Fire and ice: Chena Hot Springs Resort's new ice hotel: guests will sleep on beds of ice and drink from ice glasses.

• Author: Bernard, Chris

Only a man of enormous vision could hatch an idea the magnitude of Bernie Karl's latest.

A graying, hale fellow with no shortage of ideas--or words--at his disposal, Karl and his wife, Connie, bought Chena Hot Springs Resort five years ago. About 60 miles north of Fairbanks, the resort is built on more than 400 acres of natural hot springs and has been popular with area residents and visitors to the Interior since 1905.

It's necessary to try to understand Karl to fully appreciate his latest idea, which is to build the nation's first hotel made entirely of ice. As unlikely as the idea may sound, Karl is just the guy to pull it off.

To him, fire and ice are complementary rather than contradictory.

"It's perfect," he said in July, standing on land he cleared for the hotel adjacent to the Chena lodge. "It's going to be the most popular tourist destination in Alaska. No one will come to the Interior and not visit this place."

Karl's dream came about when he learned that Steve Brice, 10-time World Ice Art Championships winner and longtime Fairbanks resident, was thinking of leaving town for the Lower 48.

"We didn't want him to go," Karl said. By hiring him to sculpt not only the infrastructure of the hotel, but everything from the furniture and chandeliers to the martini glasses used at the bar--and the bar itself--Karl found a way to keep Brice in town.

"Now, he can make a living carving ice," Karl said. "Together with his carving ability and my ambition, we make a pretty interesting team."

Karl has as much ambition as a Fairbanks winter has ice. He runs several businesses besides Chena Hot Springs Resort, and seems shark-like in that he never stops moving. After Brice signed on to the ice hotel plan, Karl acted immediately to solidify the dream.

He's not a man to waste time. You can feel the energy behind his every word. You get the sense that you would not want to buy a used car from this man, but that if he were selling one, you'd buy it anyway.

Karl speaks loudly and without pause. When he talks, it is often in bumper sticker philosophies. But to Karl, they are common-sense ideologies.

"We're stewards of the land," he said. "In between, you get a scorecard. We're making something of this place."

On a hot day this summer, as locals and tourists alike soaked in the resort's mineral baths and swimming pools, and sipped cool drinks at the restaurant's bar, Karl walked his property lines, pointing out the improvements he's made over the last five...