For the past couple years, we have missed Ice Fest in Chambersburg due to our winter vacations. We miss going downtown and seeing the amazing ice sculptures, sipping hot chocolate and we always enjoyed the ballet at the Capitol. This year was no exception. We were SO excited when we found out that Breckenrige was hosting their annual snow sculpting competition while we were there. Teams come from all over the world to carve their creations out of huge blocks of snow.
All week, you can watch the progress as these 20 ton chunks of solid snow turn into beautiful pieces of art.....each sculpture has a money box and you can vote for your favorite one. Now, they don't pay these teams to do this and their is no major award at the end. All the money is given to charity. They do it for shear fun. And, they can not use any power tools. They create these massive pieces using items from any local hardware or kitchen supply store. We saw most teams using vegetable peelers for the fine details. The other cool thing is that the blocks are "handmade." Front end loaders dump piles of snow into wooden frames and then 5-10 people get inside and pack the snow down with their feet.....Lucy style.....remember when she was in Italy and stomped the grapes for the wine? I'd imagine it was just like that....but with parkas and snow boots instead of peasant blouses and bare feet.
Here are some of the sculptures on display.....some of them weren't finished by the end of the week due to the fact that spring arrived in Breck a bit early and many days were 50 degrees. They put up tarps to try and keep the sun off and would then sculpt all night when the air got cold again.
0 comments:
Post a Comment