Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby (2017–…): Season 1, Episode 6 - Icehotel, Sweden - full transcript

All over the world there
are remarkable hotels,

born of bold vision and daring endeavor.

Oh, my goodness. Look at that.

Whether it's an epic structure

housing a sky park
the length of the Eiffel Tower.

This is definitely the biggest space
I've ever been inside.

Or a glass box
perched in the cloud forest.

-Look at that view.
-Wow.

They're all products of
innovation creativity and hard graft.

The people running these hotels
strive to create the perfect sanctuary.

But what does it take to offer



once-in-a-lifetime experiences
in stunning locations?

To build a hotel in a place like this,
everybody thinks I'm crazy.

In hotel, we have about
160,000 pieces of uniform

Oh, my word.

I'm a restaurant writer,
newspaper columnist and critic.

I have opinions on just about everything.

What a mad place to build a hotel!

I feel like Scott of the Antarctic
and it did not end well for him.

And I'm a chef who's worked the top end

of the hospitality industry
for well over 20 years.

How many opportunities
do you get to cook breakfast

with elephants and giraffes?

We'll travel to amazing hotels
in every corner of the world.

To spend time getting to know
the people working away behind the scenes.



When did you last have
a full night's sleep?

I don't remember.

-Really?
-Yes.

Hey, yeah.

You're the engineer.
You're like Scotty in Star Trek.

Precisely, I've been called that.

Join us as we venture inside.

The world's most extraordinary hotels.

Lapland in Sweden,
one of Europe's great wildernesses.

It's December, the sun does not rise
above the horizon

and temperatures drop below minus 30.

Here 200 kilometers
above the Arctic Circle

sits the world-famous Icehotel.

It is incredibly cold. I suppose
if you're gonna build

an ice hotel anywhere
it has to be somewhere cold.

The polar light, sparkling snow
and sprawling forests

make for a landscape
that is almost otherworldly.

Look at this, wow.

This is so beautiful.

It's an incredibly unusual hotel
with a dramatic beauty

carved from the snow
and ice that surround it.

Wow.

That's amazing.

They have pioneered ice chandeliers,

an ice bar.

Oh, it's quite cool. It's quite funny.

Local delicacies served on ice crockery…

and every room is different from the next
with its own unique work of ice art.

For the privilege of sleeping
in an ice room,

guests pay up to £1,000 per night

And with the possibility
of Northern Lights,

the nights can be beautiful,
but they are also long.

You don't see the sun from mid-December
until the middle of January.

Mornings at the hotel start at 7:30.

I'm going to find out

how you deal with guests
who have been sleeping in a freezer.

The 20 rooms are kept at a bone
chilling minus 5.

My first job is helping Mikai
from housekeeping to wake up the guests.

Can they be grumpy
when you come to wake them up?

-Yeah.
-What are your strategies

to cheer up the grumpy people?

-Lingonberry juice, I would say.
-It's all in the juice.

Yes, it's all in the juice.

-Well let's hope they're in a good mood.
-Yeah.

Lingonberries grow wild across Sweden
and a hot juice

is a popular way to wake up here.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Something warm to drink.
How's the night been?

It's been cold but amazing.

I mean, warm in the thermal
sleeping bag, which is fantastic

but you kind of have to
cover yourself right up

and breathe through a little hole.

-Did you sleep in your thermals?
-One, two, three layers

-Three layers.
-Yeah.

Plus a sleeping bag?

Dear me.

I'm doing it tonight.

-Are you?
-I'm a bit nervous.

It's just one of those life experiences,
you can't have necessarily anywhere else.

Yeah.

I've got a long night ahead of me.
Thank you.

There are no power points
or phones in the rooms.

Would you like me to turn the lights on?

So the only way to wake people up
is the old fashioned way

Hi, guys.

How was the night?
Oh, there's two of you. That's nice.

How was it?

It's a mission getting in and out
of the sleeping bag.

It wasn't cold at all really,
like just the tip of your nose.

-Oh, gosh, that's good to know.
-Yeah.

I'm doing it tonight.

-Oh, are you?
-Yeah, but I'm on my own.

-No, you'll be fine. Just…
-No worries at all.

…do the sleeping bag up nice and tight.

-See you. Bye.
-See you.

Why do people want to come
and stay in that temperature?

You rarely have a comfortable bed
like this in minus 5 somewhere else

and the rooms are filled with art
and it's not just the ice hotel,

it's everything around it as well.
There's so much in one place.

This rare combination attracts
30,000 guests every year,

around a quarter are Swedes
while most come from the UK and USA.

This is your room, Flow.

-Very cool.
-And I will show you.

So welcome inside.

Oh, my god.

Tim from New York and Mary from Chicago
are best friends.

It's been their dream to stay at Icehotel
for more than ten years.

I love the window.

So this time, we needed
to do something different.

This is the most
different thing you can get.

