The Breckenridge International Snow Sculpture Championships runs from January 20-29. This is its thirtieth anniversary. Sixteen teams, some flying in from remote parts of the world, created art out of twelve-foot high, 25-ton blocks of snow. I stopped by last night to see what they sculpted.
Wisconsin artists do know something about snow. Their entry, Quality of the Soul came in third place. Nice! Go Wisconsin! I’m partial since I grew up in Madison.
Nice to Meet You took second place in an entry from Great Britain. So cute!
Greed created by artists from Mexico took first place. I love the humor and the technical difficulty of the conical cup, supporting the gluttonous man, who eats marshmallows. Hilarious!
This intricate entry, Triumph over Evil from India won Artist’s Choice, chosen by the other sculptors. Beautiful!
There were several others that caught my eye.
Bride by China, Square Dance by Vermont artists, and my personal favorite Twister by France.
On Wednesday, January 29 all of the stunning snowy masterpieces will become part of a snowbank somewhere in Breckenridge.
Which is your favorite? Had you heard of the International Snow Sculpture Championships in Breckenridge? Are you a snow person or do you prefer sandcastles?
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Susie Lindau's Wild Ride 
All beautiful. Hard to pick a favorite but I liked the Artist’s choice a lot.
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Me too! That sculpture was super detailed. Hard to believe it was an entry from India! I wonder how they practiced…
Thanks for stopping by on a Sunday night, John!
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I love them all, Susie! So much talent. 😎
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They were spectacular, John! I love how they light the up at night.
Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
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Always great to see you again, Susie. I’ve followed you guys for a long time my online buddy! 😎
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Gorgeous, love the detail on that serpent 🙂
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Me too! The fangs were perfect. I don’t know how they keep them stuck together so they don’t break down in the midday sun. I’ll have to stop by when they are being carved some time. 🙂
Thanks for swinging by!
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Wow! I’m impressed. I might enter next year. I know how to make a snowman….
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Ha! Grab three friends and go for it. 😀
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⛄⛄⛄🤞 Here we are.
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😂😂 You are good!!
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lol
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Pretty amazing pieces of art. Isn’t it a shame they melt.
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I think the knock them down and plow them. Otherwise, kids would climb on them. I would imagine the glutton in the tea cups would become a huge Instagram sensation.. 😂😂😂
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I love them all. But square dance from Vermont has a special place in my heart. When I was a college student in northern Vermont, I got to go to dances where at the end of each set they’d play 2 square dances. I had such fun.
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That is so cool!! It’s another layer to their entry that I had no idea about. Thanks, Susan!
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Wow! Really cool. Who’d’ve thought that a team from Mexico, of all places, would win this contest. When I hear Mexico I think warm sandy beaches not big frozen blocks of snow.
I like them all. They’re all winners in my opinion.
Patricia Rickrode
w/a Jansen Schmidt
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I agree about Mexico. I wonder where they practiced. These were my favorites and there were nine others!
Thanks for stopping by, Patricia. 😎
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These are glorious sculptures! Raised our children in Gurnee, Illinois and used to spend a fair amount of time wandering Wisconsin. We attended the snow sculpture exhibits in Door County. They were nice, but these are amazing! Thank you for this.
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I love Door County and camped there with my family a couple of times. What a great place to go to see an exhibition of snow sculptures. ⛄️
Thanks for stopping by, Ellen!
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Greed is my favorite but they are all unique. I’ve made sculptures from sand and clay before but never anything in the ice. Someday it would be fun to try.
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It would, Jan! That’s so cool that you’ve sculpted!
I graduated with an art degree and worked in a lot of mediums but never sculpted clay. The artists must do a tremendous amount of measuring to get the proportions correct. I’ll have to watch them sometime!
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These are soooo impressive. You know I’m going with the dogs as my favorite.
We have a sand sculpture contest here in Virginia Beach every year with equally impressive works, just a different medium.
The fact that snow sculptures are destroyed by warmer temps and sand castles by higher water reminds me of the adage “time and tide wait for no man.” But in between, that man sure can create some beautiful art.
Loved this post, Susie.
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Thanks, Al!
They don’t even wait for the sun to melt them. The sculptures are bulldozed on Thursday. I gotta believe the artists cringe a little bit when they see their works of art demolished. I would!!
The dogs were so cute!
It’s amazing what people can create out of something most of us shake or scrape off our shoes. 😂😀
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Beautiful! I don’t do snow sculptures. My kids (under 7, I believe for both) helped me in a sand sculpture contest in Battle Creel. MI when I was applying for work there at Kellogg. The sculpture took honorable mention and the trophy (a sand castle, of course) still sits in my dining room on a shelf.
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Very cool, Scott! What did you create?
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Sorry, meant to put that in the response. lol
We 3 did a sculpture of the Kellogg main office building and grounds that was across the street from us.
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That is super cool! I would think it would be hard to make rectangles and hard edges with sand!
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Those are awesome. Thanks Susie.
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Thanks for stopping by! I think this was the best year ever. 😎
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These are amazing!! Love them all, but for some reason I liked the open box with the swirl 👏
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Me too! I didn’t know at the time of the video that it was called Twister. It was so organic!
Thanks, Sam!
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Beautiful works of art. Reminds me of my days at Michigan Technological University (MTU.org) in the upper peninsula. They have an annual Winter Carnival which includes a snow/ice sculpture competition. All the frat and sorority houses create huge sculptures according to that year’s theme, as well as all-nighter creations for dorm and off campus groups.
I helped with an all-nighter one winter and it was quite the fun and freezing event – some MadDog 20/20 was imbibed, purely for survival reasons. It will be held Feb 5-8th this year. Lots of memories…
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Wow! I love the U.P.! That sounds like so much fun! I bet it was super cold. I love that idea for a competition. I’m surprised UW-Madison never hosted that kind of event. Now, there’s no guarantee that there will be any snow!
Thanks, Tar-Buns!
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Mahvellous, Susie. Beautiful works. There was an ice sculpture display here last week but I forgot my camera/phone. Stay warm 🧣🧤🧥🧦
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When I’ve left my phone at home, it was like leaving my right arm behind. LOL! I bet they were “super cool.” Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, Paul!
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All of them are gorgeous. Maybe Mexican is my favorite. I think that if the same Group visited around the World. Last year there was a Mexican group in Finland.
Happy weekend!
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I bet you see all kinds of icy and snowy sculptures where you live. Finland is on my bucketlist!!!
Thanks so much for stopping by for the tour! I love the detail of that sculpture.
It’s been a wild month of hosting visitors, so I’m just catching up before the next adventure.
Have a splendid week!
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