Ice castle sparkles on Echo Lake

ECHO LAKE -

A Saskatchewan family’s tradition of building an ice castle in their cabin’s backyard at Echo Lake continued this year.

Sean Frisky said the castle is not an annual project due to its labour-intensive nature, but he’s built them since 2012. Each one is unique and part of how his family embraces winter.

“I think if you live in Saskatchewan, you need to find things to do in Saskatchewan,” Frisky said. “So, we snowmobile, we downhill ski and we hang out at the lake here and the kids skate and we’ve got the ice castle.”

(L to R) Samantha Silverthorn, Colleen Silverthorn, Sean Frisky, Allie Silverthorn and Sydney Silverthorn sit by the fire in their ice castle at Echo Lake. (Alison MacKinnon/CTV News Regina)

With an abundance of ice to choose from, Frisky teams up with some of his neighbours, employees and friends to harvest the ice for the building.

“We have this big medieval saw, we have it cut straight through the ice and we end up with essentially 12 inch by 12 inch logs and they float. So, then we use a four-wheeler to drag them out,” Frisky said. “This year we went from old school labor to actually using a little loader little skid steer to build the structure.”

In order to make sure the castle lasts through the winter, Frisky needs the ice to be between 10 and 13 inches thick.

When the castle is up and running, his family is able to sit around a campfire or have a drink at the ice bar.

The castle usually lasts until March, when the sun melts it all away.