An adventure.
Everybody we talk to are like,

"It's on my bucket list.
This is something I want to do."

It's amazing. It's beautiful.

The man responsible
for ensuring that guests

have an unforgettable experience

is Arne Bergh, Creative Director
and the heartbeat of Icehotel.

Originally from the South of Sweden,

he came to the Arctic 20 years ago
with an ice artist and fell in love.

I think I slipped on the ice
and my life took another turn.

-Skoal.
-Skoal!

The hotel opened for the winter season
only a matter of days ago.

The feeling you have when you see
that it has succeeded

and you get to meet the public,

you meet the people coming in
and they say, "Wow, this is something.

You really done something new,
something fantastic."

So of course, I feel humbled and relief.

One of Arne's proudest
achievements is the ice bar.

Skoal!

Just what you need.
That will cool you down.

Cheers.

Here guests can drink both
familiar cocktails

and local lingonberry concoctions.

Refreshing.

And of course the drinks
are served in ice glasses,

made in the hotel's own factory.

Every piece of ice in the building
has come through here at some point.

I'm going to help Arne
make glasses on the production line.

Are there many of these machines
in the world?

-I think there's one.
-Oh, really?

-I think it's this one.
-Did you invent it?

Yes, this is about everything we do.
I think there's a lot of inventing.

Can't go to the hardware store
just to buy one. It's not like that.

Ice blocks are cut into cubes,
then a drill takes out a central hole.

Just keep on stacking them here
as they are coming out.

My job is quality control,

a humbling role when all
the creative work is done by machine.

And if you find somewhere
there is like a crack in,

just throw it over there.

-The drink might come out on your collar.
-Yeah.

Someone getting drunk on schnapps
isn't going to care is he,

if he's got it.

And each glass is probably used
on average couple, twice, three times.

Average twice. I think the record
is something like 12 or 13 refills.

Before the glass melts?

No, but that, the guy
was down on the ground.

-Oh, really?
-Yeah. I will throw it away I think.

Okay.

Now we take this one.
You move it over here.

The machine can make 400 glasses
every hour so the pressure's on me.

Now we've got to move on.
We've got to move on.

Yeah. I'll move a bit faster here.

It's good chatting and everything
but it's all getting a bit on top of me.

I was enjoying it at the beginning

but suddenly, I'm just a cog
in a giant industrial ice machine.

So the process can't always have been
so mechanized.

-There must've been--
-Oh, no.

Me and my colleague
were standing in the bar

drinking a whisky out of a plastic cup
and then I said to him,

"This should also,
we want to do everything in ice here."

"Yeah, you're right," he said.
Took a big piece of ice and just…

carved it like this with a knife
and then we went into the bar.

Could we have a whisky
in the rocks, please.

And that was the start of it.

What's so extraordinary there is,
you know, great business ideas

that you have in the pub,
don't usually come to anything, do they?

You get, yeah, I know, I'll make it out
of ice, that would be brilliant, let's go.

Normally, if it was me
I'd of just cut my thumb off

and then never thought of it again.

Then now it's this process…

So it's makes something like a half
a million, a million glasses each year.

Okay, go.

You're doing a great job
but it's time for a coffee break, right?

I love a big machine.

I love thousands of identical things
moving in rows then being stacked,

and it's very nice to kinda get involved
in something like that,

to see these tiny little jewels,
these diamonds of ice,

rocking along,
and every single one is gonna end

with somebody filling it with spirits
and going, "Cheers!"

It makes it all the more fun.

Guests have been known to feel
the need for Dutch courage

before sleeping in the ice rooms.

How do you clean it if someone's spilled
like red wine onto the ice?

It happened we had a big,
big red wine accident.

Because it's alcohol
it kind of keeps running inside.

-Yeah.
-We had to remove it as fast as you can.

If you get like a hole, sometimes
you can just pour some new water inside…

-And let it freeze
-…and let it freeze.

That is brilliant.

-What this?
-Yeah?

Of course, drinking to excess
can have even more dire consequences

than the occasional spillage.

But Mikai, what happens
if people get sick in here?

We have to do what you're doing right now.

I suppose the good thing
is it will be all frozen.

Yeah.

Luckily, there are no carpets,
curtains or upholstery,

neither are their hoovers or mops.

Shovels and spades are the tools
of the trade.

There we go.

Okay, now this feels a bit like normal
housekeeping, picking up frozen glasses.

So recycle there for the glass,
paper in there, I do like that.

The specially designed mattresses
rest on wooden slats set in ice blocks.

Does the reindeer skin keep people warm?

Put your hand on the ice,
then you put the reindeer fur on the ice

and then your hand,
you will, won't feel anything.

The skins protect sleepers
from the icy bed frames.

The fur is made up of hollow hairs
making it perfect insulation for reindeer

and hopefully us.

I can't help being overwhelmed
every time I walk into a room to clean it

and you are in sort of awe
at the magic of this place.

