Finally An Ice Palace

After the warmest January in the USA ever, 8.8 degrees above average, work on the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Ice Palace began yesterday. It will be much smaller than usual, probably only about 600-800 blocks of ice vs the normal 2000 blocks. The ice blocks are only about 10 inches thick which will result in a small castle. Normally the ice blocks would be about 15-18 inches thick.



The blocks of ice are cut from Pontiac Bay on Lake Flower using a special saw that was designed decades ago. The ice blocks are guided to shore and scooped up by a tractor and delivered to the building site. The space where the ice has been cut can be seen in the lower left corner of the photo.



The ice palace as of early this morning, about 7 courses high. This was done in a single day with the help of inmates from Camp Gabriels and some very experienced local 'architects' and 'engineers'.



Once the walls get high, the ice blocks are hoisted into place using a crane. This one belongs to the Paul Smiths College forestry department.

NOTE: They added another half dozen courses of ice blocks today. Of course I'll post a picture of the finished Ice Palace. One taken at night as well.