
STILLWATER, Minn. (KFGO KVRR) โ Known much more as a summer destination, itโs not uncommon for the streets of Stillwater to be a lot quieter in the winter, at least that was the case before the city brought in the World Snow Sculpting Championship.
โThe impact has been remarkable. We have between 50,000 and probably 100,000 itโs really hard to gauge visit during this week and then the subsequent weeks. Last year we had over a billion media impressions. Thereโs not a lot of news in January, right? And this was it. People coming from around the world to visit here and make really amazing art,โ said Co-Chair of Word Snow Sculpting Committee Sara Jesperson.
12 teams line the frozen banks of the St Croix River and have traveled from as far away as Turkey Finland and even Ecuador. It could be hard to pick a favorite.
When looking at all the amazing sculptures you may find some familiar names representing North Dakota on the world stage.
โFour sculptures at the POWMIA Plaza in West Fargo on that brutally cold weekend last weekend,โ said Team North Dakotaโs Michael Nelson. โUnfortunately, the Frostival snow sculpture event had to be canceled due to the lack of snow, but weโve been doing that for about the last eight years since it started and thatโs actually how we met as a team. Josh and I were on a team, and we would compete against Jay Ray who typically worked solo. We trade off wins it seems like we would always be taking either 1st or 2nd and when we decided to hit the world stage we teamed up and weโve been working together ever since.โ
Coming in is the reigning national champions team North Dakota looks to up the ante with everyone one of their creations.
โThe whole point of this is to show element of weightlessness,โ said Nelson. โSo, we have a female form in this dream like position. Everything weโve been doing from the start of this project has been to push the limits of the snow and make things look like you itโs impossible to do out of snow.โ
The cold weather showed up just in time for the event. unfortunately, the weather also meant poor traveling conditions for some of the teams, but the frigid temperatures couldnโt stop a warm gesture of hospitality.
โNo tools, no clothes, nothing,โ said Marie-Claude-Paris-Tanguay of Team Canada. โAll of our luggage were lost somewhere in the corner of a room of Air Canada so no no we didnโt have anything for the first day. We had some clothes that everybody lent to us. Our cool neighbors from North Dakota here they lent us some tools, and everybody was trying to help usโ
โThey did get their tools finally, and theyโve been doing an amazing job, but we did not hesitate, said Nelson. โWe had the luxury of getting to drive here so we had two truckloads full of gear, so we have plenty to go around. We probably have enough tools for everybody here. It seems like the one unifying thing is everybody is very supportive itโs much less competitive than you might thinkโ
When asked what winning the grand prize would mean to them Nelson said, โYou know the big thing is opening up to other events. This is an amazing event, but there are other international competitions that are application only. Thereโs big competitions in China and Japan and Europe. what weโd really like to do if we win this is to start looking at some of those international competitions and bring team North Dakota overseas and show the rest of the world what we got.โ
After all their hard work team North Dakota placed third. Team Turkey got the second spot. Despite not having their tools for the beginning of the competition, team Canada took home the first place prize.
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