One block, one hour.... Ice competition

During our time at the ice sculpting competition in Lake Louise there was one hour set aside for brief competition within the competition during the second day. Basically, the sculptors are given one block of ice and one hour in which they can make anything they want. One person from the two person team attends. It was a fascinating display to watch. I'm pretty lucky because I see people carve ice all the time, but I've never seen it done on a competitive level. The new "twist" this year was that they judges did not know who made the ice sculptures. They did blind judging on them.  So all ten contestants had an area designated for them and they began sculpting for one hour. I stayed outside to watch and even made a video. Randy and the two other judges were sequestered inside at the bar. Upon completion of the sculptures, they came out and inspected them. All of the competitors went inside to wait. (I went inside too because it was so very very cold outside, I really don't know how the sculptors can stand being in the cold that long.)

This competition was held at Lake Louise Inn, which was very close to the Fairmount where the 3 day competition was being held. 

It never ceases to amaze me how tall an ice sculptor can make a block of ice. Of course ice is always melting and getting smaller, but it's almost like magic how they make it grow. Also, the artistry involved blows my mind, I can barely color in the lines, much less create a spectacular work of art.  They cut the pieces and fuse them together making one block of ice appear like many blocks of ice. 

Basically, I'm just going to post pictures in this particular blog and you can see for yourself the amazing things people can make out of ice and given they only had an hour, it's pretty incredible. 

 The finished pieces are below.

This was the winner and it also won the people's choice award

This came in 2nd

This was 3rd 

This one was one of my favorites, basically a close 4th.