But I am a bit anxious about having
to sleep in minus five for the night.

How you feeling about checking in?

The moment has finally come.
We finally get to do it.

It's been a phony war up to now.

I was quite petrified you know,
thinking, my gosh, it's minus five.

Do we sleep like this?
Do we take our clothes off?

Well, I've got back up but I'm happy
to sleep like this just to stay warm.

For visitors who want
a respite from the cold

not all the hotel's buildings
are made of ice.

Guests can also stay in heated chalets,
take plenty of saunas

and eat hearty regional dishes
in a nicely heated restaurant.

And before you're shown
to your icy bed-chamber, you check in

at a reassuringly warm reception.

Hi, there, Coren.

-And Galetti.
-Galetti? Yeah.

It's one of the more
daunting check-in experiences I have had.

And I'd like to order an extra warm
sleeping bag.

Extra warm, okay, we can get that up.

Inside or out,
the cold is always a battle here.

Oh, that's a nice way to do it.

-Do you stay warm?
-Exactly.

So the hotel supply sleeping bags
that have been tested to minus 40 degrees.

You look like you're in some mountain
and there's a couple of goats behind you.

How amazing, how beautiful, how not
where I want to go to actually sleep.

-Can we sleep in these?
-I recommend less clothes.

-Less clothes?
-Why?

The less clothes the better

because actually
it's not a sleeping bag keeping you warm

it's you keeping you warm.

-Your body heat?
-Exactly and less clothes you have,

the faster you spread out the heat
in sleeping bag.

So shall we, is it better to be
completely naked?

-Yeah.
-Completely, completely?

One layer is what we recommend

and then you have a hat
and a pair of socks as well.

Fine.

Pick your mustache.

Oh, my word.

The bed is real
and it's surrounded by cactuses.

Lovely. How about that?

You've got to climb up there
to go to sleep.

-You don't make this easy.
-No.

So sit on that and then slide.

Legs straight out.

My main concern is what happens
when you need to get out of this

to go to the toilet at night?

-I'm not going to be wearing waterproofs.
-Yeah.

-I'm going to have to slide on this ice?
-Yeah.

You guys are pretty lucky,
you can just run inside here.

Oh, this is more like it.

Fortunately the bathrooms
are not made of ice and are kept

at a very pleasant 20 degrees.

Oh, I can see myself camping on this floor
if I get too cold in there.

Some even have their own saunas.

This is fab.

Oh, I'm glad my bed's a bit
easier to get into.

Yeah.

My least favorite people
in the whole world, phone morons.

Look at them. That's rather marvelous.

The room is called Twitter

and features a host of ice statues
fixated on their smart phones

I'm going to have telecoms ice nightmares.

Do people ever not make it
through the night?

It has happened
but most often people come up

because they are like jet-lagged
or maybe have a cold.

Not because they're entombed
in an ice cave?

-No.
-With no windows.

No, that's because it's cozy.

And minus five degrees,
that's not the reason?

That's the cozy part.

My idea of cozy and your idea of cozy
are two very different things.

Yes.

It's like the Batcave but Batman
couldn't afford the heating bill.

-Enjoy your room. Good luck.
-I will. Sleep well. Have fun.

There's no more putting it off.

It's time for one of the coldest nights
sleeps that anyone will ever pay for.

My daughter gave me this a few years ago.

I never leave home without it.

Every time I travel
it goes next to my bed.

God, I'm already cold.

I feel like Scot of the Antarctic…

and as you know,
it did not end well for him.

This is just like when you're outside
in the cold,

you get cold, put more layers on.
I'll try that.

It's very, very cold.

The rooms are so well insulated
that once you're tucked up

it's super naturally quiet
and rather soporific.

They have no idea.

Arne lives just the other side
of the river from the hotel.

Close enough to keep an eye
on the brainchild of his wild imagination.

We have always done the un-expectable,
building an ice hotel.

How crazy is that? And sleeping
when you can sleep in a comfortable hotel,

why should you sleep in ice?

Because obviously, it's a good idea.
It works.

It may seem like a good idea
from the warmth of a cozy

Swedish homestead but we've been sleeping
at a temperature

more suited to penguins than people.

It's time for our wake up call.

Good morning.

Would you like some hot lingonberry juice?

Did you sleep all right?

Oh, my god.

Yeah, I was all right
until I had to go to the toilet,

until about, I don't know.

-See you later.
-See you.

I've learned now, I understand

the attraction about sleeping
in an ice room like this.

It's a unique experience, it really is.
It's just…

really happy,
really pleased that I did it.

Loved it, so happy I did it.

Good morning.

Turn the light. Oh, man.

Hi, what have I got? What's that?

It's lingonberry juice.

Cool. All right.
You don't do breakfast, do you?

-I don't do that.
-No? A cheeky coffee?

-No.
-Cheeky tea with a splash of milk.

Lingonberry juice.

