Carving their futures in snow

Carving their futures in snow
Charleston Gazette

Although its members didn’t walk away with a winning prize, the knowledge and experience Team West Virginia gained last week from competing in the Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championships will shape its approach to the towering, temporary art moving forward.

“We’re all eager to get better but thankful we have a year to do it,” team member Josh Prusha said. “We already have a ton of ideas.”

Prusha and the team’s other members — Caitlin Moore, Chuck Holzworth and Brian Nueller — landed in Breckenridge, Colorado, last week to compete against some of the best national and international snow-sculpting teams in the 5-day, 65-hour competition. The 16 teams were allowed to use only hand tools to transform a 10- by 10- by 12-foot block of compacted snow into art.

Team Lithuania won first place at the 2015 International Snow Sculpture Championships for “The Wind of Eternal Change,” which depicts Noah’s Ark floating on clouds above a tremendous downpour.

Although its members didn’t walk away with a winning prize, the knowledge and experience Team West Virginia gained last week from competing in the Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championships will shape its approach to the towering, temporary art moving forward.

“We’re all eager to get better but thankful we have a year to do it,” team member Josh Prusha said. “We already have a ton of ideas.”

Prusha and the team’s other members — Caitlin Moore, Chuck Holzworth and Brian Nueller — landed in Breckenridge, Colorado, last week to compete against some of the best national and international snow-sculpting teams in the 5-day, 65-hour competition. The 16 teams were allowed to use only hand tools to transform a 10- by 10- by 12-foot block of compacted snow into art.

Team Lithuania won first place for its piece, “The Wind of Eternal Change.”

According to Breckenridge’s travel website, Judge Coordinator Jenn Cram described the winning piece as Noah’s Ark “floating on clouds above a tremendous downpour that speaks poetically of our changing climate and times.”

Team Germany-Agrawal won second place with a modern design titled “Yantra.” Team USA-Minnesota took third place with “The Tempest,” a sculpture showing a Mother Nature figure summoning the power of the eagle’s wings to create the tempest.

This was Team West Virginia’s first year competing in Breckenridge. It usually competes in Zehnder’s Snowfest, an annual snow-sculpting competition held in Frankenmuth, Michigan. The team carved a large, 11-foot-high bear, perched awkwardly above a river with his right paw raised in an attempt to grab a fish swimming below.

Full story and pix:

http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20150204/GZ05/150209723