Original subtitles

♪

Narrator: Deep inside the arctic circle...

Yeah. No, no, no.

...This team of elite engineers

Is embarking on an epic endeavor.

Yeah, it's a challenge.

Let's go.

Narrator: They're attempting to build a unique structure --

One of the largest snow and ice hotels in the world.

Tjasa: We work so hard.

My arms are aching.

There's no instruction manual for how to build an ice hotel.

Ooh! Aha!

Narrator: Constructed from more than 15,000 tons

Of snow and ice,

Spanning over 26,000 square feet,

They are pushing to complete this ambitious build

In an unheard-of six weeks.

Roncoroni: The rooms are booked.

No matter when we start,

We know that we have to be done by that day.

Narrator: To construct this colossus,

The team must battle extreme cold...

The temperature now is 20 below.

Narrator: ...Failing equipment...

Something is broken.

(indistinct conversation)

Narrator: ...And long, dark nights.

Oh.

There's a hole in the roof.

♪

This remarkable structure ranks

In a league of ambitious new engineering wonders

That are bigger, faster, taller,

And more advanced than anything ever constructed before.

This is the inside story of the extraordinary challenge

Of building these giants.

-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by discovery communications

♪

Northern sweden -- 120 miles inside the arctic circle.

♪

Here, on the banks of the mighty torne river,

Lies the small, snowy outpost of jukkasjarvi.

During the winter,

Temperatures plummet to minus-20 degrees fahrenheit.

♪

Despite the extreme conditions,

A team of engineers is assembling here

To build an extraordinary megastructure --

A remarkable hotel made entirely from ice

That will enable travelers from across the world

To experience the harsh beauty of the arctic winter.

You can get a bit obsessed by the ice.

Narrator: Creative director arne bergh wants a night here

To be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

♪

The special things we have here with the nature of the ice

And the snow -- that's what I like.

The light and the darkness and the northern lights.

♪

Narrator: Arne and his team plan to design

And build a brand-new luxury winter retreat like no other.

Bergh: This is a hotel, but it's much more.

All your senses are involved.

When you enter the building, it's the smell of winter.

It's an experience hotel.

You go there for the adventure.

♪

Narrator: The idea for the ice hotel

Was conceived accidentally back in 1990,

When an exhibition inside an igloo

Attracted a surprisingly large crowd to jukkasjarvi.

Bergh: One night, there was people who had nowhere to sleep,

So we fixed them sleeping bags and animal skins on the floor

And they slept there.

And one guy was coming out in the morning,

He had slept great,

And said this was like sleeping in a hotel,

And that's how the idea was born.

Narrator: This year, arne aims to construct the boldest

And most ambitious ice hotel ever conceived.

I want to say this year, this is the best ice hotel ever

Because I know that's the challenge and the inspiration.

♪

Narrator: This is the icy giant

Arne and his team must somehow build.

20 interlocking arches of snow and ice up to 16 feet high

Make up the hotel's walls and roof.

♪

Inside, an intricately carved reception hall

Supported by columns of solid ice

And elegantly lit by three 175-pound ice chandeliers.

♪

At the far end, a fully functional chapel

All set for winter weddings.

♪

Five smaller corridors lead

To 35 individually designed guest suites,

Each with its very own ice-block bed.

In total, the team will use over 15,000 tons of snow and ice

To build this masterpiece of ice engineering.

♪

Constructing this giant in the depths

Of a brutal arctic winter won't be easy.

♪

Building the ice hotel

Involves a series of unique engineering challenges.

First, arne's team must extract hundreds of blocks of river ice,

Each weighing two tons, and store them in

A temperature-controlled warehouse.

♪

Next, they'll pump river water through snow cannons

To create over 700,000 cubic feet

Of a dense artificial snow called snice.

Workers then blast this snice onto special steel molds

To form the hotel's walls and roof.

They reinforce the largest arches with columns

And walls of the pure river ice.

Once the main structure is in place,

Workers use more ice to hand-carve each individual suite

And install custom-made lighting

To make this palace of ice truly shine.

♪

It's never too early to get ready for the big winter build,

With preparations starting in March.

Enmalm: The project starts now in the spring,

'cause that's when the ice at the thickest it can be.

♪

Narrator: After a long winter,

The ice on the nearby torne river

Is now over 30 inches thick and perfect for building with.

♪

Enmalm: This is where it's the thickest,

So this is where we're going to start.

Narrator: They need to harvest an astonishing 2,000 tons

Of the purest ice blocks for the build.

♪

So, how do you hack ice out of a frozen river without falling in?

♪

This is the plan.

