Grow your skyline – just add water
Some of you may be like me – when you’re downtown you’re focussed on projects and probably miss the details around you (hopefully not details like red lights or icy roads, but some people in Whitehorse are missing even those really important details lately). One of the details I’d missed the past couple of weeks is the new tower complex that’s being built behind Domino’s Pizza and Greyhound. The first photo below shows how these impressive towers of blue ice are being built – by trickling water out of a hose into the -20° air.
These ice towers are being built by Equinox Adventure Learning for people to hike and climb on. Last year, they built 4 ice towers at Takhini Hot Springs – they were from 20-45 feet high, joined by curtains of ice to create about 3,000 square feet of climbing surface. The success of that project has brought them downtown, where they’ll be able to attract “impulse climbers” (that’d be people like me).
I met Equinox co-owner Chris Gishler at the bank yesterday, and he told me that although experienced climbers are already on the towers, they won’t be ready for tours and lessons until about the 23rd. As well as the climbing surfaces on towers that will reach 60 feet this year (making it one of the tallest structures in the city), there will be a hiking path to the top for those who aren’t into as extreme an experience.
Ice towers aren’t a new concept for Northern cities – they exist in Lycksele, Sweden (the tallest in the world at 162 feet); Canmore, Alberta; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Kirov, Russia; Fairbanks, Alaska and Quebec City, Quebec (though not in Quebec this year). It’s great to see Whitehorse added to the list – I’ll show you pictures from the top some day soon!
The next photo below was shot yesterday.
I’ve added another photo of the completed towers, shot on January 30th.
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