Snow Sculpture from the Vermont State Snow Sculpting Champions

Doesn’t look like much yet!

Here is the master suite, the master bdrm and Dave dancing in the living room. And a shot of all our luggage and tools!

And all our luggage too! Now a burger while we wait for Dave.

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!

So – Here is the latest greatest version. With less then two weeks before be head out to Colorado to make it. I think it is showing signs of being awesome – and seeing it in this small form we are better able to imagine how to create it from the 20 ton block of snow that we will be faced with.

We’ve been making something for First Night for a couple of years now. They had us at the top block of Church Street for the first couple of years, then Jimmy – the guy who ran First Night – wanted to try and pump up the after-Dragon-Parade-party in City Hall Park – so we were in City Hall Park for a while – and Jimmy wanted us to light the sculptures on fire – so that was cool. But it was good to be back on the top block next to the big Christmas tree this year.

Also- the new woman of First Night – Jenn – told us there was a theme this year. We are celebrating the quadracentennial of Samuel De Champlain’s discovery of Lake Champlain all this year. So the sculpture kind of took shape all on its own. Champ – the Lake Monster – easily recognizable – and Samuel D – who kind of looks like Shakespeare.

It snowed about two weeks ago. We got a foot or more – then we had a serious warm spell and a couple of rains, so all the snow disappeared. I wasn’t even sure the guys at Parks and Rec could find enough snow to fill the 6 foot by 6 foot box – but Richie called me on Sunday and said they had a couple piles stashed around town. His quote “I don’t know how clean the snow will be…”. So needless to say it was pretty rocky and leafy… and very very heavy. Wet. The wetter the snow the closer it is to ice, and of course the day after they built the snow block the temps took a nose dive into artic land… but oh well… you have to take what you get in this biz…

This I can tell you – if we had great snow and were able to sculpt and perfect representation of Samuel De Champlain, there would still be a lot of people in Burlington Vermont who would have no idea who Samuel De Champlain is. He just doesn’t hit the same marks in cultural iconography of say… Einstein… or Brittany Spears even… (not that would be a sculpture – Brittany and Einstein….)

It was Dosties first time at snow sculpting – heavy wet rocky snow and the temparatures dropping and the wind whipping around the top block of Church Street… I think he got the gist of it. Snow Sculpting isn’t really glamorous… but it still is the only medium I know where you can bust out an eight foot tall sculpture with a couple of people in just two short days of work….

The 400 yrs was Brookes idea – to represent the quadracentennial. I never like making numbers of letters, but I do think it helped explain itspef to the public.

It was still there and in pretty good shape today – I wonder how long it will last?