First, they drive a tractor with a specially mounted chainsaw

Out onto the frozen river.

♪

(chainsaw revving)

Next, they plunge the chainsaw through the ice,

Cutting a neat grid, freeing the floating ice blocks.

♪

A second tractor lifts ice from the river block by block,

And two forklifts carry them back to land.

But this operation is risky.

If the ice is too thin or they cut too much,

They could all end up in the lethal fast-moving water

Beneath the ice.

♪

Henrik spett is one of the team members tasked

With extracting the frozen river blocks.

Quiet before the storm.

Yeah. Yeah.

It'll pick up around 2,000 tons, so that's quite a lot of ice.

♪

Narrator: Ten tons of heavy machinery

Ventures out onto the ice.

♪

This is precarious work.

When the tractor drives around,

You can feel sometimes that it breaks the ice a bit.

♪

Narrator: The chainsaw's razor-sharp teeth spin

At over 5,000 feet per minute.

♪

It slices through the ice like a hot knife through butter.

♪

Henrik must gently guide the powerful saw

Without ruining the precious crop.

♪

Now they must fish the slippery two-ton blocks out of the water.

First, they flip out smaller chunks of ice to make a hole.

Then they submerge

This specially designed hook to scoop up the blocks.

♪

One wrong move and the team could be taking an ice bath.

Enmalm: Everyone knows the excite part.

No one does anything else.

♪

First block -- up.

♪

Narrator: One block down, 999 to go.

This is a monumental mission.

♪

Spett: The weathers can change pretty fast,

Even though it's still March.

Narrator: Just as they make the next cuts,

Suddenly, air temperatures plunge

To minus-20 degrees fahrenheit.

(indistinct conversation)

In such extreme cold, the fragile ice is vulnerable

Once they pull it from the river.

♪

It can become unstable.

Bergh: If it's too cold, there is tension.

It's cracking on the surface

Because it's warmer inside the ice than the air outside.

♪

Narrator: As the ice rises up from the 32-degree water

Into the even colder minus-20-degree air,

The sudden change in temperature can cause the ice

To contract so quickly, it could explode.

Enmalm: Just a few seconds, and a temperature change

Between zero degrees and to minus-30, so it's a risk.

Narrator: A risk this brave team can't afford.

♪

♪

Narrator: In northern sweden, workers are attempting

To harvest over 1,000 two-ton blocks of ice

From the torne river...

To build one of the world's biggest ice hotels...

But air temperatures of minus-20 degrees fahrenheit

Threaten to cause the ice blocks to explode

As they haul them out of the water.

♪

Spett: We have to make sure

That the ice blocks that we take up --

Everything that we can use so nothing goes to waste.

♪

Narrator: They wait several hours

For the temperature to rise.

♪

Temperature has risen a bit now from minus-30 to minus-18.

♪

Narrator: They race to harvest as many blocks as they can.

Over the next two weeks,

They fill the warehouse with 2,000 tons of ice.

♪

But now the team must wait eight months

Until the arctic winter begins to bite

To start work on the construction

Of the hotel itself.

♪

The brief summer comes and goes.

♪

It's now November.

♪

It's finally cold enough for the team to start work.

♪

There are less than five weeks to go

Until the icehotel is scheduled to open on December 14th.

With all the rooms fully booked, arne's team is under pressure.

Oh, I can feel it. It's, like, quite stressful.

♪

Narrator: Their first construction challenge

Is to create thousands of tons of a dense snow they call snice

To build the hotel's outer shell.

♪

To make snice, they manually adjust the pressure

Of four powerful snow cannons to produce a material

Up to six times denser than natural fallen snow.

♪

Construction leader jocke enmalm is responsible for building

The hotel's outer structure.

♪

It's perfect.

It's the composition of the snow.

It's a little, little bit thick,

But it's still very dry, and that's what we want.

♪

Narrator: But just how do they make a rock-solid structure

Out of soft snow?

♪

First, the team must carefully position

Custom-made steel molds,

Locking them together to create a series of arch tunnels.

Large molds make up the main hall,

Small molds make up the corridors,

And finally, midsize molds form the guest rooms.

Next, workers use a powerful snow blower

To spray the special snice mixture

On top of the molds to form layers over three feet thick.

♪

Overnight, the freezing arctic temperatures

Should cure and harden the icy shell.

♪

The next day, workers slide the molds out,

Leaving an incredibly strong thick-walled structure behind.

The team must repeat this process

Until the entire hotel's outer shell is complete.

♪

Man: Let's go, yep.

Narrator: The team races to set the first molds.

The molds are shaped in the form of a structural arch.

