Ice Hotels, four hotels

Warmth in a cabin comes from a stove, and the people staying keep it going through the evening and again in the morning. Wood is brought in from the store outside. Doors are kept shut against the cold, boots left at the entrance, and the fire looked at once more before anyone turns in.

The camp lays in the wood and keeps the stores filled. Cabins are prepared before an arrival, bedding is put out, and the sauna and the main building are looked after by staff. Meals are cooked and served in the lodge, and the paths between buildings are cleared again after snowfall.

This is a winter site in Lapland, where cabins stand apart from one another under snow. A stove in each one is the only heat that reaches it, and the fire lasts only while someone in the room is minding it.

The key waits in a box by the door, and the people staying let themselves in. Wood is already stacked, food already in the kitchen, and the rest of the stay is theirs to run. Water is fetched, the fire lit, the beds made up, and the house left in order at the end.

Everything is put in place before an arrival. Staff bring in wood, stock the kitchen, prepare the beds and leave written notes about the house. Access and the track in are settled in advance, and the lodge is checked over and set right again between one stay and the next.

The lodge stands alone by the river, with no other building nearby and nobody living on the site. Keeping a member of staff there through every stay would change what the house is, so it is handed over ready instead.

Where the road ends, walking begins, and the people staying carry their own packs from the car park onward. Skis and sledges are loaded by hand. Gear is sorted in the entrance hall, wet clothes hung up, and anything not wanted in the mountains is left behind at the station.

The station keeps rooms, a kitchen and a shop at the roadhead. Meals are cooked and served, cabins are heated and cleaned, and the family who run the place look after the buildings through the winter. Information about the routes beyond is held at the desk for anyone setting out.

Nikkaluokta is the place where the road into the Kebnekaise mountains simply stops. Beyond the station nothing at all is driven, and the ground rises straight into open fell, so anything a guest wants further in has to leave the building on a back or a sledge.

Harnesses are untangled, sledges packed and lines checked alongside the people who work here, and guests take part in that rather than watch it. Kit is dried and hung after a day out. Boots are cleaned, gloves set by the stove, and the sledges left ready for the following morning.

The lodge feeds and houses everyone and looks after the animals and the equipment. Staff lead every trip, keep the sledges in repair and decide what the day will hold. Rooms are heated and serviced, meals cooked in the kitchen, and warm clothing supplied to anyone who needs it.

The lodge is small and stands in snow country north of the Arctic Circle, where a day out begins and ends in the same yard. Work with sledges takes more hands than a few staff have at once, so guests fall into the routine alongside them.