Welcome to another edition of Nature Friday on the last day of January. Elsa here…joining those cute pups from Adventures of the LLB Gang. The past few weeks we’ve pretty much had bupkis finding beauty in nature. Winter’s the season of drab so hopefully today’s offering will be a nice chance of pace. Instead of kvetching about the weather, Mom and her friend, Cheryl drove up to Breckenridge to embrace it. They went to check out first hand the International Snow Sculpture Championship held at Breckenridge, Colorado this week. It was a positively gorgeous crystal clear day with temps in the low 30F’s at the ski resort. You couldn’t ask for a nicer day (unless it happened to have fewer people). Mom and Cheryl figured a Tuesday wouldn’t be nearly as busy, but they were sorely miscalculated. There were jillions of skiers, tourists and gobs of people checking out the ice sculptures which were displayed across street from the ski resort’s closest parking lot to the ski gondola. As they arrived, it seemed like everyone in town was abuzz with excitement with the event.
Wilson: Along the route, they were treated to beautiful clear blue skies and snow-capped peaks. Be sure to check out the video above on the link showing how this event unfolds, from showing those 20 ft. tall enormous blocks of ice being turned into massive artistic creations in just a few days. Mum’s only regret sharing the video is she couldn’t ditch the ad but luckily you can skip it quickly. That video is from last year but it’ll still give you a sense of what happens. She didn’t find a video for this year by the time we published.
Elsa: I guess it’s quite the deal getting ready for it. Four days of carving and then four days for the public to view. Pretty cool, eh, House Pony?
Wilson: Right you are, Ninja! Mum had a hard time winnowing down the countless pics she took there. But let me first set the stage and explain a little about Breckenridge, a mountain town located in Summit County about 80 miles west of Denver with an altitude of 9,600 ft. above sea level. It started out as a mining camp in 1859. Then in 1961, skiing was introduced and, well, the rest is history. Let’s sniff around, shall we?
Elsa: Yes, yes…let’s snoop and sniff. Here’s a bit of the downtown area. Followed by the bridge where they made their way to the event site. A pic of an old cabin turned into a restaurant follows. And those icicles…holy yikes!
Wilson: Nice, sister. Now let’s see some of the actual ice sculptures. This was one of the first sculptures to greet you.
Wilson: One of mom’s favorites was that dragon. Considering the Chinese Lunar New Year was celebrated this week, she thought it was quite timely.
Elsa: Oooh, ahhhhh. Those are some pretty amazing sculptures. Mom took a pic from way back so you could get a sense of the scale of these things. {head shaking} Talk about impressive! Notice how small people are compared to them.
Wilson: Finally something bigger than me. Heh, heh.
Elsa: Oh get over yourself, dude. This next one was Mom’s favorite and it took silver.
Wilson: Here is the massive bear entry from the team from Mongolia. It makes a statement about the impact of climate change and how it’s affecting nature. Against that gorgeous blue sky, it was quite impressive and hopefully activates people to do something to help out these beautiful creatures whose habitat is constantly being threatened.
Elsa: But the winner…drum roll please was the entry from Team Germany. I know Mom’s German and all, but even she said “meh.” It was created with lots of precision though.
Elsa: Not my favorite but they failed to ask me to be a judge. Their loss.
Wilson: Mum took so many photos at this event that didn’t make this post. With 12 teams, it was hard to show them all and chose the best of the best. All in all it was quite the day. As the shadows started getting longer from the nearby mountain, Mum and her friend decided to try and make a quick exit before all the skiers began to clear out and head home. Both of them were surprised at the sheer number of people on a Tuesday afternoon. But with decent snow and almost spring like conditions on a gorgeous day, I guess everyone decided to call in sick (or maybe even call in too well to go to work). Mum’s city life makes her forget just how many people love getting away to the mountains. Unfortunately driving back on I-70 was a quick reminder of just how many there are out on the roadways.
Elsa: Thanks for sharing these striking images, House Pony. So what’s on your weekend agenda?
Wilson: Give that our temps will likely reach 60ºF (15C) today and tomorrow, we hope it will involve lots of outside sniffing. Hopefully we’ll get several days of pleasant weather. Whatever you do, we hope you have a fantastic weekend. Make sure you get outside to experience all that Nature offers. There’s always some beauty to be found in the season of drab if you just look around.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
Lulu: “I think our Dada’s favorite is Icarus, if only because of the way it’s going to melt when it gets too close to the sun.”
Oona: “Oona kind of likes the German one. It would only take her a few jumps to get to the top, and then she would be the queen of all she surveys.”
Java Bean: “Ayyy, I don’t think you—”
Oona: “QUEEN OF ALL SHE SURVEYS!!!”
Oona, you should scamper up the dragon to see your kingdom-it was taller. 😉
“THE Ascent of Icarus” iss simple amazin Miss Monika! All THE Sculpturess are furabuluss butt Icarus iss u-neek!!!
Yore mountainss looks so frosty an majestick. Wee love yore Icicless on side of buildin foto…so much purrtier than ourss, mew mew mew……
~~~head rubss~~~BellaDharma~~~ an {{hugss}} BellaSita Mum
Thanks, that one was pretty impressive, to say the least! I dunno…your icicle was quite amazing!
One persons drama is another persons peaceful.
So true. No wonder the saying ‘art is in the eye of the beholder’ is a legit thing. 😇
Lucy: Those snow sculptures were fantastic and takes a lot of talent, and I’m with Elsa on the one she said wasn’t “her favorite.”