Just like an arch made of stone, its shape distributes weight

Out to the sides, making it incredibly strong.

A little bit more on the left side.

They haul in two-ton ice blocks to form solid doorways

Between the guest rooms and corridors.

Finally, they secure steel plates

To form a barrier around the molds.

As night falls,

It's time for jocke's team to bring out the big gun...

♪

...Their 25-ton, 700-horsepower snowblower tractor.

♪

The monstrous machine uses spiraled metal blades

To churn up the snice...

♪

...Blasting it up through an articulating chute

And onto the steel molds.

♪

♪

Workers on top of the slippery arches

Face the most dangerous challenge --

They must spread the snice to an even thickness by hand.

There's even a risk that the powerful snowblower could shoot

More than just snow at them.

♪

It takes two hours to complete the first casting session.

♪

The team must leave the casting to harden

In the cold winter air,

But with only 29 days left until the grand opening,

Mother nature can be a fickle partner.

Oh.

There's a hole in the roof.

A big hole.

♪

♪

Narrator: In arctic sweden, a team of engineers is racing

To build a giant ice hotel.

Having left the soft snow arches to harden overnight,

The workers are ready to remove the first steel molds.

♪

They hook a chain to the molds...

And gear up to pull them free.

It's vital that the workers stay underneath the frame

As they pull it out.

A collapsing roof could be lethal.

Man: Yeah.

♪

With the first row of molds out, jocke ventures inside

To check whether the new snice walls have set firm.

The first tunnel gets the all-clear.

They move on to the next row.

♪

Just as they pull out the first mold,

They discover a major problem.

A section of the archway has broken loose, leaving a hole.

It hasn't set properly.

With just 26 days until the hotel is due to open,

The arch must freeze solid before they can attempt a fix.

♪

The following day, temperatures continue to rise above freezing.

It's now too warm to make more snice

For the hotel's outer shell.

Work onsite grinds to a halt.

♪

It's an unprecedented problem for arne.

Bergh: We're looking at the weather prediction every day.

We need below-zero temperature.

So, this is our challenge --

To have everything there by the 14th of December,

We have to have a shining ice hotel

For our guests arriving.

♪

Narrator: It takes five days,

But finally, the temperature drops back down to freezing

And work on the build can resume.

The colder it gets, the happier we are.

(laughs)

Narrator: They quickly repair the hole in the roof,

But arne's team is now 12 days behind schedule.

♪

To make up for lost time,

They must now work around the clock

To get the build of the hotel's outer shell back on track.

♪

With each casting, the hotel grows bigger.

♪

But jocke's team can't leave the taller 16-foot-high tunnels

Of the main hall unsupported for long.

♪

Enmalm: The main hall is the biggest part of the hotel,

The biggest room.

There's a lot of weight in the ceiling.

♪

Narrator: Over the course of the winter,

The roof can drop dramatically.

♪

It's all down to the nature of the building material.

♪

The snice that makes up the arches contains

Millions of tiny pockets of air.

♪

In the larger arches, the sheer weight of material

Will gradually force this air out.

♪

Over time, this makes the bigger arches contract

And the ceilings sink dangerously.

To counteract this,

The team will stack blocks of the strongest ice,

Harvested from the river nine months earlier,

To form 14 columns that reinforce the ceiling.

♪

Huge ice walls at either end will provide extra support

And also protect the hotel's guests

From the harsh winter outside.

♪

Without a moment to lose, jocke and his team

Level the ground to build the first ice columns.

They are trying to put up the columns

As quickly as possible.

Narrator: They set a massive seven-foot-tall ice block

At the base of each column.

It alone weighs over 700 pounds.

You must be careful when you handle that.

Narrator: They use a special hydraulic pusher

To stack smaller 110-pound blocks of ice on top.

It delicately passes the heavy ice to the workers.

♪

It's crucial they keep the pillars level

As they build them higher or they could become unstable.

Enmalm: Everything needs to be perfectly aligned.

Need to be straight.

If we had a bend in the structure

And the roof forces it down,

Then it might swing out to the side.

♪

Narrator: With guests arriving in three weeks' time,

A deadly toppling tower of ice isn't an option.

♪

♪

Narrator: Deep in the arctic circle...

The team building this giant ice hotel

Is in a race to support its sinking ceiling

With pillars of ice.

♪

As the teams stack the blocks, they pour on cups of cold water.

♪

The water freezes quickly in the arctic temperatures

To act as a glue.

♪

The higher the pillars get,

The closer the tractor pusher comes to the delicate ceiling.

The second set of pillars rise up.