-Bacon and eggs
-More lingonberry juice? Magic.

Delicious, excellent.

It just feels sort of natural and real
and quite intrepid.

It's as close to living on the edge

as I'm going to get
in my bourgeois little life.

Once the guests are up the hotel
is transformed into an art gallery,

a 150 visitors come each day
to see the sculptures first hand.

Every room is designed
and built by different artists.

There are giant letters…

a Victorian library,
and all sorts of characters.

The art is bewitching
with an ethereal prow all of its own

but it doesn't keep you warm.
For that, you need to turn to food.

To maintain body temperature,
visitors are advised to eat

forty percent more than
they usually would.

Guests can gorge on dishes
including reindeer top side,

mushroom risotto and arctic cha.

The man responsible for feeding all
those extra hungry mouths is Alex Meier,

the hotel's half
Swedish, half Swiss head chef.

He trained in the 2-Michelin starred
Leyburn restaurant in Geneva.

and is famously passionate about his work.

It's Alex's dream to make the food
at the hotel as renowned as the ice art.

To be a chef in this harsh climate,
you have to think a little differently.

There are no commercial farms in the area.

It's simply too cold and dark
for things to grow,

so to get fresh local vegetables
on the menu,

Alex has pioneered the use of ray moss,

a lichen normally eaten by reindeer,
rather than hotel diners.

I love this.

Alex has invited me
along to harvest the moss.

and replenish his supplies
for the week's service

I have to do a snow angel.

Yeah. It is quite hard

but you get used to it
after a couple of years

The moss is found on almost
very pine tree surrounding the hotel.

And it's just on the trees?

Yes.

You say moss. We're not looking at,
are you looking for this?

Yes, well done.

I've got a knack for this.

-Just pick it straight off?
-You're just collecting it.

-Beautiful.
-Yes, it's amazing.

-Like Christmas tree decorations.
-Yeah.

I mean, it's beautiful on a tree.

Once you take it off
it's like all the hair

that you collect
in the bottom of the shower.

-But can you eat it raw?
-Try it.

It's a bit crispy, so a bit,
like, different.

-It's actually quite biter.
-Yeah, it's quite a bitter taste.

Yeah, but a very light grassy
flavor to it.

So with the amount that we have here,
how long would that last?

This is for, like,
maybe two or three nights.

Oh, really?

No.

Oh, yeah. That was awesome.

We won't get it back.
We'll leave it for the reindeer.

-Are you okay?
-I'm good.

-Watch out here again
-Yeah.

It's hard enough
staying on your feet here,

let alone foraging for fresh produce
but is it worth all the effort?

Perfect.

In the restaurant different types
of ray moss are served

with reindeer fillets
and shiitake mushrooms

-It's almost like crispy…
-Yeah.

…sort of rice cracker sort of thing
in there. Oh, that's lovely

It doesn't matter that Alex
is cooking in the Arctic,

his diners demand the cuisine
to be and locally sourced.

Hi, I'm Monica.

Hi, Monica, nice to meet you.

Johann Lands is one of Alex's
most valued suppliers.

He's found an extraordinary solution
to the problem of growing produce here.

-Have you been down the mines?
-No, never.

-No, all right.
-Never.

Just 20 miles from Icehotel

is the world's largest
underground iron-ore mine.

The Kiruna mine opened over a century ago

and since then over a billion tons
has been mined.

In fact without it,
Icehotel could not exist.

It's the only reason
why there is an airport

in such a northerly remote spot.

So this is the entrance to the mine?

It feels like you're going through
a big tunnel.

It's when you go down there.

-Now it's getting a little foggy on there.
-Yeah.

But it's because it's getting
warmer and warmer.

Yeah.

The mine goes 15 hundred meters deep.

and has an extraordinary
80 kilometers of underground roads.

Johann's farm is on an empty tier
where all the ore has been mined out.

-Here is warm.
-Wow.

I think it's around 15, 16 at least. Yeah.

Goodness me, Johann, what on earth
are you growing down here and is it legal?

-It's legal and it's shiitake mushrooms.
-Wow.

Johann's mushroom farm is organic.

Oh, my word, look at these.

Mushroom heaven.

It can produce
2,000 kilos of shiitakes per week.

-Look at these babies.
-Look at that.

They are so beautiful.

Perfect.

That's so fresh.

That's actually more delicate
in flavor isn't it, now it's fresh.

It goes so well with everything.

Johann sells the mushrooms to the hotel
where they're used in soups,

risotto and with reindeer.

Do it like this and just take it off…

and they almost all of this
are in a perfect size.

What made you think the mine would be
a good place to grow mushrooms?

Because it says same climate all the year,

so if the mushroom is
always getting the same quality.

Above ground it's minus 18 degrees.
In the mine, it is plus 15.

So does that mean down here you don't have
to worry about the cost of heating.

If you should be in a warehouse
in winter, in Kiruna,

it should be really,
really expensive to make it.

