a beautiful Husky in the middle of winter. It’s bewitching. You go on a dog sled tour through the mountains. And your leader-dog Spike has the most magical, intense eyes you’ve ever seen. You can’t stop thinking about them when you get back home. You decide to go back.