♪

But just as they near the top,

They hit an unforeseen challenge.

♪

The cold weather causes the hydraulic pusher to seize.

They have no option but to carefully haul

Each 110-pound block off the shovel

And into place by hand.

They saw one ice block to form a wedge

To place on top of the column,

Squeezing it in tightly to support the ceiling.

Enmalm: It freezes almost instantly,

And it's basically one big block again.

♪

It takes the crew over a week

To finish the columns and huge ice walls.

♪

The hotel's ceiling should now stand securely

Through the winter season.

♪

It's now December.

♪

The ice hotel is due to open its doors to paying guests

In just two weeks' time.

Work on the hotel's outer shell is almost complete.

♪

Now it rests on the shoulders

Of an international group of artists

And designers to build each of the hotel's unique guest rooms

And handcraft the public areas.

♪

Luca roncoroni leads this team.

Always use helmet and high-visibility vest.

Keep a good clearance from the -- from the machines.

I'm responsible for the team, so I make sure

They have everything they need to build the rooms.

Narrator: He must make sure that all 33 ice designers

Complete their mission by December 14th

And not a day later.

Roncoroni: The rooms are booked.

We know that there's gonna be guests

Coming from all over the world, so no matter when we start,

We know that we have to be done by that day.

♪

Narrator: But just how will they transform

These hardened icy archways into a beautiful boutique hotel?

♪

To build the intricate sculpted interiors,

First luca's team must carefully transport tons of snow

And ice to each suite...

Then seal it inside with a final wall of snice.

♪

Next, using a mixture of hand tools and power tools,

The designers carve intricate patterns

And shape stunning sculptures

From the crystal-clear river ice.

♪

Finally, in the main hall and chapel,

Elite teams of artisans will turn several tons of ice

Into towering shapes and statues to transform this cold,

Empty space into a winter wonderland.

♪

12 days until opening.

♪

A number of rooms are ready

For the first ice designers to craft their suites.

♪

In the production hall, luca is under pressure

To deliver the pre-cut blocks of ice for each team.

♪

If you take an average of 12 tons of ice per suite,

It's a huge amount of material going in.

Bergh: Luca is fantastic.

Almost all the time, he's awake, he's on the site,

And he's, like, really supporting everyone

And seeing that everything is working.

We need 26 and 20.

Narrator: Now with so many people and machines onsite,

Everybody needs to stay extra alert.

Roncoroni: We have, like, big machinery. We have snow cannons going on.

So, yeah, like, sound and light coming in different direction.

We all need to be aware of what everybody else is doing

So that we don't get in the way of each other

And that we avoid potentially dangerous situation.

Narrator: But some of the challenges

Aren't so easy to prepare for.

I'm working with my mother. (chuckles)

♪

♪

Narrator: At the jukkasjarvi icehotel,

Building each unique suite

Within a two-week time span is a major engineering feat.

♪

The challenge and the exciting thing about the icehotel

Is that the rooms are so different,

And every single room

Requires a different set of techniques and skills.

So we're doing anything from building to digging

Or building snow with ice.

Narrator: Swedish team tjasa and sam

Are working hard to build their suite.

♪

It's called "wisdom of oak"

And will feature two large trees made from ice.

I'm working with my son.

(laughs)

This is our first project together,

But I also forced him

To work a whole christmas once when he was 11.

I'm working with my mother. (chuckles)

I'm a carpenter, so it's a big difference with this.

You don't really know what's gonna work.

Narrator: It takes three days to create the first ice tree.

♪

But now tjasa and sam face a complex challenge.

The branches of the second tree, weighing over 700 pounds apiece,

Must hang over where the guests will sleep.

The key challenge is to support this big branches.

Tjasa: The guests should sleep safely here...

[chuckles] during the night.

You have to make sure that there's no branches

Falling down on the guests.

♪

Narrator: Sam plans to hide wooden joists out of sight

To hold up the branches.

It's the only way to make them safe.

First, our idea was to just use ice,

But we -- it was impossible.

Narrator: With the supports in the wall,

They can install the heavy branches.

So, here, we have a shelf already made for the ice

And a shelf over here made for the ice.

I think this will be a working solution.

♪

Narrator: They use a special manual lifting platform

To hoist the first branch up.

So, maybe a little bit too high.

I think a little bit more down.

♪

That's...

You can see the problem.

We're not even on the edge yet.

It's a thing over there.

♪

Yeah.

It's looking good.

Narrator: The first branch slots into position.

Now for the second.

One, two, three.

It doesn't fit.

But the good thing about ice is you can chisel it down to size.

Yes.

Perfect.

