Flin Flon opens the doors to new snow lodge

Flin Flon’s coolest new attraction has opened its doors.

The Flin Flon snow lodge kicked off its inaugural season with an opening ceremony on Friday, bringing in local dignitaries and leaders from the northern Manitoba city to see the project for the first time.

The lodge, centred on a building made almost entirely of harvested snow and ice, can fit several dozen people inside.

Final touches on the project were still happening early Friday afternoon.

Volunteers split ice blocks to help build a stage for local musicians, while others used propane torches on the ice brick windows. The heat, they say, burns impurities out of the ice and allows it to freeze almost as clear as glass.

The long-term goal of the project, organizers say, is to create a Canadian version of the famed IceHotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden — a 50-plus room hotel built near a remote town each winter using snow and ice from a nearby river, that attracts visitors from all over the world.

A large team of local volunteers began work in December, harvesting snow and using bricks of ice cut from a nearby pond and following a blueprint laid out by Winnipeg-based architect Peter Hargraves, one of the project’s lead planners.

Hargraves worked on the Swedish ice hotel project and helped start the annual warming hut design contest for the Nestaweya River Trail in Winnipeg.

“I can’t say enough about how proud I am to be a Manitoban, and towns like Flin Flon make a big difference in the whole cultural matrix of our province. I’m happy to be here,” he said.

The main lodge building can be booked out for events and lead organizer Crystal Kolt says there are already takers. Art exhibits, dinners, concerts and other events are slated to happen there throughout the winter. A wedding is set to take place at the lodge next month.

“It’s a part of our world now,” Kolt said.

The main building features art along its interior walls carved out of ice and snow by local artists. Doug Dmytriw, one of the artists involved, included ice sculptures dedicated to the firefighters who saved the community from total annihilation last summer.

“It’s a good community to be part of. It really is, especially when they start doing stuff like this. This could go on forever with any luck and I’m sure it will,” he said.

Outside the lodge is a small stage made of ice with a wooden floor, along with a tent where visitors can warm up on cold days.

Trails have been set up nearby and the same pond that the ice bricks came from has refrozen. It features game areas, a small skating trail and even a “bunk” — the local term for an outdoor hockey rink. A teepee has been built near the pond, where First Nations teachings will be showcased throughout the winter.

“We’re really excited, really proud, really humbled and I cannot wait for our community to see it,” Kolt said.

“We hope that this is going to just be a celebration of winter and then hopefully this is one of many years to come — but for now, we did it.”

For the locals, the snow lodge project is both a new winter attraction and a proof of concept — the planners want to continue to put up the lodge each winter, expanding it further and further every year to potentially become Canada’s answer to the Swedish Icehotel.

On one side of the lodge is a small bedroom, which is part of the proof of concept — the builders want to show that the lodge is comfortable enough to stay in.

Hargraves said he feels the project has what it takes to get there in time.

“There’s already a set of ideas for how we could do it again next year faster, more efficiently.  There’s no question in my mind that this is a sustainable venture and that it’ll happen again. Next year, it’ll be bigger and there will be more rooms,” he said. 

“We just wanted to do it once and get it done. It’s been done and now it’s a matter of just growing it to where we want it to be in the future.”

Flin Flon’s coolest new attraction has opened its doors.

The Flin Flon snow lodge kicked off its inaugural season with an opening ceremony on Friday, bringing in local dignitaries and leaders from the northern Manitoba city to see the project for the first time.

The lodge, centred on a building made almost entirely of harvested snow and ice, can fit several dozen people inside.

Final touches on the project were still happening early Friday afternoon.

Volunteers split ice blocks to help build a stage for local musicians, while others used propane torches on the ice brick windows. The heat, they say, burns impurities out of the ice and allows it to freeze almost as clear as glass.

The long-term goal of the project, organizers say, is to create a Canadian version of the famed IceHotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden — a 50-plus room hotel built near a remote town each winter using snow and ice from a nearby river, that attracts visitors from all over the world.

A large team of local volunteers began work in December, harvesting snow and using bricks of ice cut from a nearby pond and following a blueprint laid out by Winnipeg-based architect Peter Hargraves, one of the project’s lead planners.

Hargraves worked on the Swedish ice hotel project and helped start the annual warming hut design contest for the Nestaweya River Trail in Winnipeg.

“I can’t say enough about how proud I am to be a Manitoban, and towns like Flin Flon make a big difference in the whole cultural matrix of our province. I’m happy to be here,” he said.

The main lodge building can be booked out for events and lead organizer Crystal Kolt says there are already takers. Art exhibits, dinners, concerts and other events are slated to happen there throughout the winter. A wedding is set to take place at the lodge next month.

“It’s a part of our world now,” Kolt said.

The main building features art along its interior walls carved out of ice and snow by local artists. Doug Dmytriw, one of the artists involved, included ice sculptures dedicated to the firefighters who saved the community from total annihilation last summer.

“It’s a good community to be part of. It really is, especially when they start doing stuff like this. This could go on forever with any luck and I’m sure it will,” he said.

Outside the lodge is a small stage made of ice with a wooden floor, along with a tent where visitors can warm up on cold days.

Trails have been set up nearby and the same pond that the ice bricks came from has refrozen. It features game areas, a small skating trail and even a “bunk” — the local term for an outdoor hockey rink. A teepee has been built near the pond, where First Nations teachings will be showcased throughout the winter.

“We’re really excited, really proud, really humbled and I cannot wait for our community to see it,” Kolt said.

“We hope that this is going to just be a celebration of winter and then hopefully this is one of many years to come — but for now, we did it.”

For the locals, the snow lodge project is both a new winter attraction and a proof of concept — the planners want to continue to put up the lodge each winter, expanding it further and further every year to potentially become Canada’s answer to the Swedish Icehotel.

On one side of the lodge is a small bedroom, which is part of the proof of concept — the builders want to show that the lodge is comfortable enough to stay in.

Hargraves said he feels the project has what it takes to get there in time.

“There’s already a set of ideas for how we could do it again next year faster, more efficiently.  There’s no question in my mind that this is a sustainable venture and that it’ll happen again. Next year, it’ll be bigger and there will be more rooms,” he said. 

“We just wanted to do it once and get it done. It’s been done and now it’s a matter of just growing it to where we want it to be in the future.”