A Midway winter staple of the past decade is returning to Soldier Hollow this weekend.
Tickets are on sale to visit the ice castles starting this Friday at 6 p.m.
Spokesperson Melissa Smuzynski says the event should bring in tens of thousands of visitors to the colorful ice display through early February.
People might be curious to know how the castles are constructed.
“The entire attraction is built from ice, and each icicle is hand placed by our ice artisans,” Smuzynski says. “Then, we turn on a sprinkler system, we spray it with water, and over the course of several weeks through the wintertime, it grows, and grows into this acre-sized magical fairytale wonderland that you can walk through, get lost in a maze of tunnels made of ice, crawl through tiny spaces or squeeze through slot canyons.”
Tickets are on sale through February 5. Smuzynski says if temperatures stay cold, the exhibit will stay open for longer.
The idea started in 2009 when founder Brent Christensen built an ice cave for his kids to use in their front yard in Alpine, Utah. In 2011, the first full exhibit was in Midway at the Zermatt Resort, and it’s returned every year since and expanded to Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and New York.
Some years after inception, Soldier Hollow became the Utah location for a couple of years, then it moved to the Homestead Resort through 2021.
“Coming back to Soldier Hollow Nordic Center is kind of like returning home for us,” Smuzynski says. “It was one of the very first places we ever built, and it really is kind of a world-class place to visit in wintertime with their tubing hill and everything. So, it really gives guests to Ice Castles more to see than just the castles.”
For tickets or more information, visit icecastles.com.