We don't use almost no energy at all.

Look at that, beauty. I love my job.

I love your job actually.

Whilst Arne might see a hotel,
Alex sees a gastronomic experience.

-Here, Monica, we have the ice bits.
-These are neat.

-Look at that.
-Yeah. No scratch.

-You can use them on both sides.
-Yeah.

Like for put something inside.
Now we are going to use on this side.

-We've got one each.
-Yes.

Alex offers a signature ice menu.

What sort of challenges
do you face using ice?

Pushes you to be a bit more creative,

-doesn't it?
-Yes.

-How many courses are there on this menu?
-It's seven courses.

The starter for today is
Swedish bleak roe, like caviar.

The saltiness of the roe means
it doesn't freeze.

Plating on ice
is a whole new experience for me.

-That was right, wasn't it?
-Yes, perfect.

-Just plain crème fraîche?
-No, we whip it.

It's plain crème fraîche
that we whip so it gets a bit harder

-And a bit of dill?
-And some dill. So there it is.

And we're going to make a shimmy
with a Wakame salad.

-You want to make one?
-Sure.

Unlike outside,
the kitchen is roasting hot.

Alex has come up
with an innovative solution,

a soya jelly to hold everything in place.

-Very cool. I like that
-Yeah.

The menu finishes
with a dessert of panna cotta,

arctic raspberries and cloudberries.

It's the ideal plate
for this dessert, isn't it?

You're not going to worry about
the sorbet melting before it goes out?

No, that's one thing
that's really amazing.

Sorbet!

It's hard to believe
in the depths of winter,

but when summer comes
there's 24 hours of daylight

and temperatures reach 20 degrees.

In these conditions you'd think
an ice hotel would melt.

But this hotel isn't just a work of art,

it's also a ground-breaking
piece of engineering.

It is the world's first all-season
365 days a year ice hotel.

In summer, grass will grow on the roof,

whilst inside it will remain
forever winter.

Built this year, the 365 as it's known
is a solution to a long-standing problem.

Visitors stopped coming
as soon as spring arrived.

365 was the answer to the questions
we had put so many years. What can we do?

Because we've got four months high season,

so now we're taking a big step
into the future.

The man responsible for making sure
this leap into the future is a success

and not just an enormous puddle is
Chief Engineer, Michael Ooland.

-Hi.
-Hello.

I'm Giles.

So how do you make the building cold?

Just a freezer unit to cool
down the whole hotel.

So this is all like the back of a fridge?

It actually depends all on this,
in this room.

We actually mix anti-freeze,

50-50 with water to cool it down
to minus 40 degrees.

And you pump that around the hotel,
do you?

It goes up the roof.

And down it goes into the corridor.

Fifteen airlocks guard
the delicate interior.

The skeleton is made of steel and concrete

and covered with 2,000 square
meters of insulation.

It's like an overgrowing thermos flask.

Of course, we have this
insulation layer of 20 centimeters.

Most people put insulation on the roof
to keep the heat in.

This is the reverse system you know,

20 centimeters of insulation
will protect from summer temperatures.

Hidden from the guests in the cavity
between the insulated roof

and the icy corridor are the eaves.

You've got some worrying frost
on your pipes there.

Yeah.

These are presumably containing
the coolant are they?

Yeah.

And how does the coldness
of that get into the room?

The smaller ones here.

See here, the white ones,
they go into each room.

-Around the whole room?
-Around the whole room.

Yeah.

This will be the first summer
where you'll find out if it works.

-Right.
-Yeah, and if it's not,

move onto another project.

Paradoxically,

the system designed to keep the ice
frozen will be powered by solar panels.

The whole 365 Icehotel
is powered by the sun.

And I mean,
the sun is the enemy to the ice,

it eats our art,
it eats our design and now

because we have the whole building
covered by solar sun panels

that means the sun is powering the 365
and that is like a fantastic thought.

It's an amazing achievement the 365.

From my part, I can fully understand

coming here to the frozen
snowy wastes to hunker down

in what has been
a natural igloo for the night

and when you get in touch
with your cold northern snowy self,

just spend your holiday
on the other hand in a giant fridge,

that's something different.
That's a more peculiar taste.

It may be peculiar but the 365 comes after

a long line of seasonal ice
hotels built on this land.

It all began in 1991 when entrepreneur,

Invar Bergfest decided to establish
an ice gallery for local indigenous art.

It only became a hotel by accident
after workers began sleeping there.

Since then every winter in November,

they have made a seasonal
hotel out of nothing

but snow and ice and every spring in April

that hotel has begun to melt
back into the river.

The base of the Icehotel is,
is to build in the winter,

to follow the season and let it go,
you know, with the flow.

Great. Okay, down we go.

Arne is continuing the annual ritual
of building a seasonal hotel.

This 27 incarnation is known by workers
as the 27 and we are going to help.

