Admiring the Breckenridge Snow Sculptures

I have lived in Colorado for nearly twelve years. But despite all of the time I’ve spent exploring my great state, I have barely had time to scratch the surface on all of the amazing things to see and do. I took care of knocking two items off my to-do list this weekend with my first-ever trip to Breckenridge to see the 22nd annual International Snow Sculpture Championships.

It was early, but traffic was already plugging up Interstate 70 into the mountains. Chugging along at 15 miles per hour was so frustrating that I almost turned around to look for another way to spend the day. I mentally made a deal with myself, though, and decided to give it a few more miles.

Thankfully that was enough for traffic to clear and free me to respectable speeds on into the mountains.

After more than three hours – twice the time it would take with the road clear – I pulled into Breckenridge. I was in town with a friend specifically to see the snow sculptures that international teams had spent all week working on. I had heard from friends and coworkers that it was a great must-see event for any Coloradoan in the winter.

We quickly arrived at the small event plaza after a free shuttle bus ride from the parking lot on the edge of town. It was a beautiful, albeit frigid, day and I was excited to see the sculptures. We were there on the first day after they were completed and on display; the sculptures will remain on display through Sunday, February 5th.

Fifteen teams from nine countries around the world – from Finland to China – converged on Breckenridge, Colorado. From a large 10 x 10 x 12 foot block of snow weighing more than twenty tons, they would create their massive sculptures in approximately 65 hours. As we strolled amongst the sculptures, it seemed as though some ran out of time when it came to completing their works.

Some snow sculptures were quite intricate while others were very basic and abstract. But it appeared as though some were missing quite a few details that were shown in their small models. Since we did not see any of the sculptors standing around their work, we assumed it was simply due to a time issue – these teams were obviously too skilled not to be able to carve in the small details which were missing.

My friend and I commented on each of the snow sculptures as we walked amongst them. We took two spins through the plaza and found that our tastes were generally the same – we both preferred those with better details over the abstract sculptures. All of the sculptures were quite impressive, but those that appeared to have taken so much more thought and effort won us over.

We also agreed on our favorite sculptures. In third place was The Deadliest Catch: Calamari’s Revenge, the Kraken (Team USA / Alaska), left. Our second place winner was Great Expectations (Team Canada / Quebec), below. What was our choice for first place? That I’ll save for my Picture of the Week selection this Friday.