Ice Alaska - Fairbanks March 15, 2008

We went to the ice carving competition in Fairbanks. The competition goes on for three weeks. There are single block and multi-block exhibits. No more than two people can work on the single block ones and no more than 4 people on a team for the multi-block. Single bock sculptors have 60 hours to complete their entry. Multi-block sculptors have 10 blocks of ice to work with and must complete their entry in 132 hours (5 1/2 days). They say that teams usually work around the clock to meet the deadlines. They also have a junior competition.

The website has about 20+ web cams. You can go to the homepage and see the sculptures and activities. One of the web cams is pointed at the main stage. We stood in front of the stage called out kids, told them get online on the IceAlaska homepage and click on the stage web cam. They were able to see us in Fairbanks Alaska while we talked to them on the cell phone!! We waved to them in Texas and Nebraska.

IceAlaska home page: www.icealaska.com

One of the problems that the Ice Festival has had this year is that it has been too warm. Unfortunately, some of the sculptures had already melted a bit, destroying their intricate details and, in some cases, actually breaking off parts of the carvings. The black screens that you see hung behind the carvings are there to prevent the sun from reaching the carving so they don’t melt. They have lots of other winter activities in conjunction with the ice festival and some of their races, etc were run in slush instead of snow or ice.

We were there during the afternoon. You can see the lights behind the sculptures in some of the pictures. They are lit up at night. Some have white lights and some have colored lights.

*Entrance*

*Octopus*
The kids could crawl through the arms of the octopus.

You can see them inside each arm.

A child inside the arm of the octopus.

Ice Cabin/Slide

Santa Claus and chimney in the walk-through ice maze.

This is the size ice block they started with.

*Dinosaur Slide*

You can see how tall the ice slides were.
This dinosaur had steps made out of ice on the left hand side.
The kids climbed the step and slid down the dinosaur's tail - and loved every minute of it!!!!

*Ice Kayak*

*Ice Snow Machine*

*Mouse & Teapot*
Notice the etching on the teapot.

*Tiger*

*Painting the ice blue*

*Seahorses*
(Note the detail)

Doug "absolutely" loved this one. Look closely and you will get the pun.

*Lady looking in a mirror*

*Dancers*
These next ones you can see where the hands had melted.

*Musicians*

*Eskimos and Seal*

*Still Life*

*Sled Dogs and Sled*