We are finally thawed out after being frozen for 6 days. After we got a glimpse of what freezing feels like in Stockholm, we traveled 2 hours straight north by plane to land 100 miles north of the Arctic circle. There is a city there called Kiruna which consists of about 24,000 people - so we weren’t completely alone - and boy was it cold.
When we were on our approach, the pilot gave his normal speech about the current temperature on the ground. He leisurely said it was -11°F (-24°C). We figured he must be mistaken. The 30-second walk outside from the plane to the terminal proved him correct. We looked at the sun (which was on the horizon when it was 2pm) and we could see minuscule ice crystals blowing around. Turns out that the humidity in the air crystallizes at that temperature.
A nice warm bus took us to the Ice Hotel and we were given a tour of it. All of the walls are made of ice and snow and the entire hotel is at a constant 23°F (-5°C) which is actually quite warm compared to the outside temperature. You can tour around to the different rooms during the daytime and some are quite spectacular. They are all done by professional designers and have themes with some having quite complicated designs.
The Absolut Ice Bar was one of the most interesting aspects. Of course, the entire bar is made of ice, and there are only about 10 drinks on the menu… all consisting of some flavor of Absolut. They serve the drinks in a glass made of ice which is really quite cool (sorry for the pun!).
So we did our deed and slept 1 night in the Ice Hotel. It wasn’t as bad as you would think though. They gave us a double sleeping bag which kept us very toasty, and we both got some sort of rest that night. We were real happy to move into the warm room after that though, and enjoy a nice warm shower.
The best part about the Ice Hotel is actually not the Ice Hotel at all — it’s the events that you can sign up for. We did dog sledding, ice sculpting, reindeer watching, and snowmobiling.
Dog sledding was, by far, the best event. You get to pick a team of 4 Alaskan Huskies, harness them to your sled, and attempt to control them as they drag the sled (and hopefully you!) along wherever they feel like going. 
No joke, these dogs are insane. The guide explained how to brake:
“The main way to slow down is this rubber pad which pulls up snow to stop. Then, if that doesn’t work, there’s another metal bar you can step on which shoots two metal rods into the snow to stop you. If all else fails, there is a huge metal anchor you can throw out that will definitely stop you. We call that the emergency brake.”
My reaction: “So I guess they don’t understand the simple ‘Whoa’”. The dogs will not stop running and pulling even when you are under heavy braking. They bark relentlessly when you’re stopped because they are not happy unless they’re running. The ride was awesome though… aside from the fact that I fell off the sled on the first turn and had to run after the dogs for about 10 minutes… and the second time I almost fell off playing with one of the brakes and made had to make a heroic recovery.
The second best event was the ice sculpting. Turns out carving ice is much easier than you would think. All it takes is a really sharp chisel (sharp enough to cut straight through all 4 layers of your glove) and about an hour. While Stacey was much better at making smooth surfaces, I like to think my creation was much cooler (sorry again). Interestingly enough, you can leave these ice creations outside and they will stay frozen until… April?
The snowmobiling was a completely different story. It was supposed to be a Northern Lights tour but that was the last thing on our minds. The first day we arrived at the hotel, the temperature dropped to -36°F (-38°C) at night. That is considered very cold in this region where the lowest it will get is -40°F (-40°C). Stacey pulled her glove off once and her hand went completely numb within a minute. So numb she could hardly get her glove back on because there was absolutely no feeling: “It was like my hand was dead.”
This was, unfortunately, the same night that we scheduled the snowmobiling. According to our guide, since it was already so cold outside, the wind chill factor while riding the snowmobile is -87°F (-66°C). That’s not a typo. We tried to prepare. We each wore…
- Boots
- Socks (3 pairs)
- Long underwear - bottoms (3 layers)
- Pants/jeans
- Long underwear - tops (2 layers)
- Sweater
- Fleece jacket
- Outer suit (pants and jacket)
- Gloves
- Mittens
- Balaclava (head warmer)
- Gator (neck warmer)
- Hat
- Helmet with face guard
Needless to say, it took us an hour to suit up and we could hardly move with everything on. Even with all of these layers on though, we still suffered on the snowmobile; no amount of clothes can stop that kind of cold. Stacey got frostbite on her forehead, both of our hands and feet were numb within a couple minutes, and my eyes stuck shut a couple times from the ice on my eyelashes. It was colder than you can ever imagine. Sadly, we did not see many Northern Lights that night but we did manage to catch some really good pictures another night right outside the hotel.
We were enjoying a nice meal at one of the two restaurants in town and one of the waitresses whispers to someone, “There are Northern Lights outside if you want to go see”. In about 1.5 seconds the entire restaurant of 50 people was empty. The lights were incredible that night and continued on for awhile allowing us to get some great pictures. While it did not fully show on the pictures, the lights turned from their most common form of green to their rarest of purple and almost to a to cream color. They moved around the sky and danced right in front of us; it was spectacular.
Speaking of food though… the food on the trip was awesome. At every activity we were served hot lingonberry juice and some great home-cooked food. One of the great (ironic) meals was the one during the event where we watched and played with reindeer, we were served… reindeer. Actually we made wild animal the choice of food while on the trip (sorry Les!). We ate elk, moose, and many different variations of reindeer including sweetbreads. I’ll leave you to figure out what that is (hint: it has nothing to do with bread).
Another interesting tidbit about the trip was that I gave an older woman the heimlich maneuver and saved her from choking. I guess all of those years in the scouts finally paid off. Ironically, she was an administrator with Girl Scouts. Now I just need to find someone to give CPR to and I’ll really have made it worthwhile.
It was an incredible trip though, one of our best. While it cost more than our honeymoon and took less than half the time, it was well worth it. We would both do it again if we had the chance but we’re also very happy it’s finally over and we can rest for a week before Helsinki and then the Swiss Alps…
Of course, make sure to check out the amazing pictures: http://www.joeyeager.com/main.php?g2_itemId=38013
