I don't want to know how they signed their names in the snow.

February 11, 2003 11:08 AM

The 2003 International Snow Sculpture championships occured last week, with once again a Canadian team taking top honors. Unfortunately due to unseasonably warm weather this year's competition doesn't seem to be as impressive as the 2002 event. Of course, none of them come close to the undisputed master of snow art, Calvin.
posted by Stan Chin (8 comments total)

Beautiful stuff, mr stanchion. By the way, Foxtrot recently homage-ed Calvin.
Heh, the one with the big flag in front of it collapsed.
posted by Shane at 11:51 AM on February 11, 2003

Wow I really like the WWW one. This is very cool. Their oeuvre is monochromatic.
posted by riffola at 12:03 PM on February 11, 2003

It sure is. Uh-huh.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 12:16 PM on February 11, 2003

Also very nifty: They all start from the same 10' x 10' x 12' tall blocks, which are made by an earth-mover dumping 20 tons of snow into a wooden form. I guess the sculpting is primarily a subtractive process, like wood or ice sculpture, making large additions or corrections (although easy with clay) tough or impossible with snow.
posted by Shane at 12:20 PM on February 11, 2003

The Calvin link, at the top of the page, reproduces my favorite Calvin & Hobbes panel of all time -- the snowman and the cannonball. I can picture where I was when I saw that one, such is the effect it had on me.
posted by Holden at 2:00 PM on February 11, 2003

This is a wonderful, old-school MeFi post, Stan. Thanks for creating it.
posted by anastasiav at 2:17 PM on February 11, 2003

But did the Kenyan team make it to the event?
posted by Hogshead at 8:49 PM on February 11, 2003

Awesome post, Stan Chin!
Here's a few more (ahem) cool photos of festivals.
posted by madamjujujive at 4:11 AM on February 12, 2003