Perhaps surprisingly
it's not made of ice blocks alone.

The superstructure is built
out of a substance called Snice,

which is made using the snow
throwers normally used in ski resorts.

Snice is actually water,
it goes through this snow cannon

and the snow kind of produces
small ice crystals with air in between

so it's white as snow but stronger
than snow but softer than ice.

When the Snice freezes,
it sets like concrete.

So it's the perfect
building material for us.

That's the frames,
which we use for the building.

We put them up in a line, in sections.

Then we throw the Snice onto them
until we have a thick cover…

and then we wait one day or two
and then we lower them.

And pull them out with a tractor,
coz they're on skis so they can be moved.

Like a tunnel of opportunities.

It takes 10,000 tons of Snice and ice
to built the main structure of the hotel.

Only once it's ready can work on
the 35 bedrooms begin.

-Oh, it's freezing.
-It is freezing.

There is a lot to do and not much time.

Luckily for Arne help is at hand.

Why would I want to live in this
lovely warm wooden hut like this?

I know, I'll build a house out of ice,
just because I can.

First we need to get kitted up…

Hello.

…for one of the world's
coldest construction sites.

We do need you, you know,
because it's quite a lot,

still got a, quite a lot to do.

Until we open
there is always things to do.

You'll be able to tell I'm a builder

because I'll always be on a coffee break
and nothing will get built.

Just run around with the other builders.

Sorry, love, knocking-off time.

-Two pair of shoes here for Giles…
-Awesome.

-All right.
-…and Monica.

-Thank you.
-Thank you.

-Steel cap for your protection.
-All right.

If you get an ice block on your feet,

-that's not very nice.
-No.

These ice blocks, they are about two tons.

It seems that Monica and I might not be

quite the pair of capable
construction workers

Arne had hoped for.

I don't know, does it, how does it--

-This is Monica's.
-This is Monica's, yeah.

-That's yours.
-Yeah.

We're okay.

-I don't wanna get out of it.
-Are you okay for now?

Yes, I don't really want
to change either but…

We're not the only rookies
on this building site.

Of the 31 artists tasked with
designing and sculpting rooms,

20 have never worked here before.

We've got artists from Hong Kong,
Japan, Iran, England, and all over.

For some it's their first time
working with ice.

It's so different to be here.

They could be big city people
sitting in an office

working on a computer in digital design.
They are very skilled,

but here it's really practical
and so for them,

I think it's a challenge
but it also needs inspiration.

So, guys, you should make this,

this fellow, the chain saw,
your best friend.

They will have 15 days
to complete their rooms.

Come over. Lisa, take this hand
and move this one forward.

Dorset sculpture, Lisa Linkfest
is one of the novices.

-Oh, have I just locked it?
-Yeah.

I think you locked it again.

It's been a dream for about 20 years.

It's always been there as one day
I'd love to do the Icehotel.

You're pushing yourself in all ways,
physically and mentally and creatively.

I'm joining Lisa as she works
on her room called

"Sleeping Inside a Thought".

-Hi, Lisa.
-Hi.

Goodness me, look at this.

It is less than a week
until guests arrive.

Do you trust me with this?

Compared to the finished rooms
in the all-year-round hotel,

it is very much a work in progress.

Rather than embrace the chainsaw,

Lisa is sticking to what
she knows best, the chisel

Let's hope whoever takes the room
won't be looking in this corner.

I see what it looks like now.

So what's the concept behind the room?

Sleeping inside your thought.

The bed is kind of flying,
about to take off on fire

-I can see the flames taking shape.
-Yes.

We need to finish the walls before the bed
and lighting can be moved in.

Oh, it's really nice
having a helping hand.

Well, I'm glad it's making a difference.

Whilst Monica works away
I want to have a quick explore.

These are awesome. I tell you what,

the people have been having
an awful lot of fun.

Everyone goes in, just makes you giggle.

He's got a bit of heavy metal playing.

He's basically building a room
out of giant sugar cubes.

It's just a massive trip.
I want to sleep in this one.

What could be better?

The construction site of the hotel
is like an enormous ever changing

and not very warm art studio.

Basically got
sort of stained glass windows,

like Westminster Abbey.

Howard Miller is an architect.
He's building the room with his brother

Hugh, a furniture designer.

They're from Liverpool.

They don't look like this, to begin with.

That's a leaf made from a mold of a leaf.

They've collared me for the arduous task
of making weeny ice leaves.

-That's a very nice leaf.
-That's about an hour's work.

You've chosen,
what a bonkers thing for me,

I was kind of up
for lifting pieces of ice,

something a bit manly, burn some calories,
work off my lunch.

The room is called "Icabeena".

The focus is an intricate
cherry blossom tree

Is that all right?

-It will fall to bits.
-Will it?

-They will have to be flat.
-There will be 84 leaves.

To create each one,
I have to melt the edge

on a hot plate and force them together.

It's delicate work.