Xena: Be sure to not walk under those pointy icicles. You might get skewered!
It wasn’t not very interesting but it was pretty remarkable-a true engineering feat!
True. Just didn’t have the emotional appeal.
Well now – not only are all of the photos beyond spectacular with such gorgeous scenery and sights but that ice sculpting display was amazing. Mother Nature’s “ice sculpture” (those huge formations from the roof of the building!) were the BIGGEST we’ve ever seen. There’s so much artwork the most talented Mother Nature is good at don’t you think?
Hugs, Teddy and Mom
Mother Nature is life’s original Picasso. That adventure was truly special. The company of a dear friend in the midst of such wondrous beauty…boy it just doesn’t get much better. Have a swell weekend! Spring is only 46 days away.
How beautiful to see all those sculptures!!
We had pouring rain early in the day…which in the late afternoon became freezing rain, followed about 3 inches of heavy snow. I was at work, and forgot to take boots and gloves…Oops! The forecast didn’t call for more than a wee bit of snow in the late evening. Hmmm, they were WRONG!
Thanks so much. Oh my gosh, you really had it all! Argh about the forecast being so way off. Sounds like gloves and boots were sorely missed. Hopefully a good weekend will make everything better.
We are going skiing in Breckenridge in March. We just bought airline tickets and reserved hotel, ski rental, and ski lessons for those who need. Those snow sculptures are just amazing.
Too bad you won’t be able to see those sculptures in person. They were something else. We ate at a little Thai restaurant that was totally incredible. Some of the best curry I’ve ever eaten. Here’s hoping you guys have a terrific trip. ‘Breck’ is a very cool place and certainly so beautiful.
Thank you for sharing that fantastic adventure.
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed a day in the mountains with us. Have a great weekend.
There’s some stunning stuff there…but those icicles!
Thanks, Helen. They looked so lethal! Hope your weekend is fantastic.
Holy Jack Frost! Those icicles are the length of javelins!
The sculptures are all pretty amazing, and I have to agree with mama, the dragon was also my favorite.
Your temps are playing pinball!
Enjoy the weekend everyone
Oh yes, a mad game of yo-yo pinball! I’d hate to be around those icicles as they’re melting. Have a great weekend, Marc!
🙂
WOW, those are impressive and I would enjoy seeing that!
Thanks, Terry. It was something truly spectacular. Have a great weekend.
Those are wonderful sculptures. The photos are lovely.
Many thanks, Dan. It was a remarkable experience. Here’s to a terrific weekend.
🙂
Beautiful photos. The sculptures were amazing, especially that zipper-so realistic. XO
Thanks. That zipper was unbelievably realistic. Ha e a lovely weekend, Ellen.
Great snow sculptures, Monika. Seeing those blocks of snow you have to wonder how the end results were even possible.
Isn’t that the truth?! Have a great weekend, John.
I hope you have a great weekend as well, Monika. 😊
Cool sculptures (hehe), but the crowds sound stressful!
60º??? I can’t imagine it… our weather is very messy this week!
Haha…I see what you did there. 😉 Yes, 60 in January! Last weekend we were in single digits. Have a great weekend-hope it’s not too messy.
fantastic! Glorious workmanship
Many thanks, Leanna. It was fun seeing such creativity on a gorgeous day. Have a good weekend.
WOW!! What a gorgeous day and such beautiful and detailed sculpures!!
I wish all winter days were that pretty! Have a super weekend.
The sculptures are amazing, and your photography is superb! What a wonderful post!
Oh gosh, Lori. Thank you! Those sculptures were quite impressive. Wishing you a great weekend!
Very cool, I think the zipper one is my favorite!
It was a very realistic sculpture. Mom kept going back and looking at it from different angles. Hope you have a swell weekend!
Amazing sculptures!! I agree with your favorite one, and then the Mongolia one was my second choice. The climate change one. Thanks, Elsa and Wilson, for sharing them with us. Your mom did very well at taking the pics!
I am glad it was such a nice day for you and Elsa and Wilson to be able to get out and that you made it through all the traffic. I guess everyone else was tired of cabin fever, and the mountains are beautiful!
Happy Friday! Have a wonderful weekend! ❤️
Summit County is a very compelling place to visit, plus it’s only 80 miles away so it’s an easily accessible as day trips go. Everyone seemed to have the same idea. Hope your weekend is fabulous!
🥰
these are amazing! i agree with your assessment of the geometrical one….the faces on the people were so good. I liked the zipper one too. have a good weekend puppies, get muddy! (that was from Chester…)
Thanks. It was a remarkable sculpture, no doubt about it and I suspect the carved out portions posed some special engineering to stay stable. Still it seemed boring even if it was precision all the way. Chester…don’t give the Ranch Hands any ideas-they do well enough on their own. Have a great weekend.
Looks like we were on the same wavelength for posting today. This year we went the first day so most sculptures were just getting started. It is fun to see them working on them. Usually we go the next day when they are mostly done. It is amazing to see what they do with snow.
How ironic! With a 20 ft. block of iced snow, I can see why it took 4 days for them to create this amazing sculptures. Have a great weekend.
WHAT a treasure you brought us!!!
{Blush}. Thank you, Carole. It was truly a special day. We hope you have a ‘pawsome’ weekend.
Wow! Those photos are great and I’m sure the sculptures are even more grand and beautiful in person. Thanks for sharing; what a fun and beautiful trip!
Thanks, Mike. It was a spectacular day. Have a wonderful weekend.