TheTraveler

 

Igloo Village
By Jennifer L. Price

Towering above us at 9,724 ft (2,964 meters) was the Zugspitze, Germany’s tallest mountain. Although it was two in the afternoon and the sun was shining, it was April and the thermometer showed zero degrees. I looked at my friends nervously. Are we really going to do this?

We stood waiting for the cable car with our backpacks filled with wool socks, long underwear, and extra sweatshirts. Waiting for us at the peak was an igloo. A domed house made of snow with a bed of ice where we were going to spend the night.

I had done the research. Igloos first appeared in Canada and Greenland as temporary houses for Inuit hunters. They were warm, sturdy, and have long been a well-known symbol of life in colder climates.

Could I survive a night in one?

Open for the 2006/2007 season from December 25th to mid-April, Iglu-Dorf, Ltd. constructs igloo villages every winter atop the Zugspitze, Germany’s tallest mountain, and four other mountaintops in Switzerland.

Although most skiers and other sightseers descend from the glacier around 1600, those who have made the reservation to stay in the igloo stay at the seemingly deserted mountaintop and meet the helpful and friendly guides, who all speak some English.

We made the short hike to our igloo carrying our special thermal sleeping bags and we were surprised at what we found. Not the domed building shaped by ice bricks as usually pictured, the igloo that we found was actually an ice maze built into a block of snow with a dining room, sleeping rooms, and a bathroom, coming off a hallway. Filled with wooden tables and ice benches covered in beige and brown sheepskins, the dining room also houses a bar where visitors first enjoy a warm welcome drink of glühwein. Later, guides laden the tables with large breadbaskets and we stuffed ourselves with a fondue dinner made with rich Gruyère cheese.

Our room was actually an ice cave carved into the snow with two candles for light, a thick pad and sheepskins. A hanging curtain separated the room from the hallway. “Standard rooms” generally sleep up to six people; so two different parties may share a room. We were fortunate enough to have the room to ourselves.

The night started with a long seemingly difficult trek through the snow to a high point on the glacier. We ate snow to hydrate ourselves and watched the sun slowly sink behind the Alps.
After dinner, we had a few choices for activities, but we knew what we just “had” to do. We went to our room, grabbed our supplies and headed outside. We quickly changed in the special heated changing room and ran to the whirlpool hot tubs that were waiting outside. We sat in a hot tub on top of the tallest mountain in Germany, surrounded by snow, and a clear night sky with beautiful stars twinkling down.

The stillness found just outside the igloo is amazingly peaceful—standing thousands of feet above the earth in a winter wonderland in complete silence.

We snuggled into our insulated sleeping bags made for Arctic expeditions (still wearing our hats, scarves, and gloves), and then awoke to a cup of tea brought right to our sleeping bag. We stepped outside for a view of the bright sun rising above the mountains. The adventure ended with a trip down to the mountaintop restaurant for a traditional German breakfast of cold cuts, cheeses, and breads.

Some may think it’s crazy to pay money to spend the night in a building made of snow and ice when the thermometer reads zero, but the opportunity to experience the Alps in a whole new way is hard to pass up. For your own unique evening in an igloo, visit www.iglu-dorf.com for more information on available dates and prices.

Jennifer L. Price is a freelance writer and photographer based in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Visit her website at JeniferLPrice.com

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