We leave for Breckenridge on Sunday, and have a day and a half to kick it, get the model and the associated tools ready, and get acclimated to the altitude. But a week from today we will be out there facing a 10 foot by 10 foot, 12 foot high, 20 ton block of snow.

Its a big block. I remember the first time we tackled the 6X6 foot block here in Burlington and I thought is was pretty huge… the one out there is almost 4 times the mass. It is a daunting feeling knowing that you have to transform it into a beautiful work of art on par with some of the best sculptors of the world in five days. Add to that the fact that we will be hungover, ill-slept, and getting used to how we all work together as a team, and you have the makings for complete chaos.

Usually we get through it pretty easily though. At some point we take a break and get an early beer – that usually helps – and then we go on and tackle that block some more.

I actually have a fairly good idea of how to de-bulk the block to make the snow sculpture this year. I have gone through the process of making a secondary model, a de-bulking snow sculpture model, and will use that to get to the point of being able to start carving more intricate shapes then just blocks – which is what it will look like for the first two days.

We will be uploading camera phone pics and blogging as time allows, so stay tuned!