-Like that?
-Yeah. That's pretty good.

-Sticking to the gloves quite a lot.
-Yeah, that happens.

The annoying thing is when
you've managed to get one on the tree,

and you pull your glove away
and the whole thing just goes…

What do I do with my completed leaves?

We'll smuggle them in somewhere.

-I'll be part of the Icehotel?
-Yeah.

Cool.

Construction work
on a traditional seasonal hotel

is going on around the clock.

Whilst next door
the permanent hotel is at full capacity.

For the guests, sleeping in an ice rooms

may be the main attraction
but nature comes a close second,

offering frozen forests,

the River Torne
and the famous Northern Lights.

The hotel organizes
expeditions into the wilds.

Each trip is led by one of 12
specially trained guides.

My name is Leif Hannes…
but people call me Hannes.

I work as a wilderness
guide here at the Icehotel.

For a lot of tourists coming up here,

this might feel a bit
like them being on Mars.

But for me, it feels,
it's like home basically.

Is there any other place in the world
I'd rather be?

Not really.

So I'm off to meet Hannes
to set up the snowmobiles

to take some tourists out for a major trek
in to the wilderness

and to look after them,
cater to their every whim.

Hannes and the other guides will,
on average,

take out 200 of these excursions
each per season.

Is this all you're wearing?

Yeah, what do you mean?

Look, I'm dressed up in a boiler suit.

Yeah, but I'm an arctic creature, I mean.

The tour is a winter wilderness
survival trip.

Put them on your back like that.

Designed to show tourists the skills
needed to endure the arctic wastes.

Put two on each seat, basically.

-Over the snow?
-Over the snow.

I will be helping Hannes
keep an eye on the guests

and make sure we lose any.

If you weren't there,
if a bunch of tourists

wandered off and got lost,
how long would they survive out here?

It depends. If they are out when we have
like the coldest temperatures up here,

like minus 40 degrees centigrade

or even more than that, I would say…

with just jeans and, and sneakers
they would probably survive half an hour

or an hour or something like that.

Sarah Tucker?

All three. All right.

So, my name is Hannes and I'm going
to be your survival guide today.

Today's guests are all British.

Balaclava or scarf, just take it
on top of your nose.

It will be windy out on the river here,

so you don't get any frostbites
or even start to get cold.

All right. Let's see about my intern,
if he can find a helmet.

All right?

Everybody ready?

We're heading to the other side
of the river to the Portyarvie forest.

Not, since I got on a camel have I been
this comfortable.

Wind chill from the ride
can cause frostbite.

It looks a little bit red here
in-between your eyes.

You're not cold there at all? All right.

Hannes and I are looking for white spots
that can be early indicators.

-Still, got your fingers and toes? Cool.
-Yeah.

-You're not freezing at all?
-No.

The main set piece of Hannes tour

is to show guests how to make a fire
in such hostile conditions.

Always try to keep some signs
that you can recognize.

In this part of Sweden, there is less than
one person per square kilometer.

Finding someone with a bag of kindling
and a box of matches is unlikely.

So our first job is gathering firewood.

At this time of year
it's already dark at 2,00 p.m.

Yeah, careful there.

When walking through very deep snow,
it's important to try and spread out.

-Oh, sorry.
-You did that deliberately!

Someone has been here before me.

I can tell from the way
it's been sliced off.

There may be other survivors.

Ooh, my stick!

My next task is to show the guests
how to start a fire

using only a flint and some birch bark.

Well, how long have I been doing this?
About ten hours?

No, five minutes.

I'm not going to do it for you, Giles.

If you're going to be a guide, Giles,
you have to really know how to do this.

I don't think I'd make
much of a wilderness guide.

The key thing seems to be patience.

You wouldn't want to be
stuck with me in a wilderness,

unless what you needed
was just someone just… to panic.

Just when Hannes is beginning to doubt
my potential as a guide,

I succeed in igniting a roaring blaze.

-Giles has made a fire.
-Yeah, seems like I did it.

-I'm proud.
-Maybe I could be a guide after all.

You can press the twigs a little bit.
There you go.

I've basically been faking it up till now.
I mean, I'm something of a fire king.

Roaring away there, roaring away.
Very pleased with that.

Up here,
there are few sources of vitamin C,

but in one cup of pine needle tea,

you can get as much as you would
from five glasses of orange juice.

Sadly, there is a downside.

It smells like a sauna.

A little bit, yeah.

It tastes like a kitchen table.

Perhaps it's an acquired taste.

Certainly, the trip itself
is an exciting departure

from the confines of the hotel.

That's a wonderful way of offering them.

It's a half-hour trip on a snowmobile
across a frozen river

and suddenly they're in the wilderness
being taught how to make fire

with birch, bark, and flints
and boiled pine needle tea on it.

They can't go and complain that
they haven't had a range of experiences.

