One Way to Save on Heat

First, I am SO SORRY for the delay sharing pictures. Not that we had an incredible amount of downtime, but I discovered we didn't have a cable or computer that would allow us to share them.

So, here are a few of my favourites. I'll be sure to share more when I get caught up.

Below is the Hotel de Glace. It's built every winter at a cost of approximately $600,000. Built entirely from ice and snow, it is packed and formed in molds, which are then removed. The hotel is operational for January-March, has 30 rooms and is in its 10th season. Approximately 4000 people stay overnight and 80,000+ visit in a season. In addition to the rooms, there is a bar, cafe, chapel and 'spa' area, which contains washrooms, hot tubs and a sauna for overnight guests.

Here is a shot of the Cafe de Glace. Each year, the hotel is designed with a different theme. This year's masterpiece honoured the Nordic people, so many of the rooms and design reflected this. I'm not sure if apples are nordic, but the cafe had booths carved into the wall in an apple shape, apples encased in ice in the bar and pillars, and an apple tree on the back wall.

Below is the chandelier in the main entrance and hall. There is a slide at the end of the hall, sponsored by North Face. The man on the back wall is just a mannequin. They don't allow you to 'wall climb' the ice walls.

Drumroll please... this was our suite. #11 - The Vortex. Every suite had a different theme. We thought ours was a little lame.. as you'll see some a more extravagent rooms below. The base of the bed is a block of ice, with a sheet of plywood on top and a mattress on top of the plywood. The mattress was very comfortable and with our sleeping bags, we slept as snug as two bugs in a rug.

This was one of my favourites suites - The Eclipse. Christmas lights behind the wall carvings lit the room like a night's sky, complete with stars.

Finally, I couldn't post these without a dogsledding shot. Here is our team pulling us across the snowladen, northern Quebec landscape. Just beautiful!