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The bedrooms are a whimsical combination of styles and periods--all done in ice and snow. In the Old Quebecois room, the hands of a grandfather clock never move past midnight, a stag's head offends no animal lover, a huge old-fashioned chest is permanently shut. Tall, icy fingers hold candles in the Dali room, where two frozen sofas shaped like lips resemble those in his famous painting Mae West's Face.
Settling into my room for the night, I click off the bedside switch that controls the fiber-optic lights shining from inside my bed and slide into my sleeping bag. I pull off all my clothes but my underwear, socks and hat, stuffing them into the bottom of the bag to keep them warm. Then I zip myself in, trying to secure the bag tightly around my face--but not over my mouth. In the survival class held for guests on arrival, we were warned not to breathe into our sleeping bags, since the moisture we create would make us miserably cold.
Gradually my eyes adjust to the dark, domed room, my ears to an almost tangible silence and my nose to the crisp scent of snow. Words from a Hans Christian Andersen story come to mind: "The walls of the Snow Queen's castle were made of drifting snow, and the doors and windows of piercing winds." The urge to call for help on the cell phone by my bed recedes: I have finally found my childhood fairy-tale palace. I drift in and out of sleep.
In the morning at breakfast in the Manoir, Karen Whitcomb, who is there from New Durham, N.H., with her fiance and business partner Scott Drummey, reports having had "the best night's sleep I've ever had in a hotel." Both former glacier scientists, the pair are clearly in their element. Less used to snow is a couple from Dallas, Doug Lainhart and Martena Gooch, who also said they enjoyed themselves in their double sleeping bag. But I suspect it was love that kept them warm.
Next year's Ice Hotel, planned for the Duchesnay Ecotourism Station, a 30-minute drive from the city of Quebec, will be a bit more forgiving. After frolicking in winter activities and chilling out in an even grander Ice Hotel, guests will have the option of retreating to luxurious lodges, with phones--and even a bathroom.