After a ferociously cold day
of guest wrangling, it's time to unwind.

but here, even having a hot bath
takes work.

Let's go.

The baths heated by wood-burning stoves

are part of the traditional sauna
experience enjoyed by hotel guests.

Is it hot?

Really warm. It's nice, though.

Oh, gosh.

-Oh, it's been a long workday.
-It has been a long, hard day.

-Cheers.
-Cheers.

So I'm feeling a bit warm,
what about a snow roller?

-A snow roller? Is that a cocktail?
-Hey, you gonna--

No, it's not a cocktail,
it's when you go and roll in the snow.

-What actually lie in the snow?
-Just lie down and roll around.

Are you ready? On three. One, two, three.

Oh, Jesus.

Bollocks!

Oh, that's hot in there. That's prickly.

That's nice.

Oh, that's prickly.

For seasonal workers, like Hannes,
the all-year-round Icehotel

will make a huge difference
to their working lives.

The main alternative employer is the mine.

I would call it Modor Mine.

It looks like Lord of the Rings,
dark in there and haunted almost.

It's even worse during night time,
you can see it more and more.

I don't know how to explain it better.

The mine is surrounded by the town
of Kiruna with a population of 18,000

more than 2,000 work at the mine
and many more in related businesses.

We're basically the second
richest city in Sweden,

it's all because of the mine.
We earn quite a lot of money down there.

But for Hannes, a life underground
has never appealed.

The Icehotel now provides him
with a permanent alternative.

After six weeks of working day and night,
the big day has finally arrived for Hannes

and all his hotel colleagues,
the launch of the 27th seasonal hotel.

There's only two hours to go
to the opening of The 27,

the original Icehotel.

Frankly, in parts, it still looks like
a bit of a building site.

There is a terrific sense of urgency
even Arne is mucking in.

It's all hands to the pump.

So what can I do?
Can I genuinely be any use?

I think you can

because we're in a hurry and we've got
to fix the reception desk before we open.

I would like, you know,
to be a little bit wave, like water.

You go like this. Can you see?

I can see.

Just take a firm grip
and you see you have to, like, you know.

-Oh, dear
-Not stop.

-You've got to sort of--
-And you go straight.

Gosh. If I go too far,
you're going to end up

with no reception desk aren't you?

-Yeah.
-Is that okay?

That's okay.

He trusts me with his tool.
This is the reception desk of The 27,

the big house that people have come
from all over the world to stay.

And he's just handed me…
I don't even know what it's called

and set me to try and create
a water effect on the reception desk.

It's quite stressful.

As guests begin to gather
outside the hotel,

Lisa's still battling to finish her room.

I love the idea. You put a carpet down.

How long before the guests arrive?

Apparently, five o'clock and I think
it's about four o'clock now.

-You've got an hour.
-Yeah.

Did you think it was going
to be this last minute?

No, I really did not think
it would be this last minute.

It's just the lighting

-and the bed can go down?
-Just the lighting.

Cool. Thank you.

I'm very much getting the hang of it.
It's about the motion, bend the knees,

just kind of swivel of the hips
and then just smooth movement.

I may have found my calling.

I've never been an artistic type
but this may be it.

Maybe next year
I'll come back and do a room.

Getting the snow in is easier
than getting it back out.

Give it a good kick.

Is it always a rush like this?

When you have a premier and an opening,

it's always like that,
and it's been all the years

I've been working
with the Icehotel, last minute.

-So, what do you reckon?
-Yeah, look at it.

It's got a lovely shimmer.

-We've got a reception desk, okay?
-Yeah.

With only moments to spare,
the hotel is complete.

The guests gathered tonight
will be the first of 12,000

that will stay here
before the hotel melts.

Everyone, we've got cold drinks here.

For founder Yngve and Arne,
it has been a monumental year;

the opening of the world's
first permanent Icehotel

and the completion, just in time,
of the 27th seasonal hotel.

-So, welcome--
-Hello!

Welcome to the Icehotel.

It's amazing work. It's an amazing job.

-27!
-That's it, 27.

We're building dreams in a way
and making dreams come true.

It's been a fascinating experience

to work in these
two radically different ice hotels.

27, what an achievement.

They've got that done
just in the nick of time.

And it really is remarkable
to create artwork,

stunning rooms, whole buildings
out of frozen water alone

and to do it to a deadline
year after year.

Oh, come on.
It's little more than an igloo

when you compare it with 365.

What an achievement!
All-year-round ice hotel.

Yeah, but is it as special?

Perhaps it's not as romantic
as its elder brother,

but its technical brilliance,
its ingenious use of the sun

and its incalculable value
for local people

make it a towering accomplishment.

They've both special.
They're both enormously special.

They both reflect
the amazingness of this crazy

frozen part of the world.

I have to agree.

But maybe the greatest
triumph of all is to have taken somewhere

so apparently inhospitable,
so alienating to most humans

and made it warm,
welcoming, and utterly magical.