If you find yourself in the town of Breckenridge this week, high in the mountains of Colorado (and you really should), you’ll happen upon an amazing site – massive sculptures of ice!
Sculptors from all over the world to descend upon one really charming mountain town, to carve designs, creatures, people and what-not out of giant , 10x10x12-foot blocks of ice. Battling exhaustion, chilling temperatures (which they hope for) and the bright sun at high-altitude (which they don’t hope for), they make cool things emerge from a big block.
The 23rd Annual Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championships are under way in Breckenridge, Colorado. Woo hoo! It’s the kind of mountain fun even non-skiers, non-outdoorsy people (like me) can get into. Since Jan. 22, artists have been in Breckenridge, sawing, carving, hacking, chipping and smoothing their designs, working against the clock and against temperatures in the 40’s which are an ice sculptor’s worst enemy.
Awards were given on Jan. 26 but you can still view the sculptures until February 3rd, the end of Viewing Week. Here’s a sampling of what you can see, taken from previous years’ events.
The crowd of hundreds of people surrounds 15 snow sculpture at the Breckenridge International Snow Sculpture Championships. The sculptures started with a 10 foot by 10 foot by 12 foot high solid block of snow and will have a total of 65 hours to finish their sculpture creation at the 23rd annual competition. The sculptures will remain on display at the open air exhibit through Feb. 3, at the Riverwalk Center downtown Breckenridge.(Nathan Bilow /AP Images for Breckenridge Chamber Resort)
An example of an ice sculpture. Photo by Carl Scofield.
That’s IT Mommy Courtney
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