Midway Ice Castles: An international sucess

Only nine years after its grand opening in 2009 in Midway, Utah, Ice Castles has opened in Edmonton, Alberta.

The Canadian site has become their busiest one yet and has inspired owners to add more locations in Canada next winter.

“The most rewarding thing is seeing people's first reactions as they walk through”, said CEO Ryan Davis.

In years past, warm temperature spikes have made maintenance extremely difficult. However, this year’s low temperatures and heavy snowfall have provided an excellent environment for the ice castles in the states and in Canada, contributing to the castle's sucess. Workers continually harbor icicles and add them to the ice structures. Eventually the icicles morph into a solid ice and new icicles are added to the exterior to maintain structure and support.

At each site workers are trained every year. "Its hard because over half of our employees are new each year so we literally have to train and teach them everything," Davis said. "But even in Alberta everything seems to work out ok once everyone is trained and understands what exactly their responsibilities are."

All employees are trained the same despite the different geographical challenges of each location. Each location is also very unique in design as well.

“Each year we come up with a new design for the castles,” said Davis.

“They’re so magical,” said Nicole Hill, after watching her 4-year-old daughter’s reaction to the Ice Castles in Midway. “It’s amazing that someone can create something so beautiful with just ice,” said Hill.

Ice Castles plans to announce new locations next fall as they plan for the next winter's castles.