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Competitors transform snow into sculpture

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Snow sculptures

Winterfest in Lake Geneva continues through the weekend with snow sculpting until 11 a.m. Saturday and activities from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. Winners of the U.S. National Snow Sculpting Competition will be announced at 3 p.m. Saturday. Sculptures will be on display in Riviera Park until they melt away. Click to play

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Photo by Bill Olmsted

John White of Dubuque, Ia stand on his team's snow block high over the shoreline of Geneva Lake as he positions two blocks of snow. The team was sculpting a group of 6 children playing on a junglr gym as their entry in the annual contest in Lake Geneva.

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Photo by Bill Olmsted

Adrian Tans, l, and Michael Nedell use wood saws to slice a block of snow off their cylinder in downtown Lake Geneva. Tans' and Nedell's Vermont based team is carving a robot and a monkey locked in a lasar gun battle as it's entry in the annual Lake Geneva contest.

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Photo by Bill Olmsted

John Dietz of Wisconsin's Snowblind team, enlarges a hole that runs completely through the teams snow cylinder. The team is carving an eagle with outstretched wings ans it's entry in the annual Lake Geneva contest.

Photo

Photo by Bill Olmsted

A tiny model of an eagle is the only key to what the final carving of the Snowblind team will eventually look like. The Wisconsin team began sculpting on Wednesday on the grounds of Lake Geneva's Riveria building, as part of the city's annual competition.

LAKE GENEVA — Three men in matching blue jackets marched to their site like soldiers headed to battle.

The veteran snow sculptors of Team Wisconsin carted bags, boxes and buckets full of tools. They cleared a few inches of snow around the base of their block of snow and measured out a grid to match a three-dimensional scale model of their planned sculpture.

Then they stood back to survey the scene.

Snow sculptors from across the country descended on Riviera Park on Wednesday to compete in the U.S. National Snow Sculpting Championship, the centerpiece of Winterfest in Lake Geneva. Fifteen teams will labor for four days and three nights—in temperatures both above and below freezing—to transform 9-foot-high, 8-foot-wide columns of snow into works of art.

The team from Wisconsin—Tom Queoff of Milwaukee, Mike Martino of La Crosse and Michael Sponholtz of Milwaukee—is making its third appearance at the annual contest. The sculptors are working on a challenging piece with striking details. It will require care and accuracy from start to finish, they said.

The sculpture, called “Snowy Egrets,” depicts two of the slender birds with their long necks intertwining and their delicate wings creating swooping arches.

The men started by locating the major points on their scale model and the corresponding points on the snow block, creating a measured grid on the snow block and making rough cuts, Martino said.

“We have a model so we can communicate about any given point of the sculpture at any given time,” Sponholtz said. “If there’s a question, we check the model. If there’s a problem, we check the model. The model doesn’t change.”

They will use conventional tools, such as an ice chipper, and unconventional tools, such as a nail plate affixed to a wooden handle, to shape the snow and transform a solid block into an intricate sculpture, Martino said.

Unlike some previous years, weather this week is expected to be ideal for snow sculpting. Teams struggled with melting snow during the competition last year and with biting winds and frigid temperatures the year before that.

“Our first competition (more than 20 years ago) was terrible. Our sculpture fell 20 minutes before judging,” Queoff said. “But we never let that stop us.”

First-, second- and third-place winners are determined by the teams themselves, which consider creativity, technique and message when evaluating the sculptures. The Spirit Award, determined by the previous year’s recipient, is given to the team that best represents the ideals of the competition.

Event visitors select the People’s Choice award winner.

Winners are announced Saturday afternoon.