Pikes Peak Region Trail Finder

Photo by Bill Linfield, courtesy of Summit Daily News

By JANICE KURBJUN, SUMMIT DAILY NEWS

It's not quite ready yet, but when it's finished, artist Brent Christensen's ice castle in Silverthorne should be a sight to behold.

“I'd rather keep it veiled until it's done,” he said Wednesday at the site, which is located on the lawn adjacent to the Silverthorne Pavilion.

The ice castle was scheduled to open this weekend, but work is only partially complete. There's still plenty of work to go to build 10-foot surrounding walls and towers that stretch 40 feet into the sky over three-quarters of an acre.

“The main obstacle right now is the weather,” Christensen said, though he noted the Silverthorne site is significantly cooler than Midway, Utah, where he created the ice castles previously. In the two months the castle stood, it brought in about 24,000 people — a number Christensen expects to far exceed in Silverthorne.

The ice castle is a series of ice towers “organically grown simply by sprinkling water onto strategically-placed icicles,” according to the artist's proposal. It's a new feature in Summit County this year.

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