Ice carvers use an array of odd tools to form their elegant works of art, including this board with dozens of screws drilled through it. By roughing up the blocks of ice, carvers make it easier to glue separate blocks together using nothing but water and freezing temperatures.
This year’s international ice carving competition at Confederation Park included a giant squid, a ferocious Viking, and a psychedelic wink so curvy it seemed to defy the brittle medium out of which it was carved. The quarter-century old competition featured carvers representing 12 different countries, including Iraq, Mexico, France and the Philippines. Over three days and 30 hours, 14 teams of two carvers each transformed thousands of pounds of ice into stunning crystalline works of art. The grueling competition, which requires physical endurance and constant attention to detail despite frozen appendages, began on Feb. 3, 2012, and ended on Feb. 5. While the competition contained some tragedy this year, the end result was the same – a long soak in a hot tub.
This year’s winners:
Third: Fedor Markov (Yakutsk, Russia) and Vasiliy Sivtsev (Krasnoyarsk, Russia) for “Milky Way”.
Second: Samuel Girault (Le Blanc Mesnil, France) and Michal Mizula (Poznan, Poland) for "Cosmic Wink".
First and Media's Choice: Antonio Baisas (Gatineau, Quebec) and Ross Baisas (Verdun, Quebec) for "Viking's Last Ride".
