BETHEL — Inspired by the volcanic splendors of Iceland, this year’s snow feature for the Bethel WinterFest will be a giant snow volcano.

And this volcano will spew real fire and ashes, not snowflakes.

Snow engineer Jim Sysko, who has previously brought snow people, ice towers and snow mazes to Bethel, had an “a ha” moment after a brainstorming session last fall with the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce.

The committee planning the event was discussing possible themes for the WinterFest.

“Kevin Rosenberg (of Mt. Abram) came up with ‘Fire and Ice,’” Sysko said.

Not long afterward, Sysko went for a mountain hike with Bob Westfall, with whom he had traveled to Iceland several years ago.

The theme, Sysko told his friend, “sounds like the volcanoes in Iceland.”

“I loved Iceland,” Sysko said. “If Bethel ever wants a sister (town), Iceland is the place to find one. When one of their under-glacier volcanoes goes off, it sends out a huge tsunami-like flood of boiling water — the best example of ‘Fire and Ice’ on the planet.

“Hopefully, this won’t happen at Winterfest,” he said.

Hollow-log effect

Sysko also thought about the effect created by throwing a hollow log on a campfire.

“The fire turns it into a blowtorch,” he said. “I thought, ‘Why not make something like that, but bigger, and surrounded by snow?’”

Sysko had plenty of dead trees lying around in the woods of his property. So he enlisted local contractor Rick Savage to take them to the empty lot near the Casablanca Cinema building, the site of previous snow projects.

In the next couple of weeks, with help from longtime WinterFest volunteer Jim Bennett, Sysko will bundle the 40-foot logs together with cables. Aided by a large crane from the Bancroft Contracting Co., the bundle will be raised to a vertical position. Large concrete blocks and guy wires will secure it.

A 2-foot-diameter pipe, about 80 feet in length, will be lain on the ground, pointing outward from the base of the logs.

Enter Sunday River Ski Resort’s snow-making guns, which will blow snow for three or four days, enough to create a 150-foot-diameter “mountain” around the logs.

On the last night of WinterFest, weather permitting, the volcano will erupt, fired by an accelerant and fed oxygen by air drawn in through the pipe.

Sysko doesn’t expect the heat to melt the snow mountain.

“We should be left with a hollow core and a pile of ashes at the bottom,” he said.

But because this is a first-time experiment for him, Sysko said, the Bethel Fire Department will be standing by among the spectators.

Through the month of February, the snow pile will serve as a sledding hill for the young.