N.H.’s North Woodstock. In New Hampshire and a number of other states, a yearly architectural celebration of ice has resumed.
Thousands of icicles are grown, harvested, and arranged before being blasted with sprinklers to construct the towers, tunnels, archways, and caverns that make up Ice Castles, which are both temporary art pieces and tourist attractions.
Since the displays were first installed in 2011, the firm that makes them has grown. It operates this year in Utah, Minnesota, and two locations in Colorado and New Hampshire, where there is an ice bar and a snow tubing hill. Officials were ecstatic that the temperatures were chilly enough to open sooner this season after a mild winter the previous year.
The company’s vice president for operations, Jared Henningsen, described it as one of the largest ice castles they have ever constructed. Over two acres, we’re looking at roughly 25 million pounds of ice.
Visitors to the New Hampshire castle dressed up to explore its many nooks and crannies on Friday as a winter storm delivered wet, freezing snow to the South.