BY LISA J. SHULTZ
The 31st International Snow Sculpture Championships were held in Breckenridge January 24 – February 2. Teams from around the world and US descended on Breckenridge and carved works of art by hand on 12-foot high, 25-ton blocks of snow. Using only hand tools, these blocks came to life over a week.
This year’s winner was a team from Wisconsin. The team’s intricate sculpture, The Digital Divide, has two hands. One hand is human, and the other is robotic. They interact with a wall of binary code.
Second place was awarded to a team from Germany for their sculpture Float, which was an abstract piece with five rectangular blocks stacked on each other in different directions. This piece also got the Artists’ Choice Award, receiving the most votes from fellow competitors.
Another Wisconsin team won third place with their sculpture, Bee Sustainability showing a scene of a bee visiting a flower.
The People’s Choice award went to Team Mexico with their sculpture King of Thrones.
This amazing contest and celebration of winter occurs in late January each year.