SARANAC LAKE — Construction of this year's Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Ice Palace began Friday. The structure should be completed by Feb 3.
Every year, the goal is to finish the ice palace by the first weekend in February when the coronation of the Carnival Royalty takes place, said Janet Simkins, who has helped in the community effort since 1990.
"That's always our drive," she said.
The theme for this year's winter carnival, in its 114th year, is "Space Alien Invasion." The palace will be built in the form of a spaceship, said Dean Baker, chairman of the Winter Carnival Ice Palace Committee.
There were worries a few days ago that the ice wouldn't be thick enough to sustain construction due to warm weather and temperature fluctuations.
But ice has reached optimum thickness at just over 12 inches, Baker said.
"It's the perfect thickness right now," he said of the ice cut from Pontiac Bay on Lake Flower, the only source the committee uses for ice each year.
While changes in ice thickness are affected by the weather, the ice can grow up to a half inch each day, Baker said.
If the ice is too thin, it will shatter when the "cherry pickers," pull the ice out of Pontiac Bay, Simkins said.
Every year, Simkins looks forward to the process.
"It's fun," she said. "It's a great thing for us to do."
The volunteers pay close attention to the weather in the days leading up to and during construction, Simkins said.
"Once we start this whole routine we become weather channel geeks," she said.
There are 30 to 50 volunteers who work on the structure each day in addition to some inmate workers from the Moriah Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility.
"The guys were really impressed with them," Simkins said.
In his 30 years working on the ice palace, Baker said he can't remember a time where the construction of the structure has had to be canceled due to ice thickness issues or for any other reason.
But some years have seen problems with construction.
"We've had some years where we've had to tear it down and rebuild," Baker said.
High winds mixed with warmer temperatures drive air through the small cracks and crannies in between the ice blocks and weaken the mortar, called slush, which is made of powder snow and water, Simkins said.
For now, progress is steady and volunteers haven't encountered any problems.
"So far it has been going OK," Baker said.
The Saranac Lake Winter Carnival will run Feb. 3 through 12 this year.
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