Ice District’s fan park is now host to a larger-than-life ice castle that organizers hope will stick around until February. Ice Castles is the company that’s been building ice castles in five locations across Canada and the U.S. for 15 years. Organizers opened their Edmonton attraction, featuring ice caverns, slides, tunnels and archways on Saturday. “Ice Castles is basically a venue we create so that people can escape the regular world and come to an alternate university for a minute, something that’s a little bit ethereal,” said founder Brent Christensen. “You could sit on an ice throne, go down an ice slide. You can explore ice tunnels, and feel like you’ve really gone someplace much further than Edmonton.” Christensen said creating the Edmonton ice castle was laborious, both physically and emotionally, considering the city’s recent dip in temperatures to as low as - 35 C. “It’s tens of thousands of hours of collective labour … but once we open it and people come in, everyone’s gratified,” he added. The ice castle is set to stay open every day excluding Wednesdays until what Christensen hopes is around Feb. 20, but that date won’t be final until posted on the company’s website. Admission ranges from $15 to $24 depending on peak ticket prices during the week. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Gates Guarin