Both ice branches may be in place,

But there's still a huge amount of work to do.

I think the two-week limit is a little bit like, okay,

It's got to be done,

And for many people, it will be very little time.

♪

Narrator: As work continues in the suites...

Intricate sculptures

Begin to take shape in the main hall and chapel.

♪

As the race to finish the hotel enters its final stages,

The build team faces a new challenge --

All of the stunning suites and sculptures

Will be for nothing if they're not lit up.

Lighting is definitely the make-or-break deal.

It's very important.

If you just have ice standing,

It will look gray or transparent.

It will look very dull,

But using a little bit of light, it will look magical.

♪

Narrator: In charge of illuminating the ice

Is chief electrician

And lighting designer olaf lange.

♪

Olaf and his team have just a few days to wire

And light 35 rooms.

♪

Remember, that's where the magic happens.

Narrator: The pressure is on.

♪

♪

Narrator: Deep in the arctic circle...

One of the world's biggest ice hotels

Is scheduled to open in just a few days' time.

I work 15 to 17 hours a day, and it's hard work.

It's really a demanding last few days.

♪

Narrator: While teams race to complete

The exquisite interior rooms...

(speaking swedish)

Narrator: ...Olaf lange's crew is under pressure to wire

And light them up,

A job that would traditionally take several weeks.

The idea is that you would have the guests

Coming into each suite and just [gasps]

Basically dropping their jaw.

(chuckles) then we've done our job good.

♪

Narrator: This is how they'll do it.

♪

They wire up nine power outlets

Buried around the hotel's perimeter.

♪

Next, they'll punch specially shielded high-voltage cables

Through the thick ice walls...

Connect them to 15 junction boxes...

Then branch upwards to reach the ice hotel's roof.

Here, they'll rig a complex electrified grid,

Feeding all 35 guest rooms

And the hotel's main hall and chapel with wires

To power hundreds of individual l.E.D.S.

Finally, they'll hoist four giant ice chandeliers,

Each weighing 175 pounds,

And hang them from the fragile snow-and-ice ceiling --

An entire hotel wired and lit in just seven days.

♪

As olaf drives the cables through the hotel's walls

And roof from the outside...

♪

...Inside, electricians install hundreds of individual l.E.D.S.

♪

These shine through sculptures and icy lampshades.

They carefully conceal each wire in the walls with snice.

♪

(laughs)

Now olaf faces his greatest challenge.

He must mount the most important lights of all --

The 175-pound ice chandeliers.

There must be a chandelier in the icehotel.

Otherwise, it's not the icehotel.

♪

Narrator: Olaf must erect a special winch up on the roof.

Lange: This is the winch to raise and hang the chandelier.

So, we use it to lift it from the pillow

And then another lock to keep it in place.

Narrator: These support boards will help spread

The 220-pound weight of the winch and chandelier.

Time feels very much longer when you're up here in the cold

Waiting for something to happen.

Narrator: Finally, the moment of truth.

Now we raise it up.

♪

It's hanging. It's shining.

It'd never feel quite finished

Unless we have the chandelier in place.

♪

Narrator: With the clock counting down to opening...

Crews battle to finish the hotel.

♪

Yeah, it's so many that need their stuff now in the rooms.

In the suites, giant sculptures emerge from the ice.

There is definitely a buzz in the air.

♪

So, now it's just a few hours left to the guests will arrive

To see the whole creation.

You work so hard.

My arms are aching. (chuckles)

♪

Narrator: Workers race to clear corridors...

And put the finishing touches to the ice beds.

♪

It's taken more than 4,000 hours of intricate labor

And ingenious sub-zero engineering...

♪

...But one of the world's largest snow-and-ice hotels

Is finally complete.

♪

For mother-and-son design team tjasa and sam,

Completing their suite is a huge relief.

I hope that the guests will enjoy it.

Tjasa: I'm super proud and also grateful

That we were able to do this room together.

♪

Narrator: Their suite is one of 35 unique guest rooms

Carefully crafted

From over 120,000 gallons of frozen water,

Providing guests with a one-of-a-kind experience

That they'll never forget.

♪

So, we want to welcome you all to see the icehotel.

Thank you very much. Welcome.

(cheers and applause)

♪

It's a relief and a great moment.

I think we have the best team ever.

Narrator: Guests from around the world

Will now enjoy a spectacular arctic escape all winter long.

Bergh: I'd like our guests to, you know,

Experience the contrast of staying in the icehotel,

Staying in minus-five,

Being out on an adventure with snowmobiles,

And then going by a fire.

That's what I like, and I hope that everyone else does.

♪