Colorado Seen 01/2014
CLIMBING ICE
ALSO n SNOW SCULPTURES
Colorado Seen
From the Editor Baby, it’s cold out there! And Colorado thrives on the cold. Get ready for the winter of 2015 by seeing how Colorado celebrated the cold in 2014, at the Ice Festival in Ouray, and the Your snow-sculpting correspondent competition in in the wind the winter-sports and snow at mecca of Brecken- the Ouray Ice ridge. Festival. We’ve made a Photo by Kate Hall few subtle design changes this year: a new story typeface, a new 5-column format that opens up some flexibility and breathing room in layouts, and slightly bigger dimensions to make use of larger or higher-resolution computer screens. Our first issue of 2015 is already in the works!
Colorado Seen An internet image magazine Editor & Publisher Andrew Piper We welcome comments and letters. Submit them to: coloradoseen@comcast.net To submit work or story ideas for consideration, send an e-mail to: coloradoseen@comcast.net If you would like to advertise in ColoradoSeen, send an e-mail to coloradoseen@comcast.net for information on rates and interactive links. Copyright © 2014 ColoradoSeen
On the cover: Ben Schuchard, of Fort Collins, CO, navigates a monstrous icicle on the chasm wall of the Ouray Ice Park, during the Park’s 2014 Ice Festival.
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SCULPTING Every year in Breckenridge, Colorado, artists from around the world turn 12-foot cubes of snow into glistening visions.
Heiki Ryynänen puts the finishing touches on Northern Sun, Finland’s entry in the snow-sculpture competition
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Jeff Stoller of Colorado finds a restful attitude from which to shape the curves of a sea monster for the sculpture Must Be Using the Wrong Bait, a Colorado entry.
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TEXT & Photos by
Andy Piper
alk about your process art! Imagine putting months of thought into designing a sculpture. And then flying thousands of miles across the world to a little Colorado mountain town, and spending days (and nights) of hard labor carving your vision out of 20 tons of contrary, fragile, cold stuff. Only to watch it melt into just another puddle of water within days or weeks (or sometimes only hours). That is the agony and the ecstasy of the annual Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championships, held in the winter sports mecca of Breckenridge.
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n 2014, fifteen teams from across the chilly regions
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Opposite, Colorado sculptors Jeff Stoller (standing) and Tracey DuCharme (inside the beast) use a scale model to plan their work of art, carved from
a solid 12-foot cube of packed snow. Above, a member of the Vermont team cleans up a sharp angle in the outer layer of the sculpture Fugue as judging approaches.
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At dusk on the day before judging, Garbriela Kulenkampff cuts through the last temporary supporting pillar for Germany’s cantilevered sculpture Apacheta, as team captain Franziska Agrawal (front) and Elizabeth Thorp make suggestions.
In the fading light, Altanbayar Odgerel of Mongolia works on top of the sculpture Fight. Mongolia sent
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two teams to the Breckenridge sculpture competition in 2014.
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of the globe put their hearts and souls and shoulders into producing just such evanescent glory.
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ith shovels and scrapers, saws and ladders, and buckets of water for glue, each team wrestled 12x12x12-foot cubes of packed snow into visions of: the sun, the moon, sea monsters, butterflies, dragons and battling horses. Or just an abstraction of the human spirit, looking ever upwards. But as beautiful as they are, the true art in this gallery is not the final sculptures themselves, soon to melt away. It is the acts of creation themselves that are worth the view. n
Working through the night and into the glow of dawn, sculptors from France (left) and Lithuania strain to beat the judging deadline of 10 a.m.
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Under a crescent moon, Violetta Uboldi of Italy shapes a human form in the sculpture Looking Up.
After the all-night work, the morning sun finally brings a touch of warmth, shining through the Lithuanian sculpture Once Upon A Time Here Was A Forest. A saw helps shape the Styrofoam™-like snow.
With a sharp-toothed metal scraper, Heiki Ryyn채nen of Finland smooths and shapes the surface of the
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sculpture Northern Sun, as the minute count down to the deadline for judging.
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Competition judge and Denver artist David Griggs takes notes as he inspects the Vermont team’s entry Fugue.
And the winners were: t
1ST Place Winter Fun Breckenridge USA
2ND Place APACHETA
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Keith Martin Tim West, Tom Day, Margo Jerkovitz
Germany
Franziska Agrawal, Gabriela Kulenkampff, Marcus Kรถsel, Elizabeth Thorp
The 2015 Breckenridge Budweiser Snow Sculpture Competition schedule is: Stomping Week January 19-23 Sculpting January 27-31 Viewing January 31February 8
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3rd place WANDERER WISCONSIN USA
Jeff Shawhan, Jeffrey Olson, James Malkowski, Gregory Brulla 25
Must be fishing with the wrong bait USA - Colorado Tracey DuCharme, Jeff Stoller, Kimberly DuCharme Nickerson, Mike Emmerling
FUGUE USA - VERMONT Michael Nedell, Adrian Tans, Brooke Monte, Alex Dosti
VESTIDA DE NIT - DRESSED NIGHT CATALUNYA (CATALONIA, SPAIN) Lluis Ribalta Coma-Cros, Kike Rocha Robinson, Martina Ribalta Coma-Cros, Mateu Marcet Blasi
LOOKING UP ITALY Vittoria Parrinello, Clara Camerino, Violetta Uboldi, Camillo Triulzi
NIGHT ESTONIA Lauri Tamm, Henry Timusk, Jana Huul, Agu Trolla
THE SOMERSET HUNKY-punks great britain Oliver Annaly, James Wheeler, Thomas Kenrick, Will Whitmore
And the OTHERS
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ONCE UPON A TIMe HERE WAS A FOREST... LITHUANIA Kestutis Lanauskas, Mindaugas Jurenas, Arturas Burneika, Tomas Petreikis
NORTHERN SUN FINLAND Marianne Aittoniemi, Minna Eloranta, Saila Hastrup, Heikki Ryyn채nen
DARK SIDE OF THE MOON FRANCE Denis Magnan, Baptiste Magnan, Jean Michel Benhafaied, Martin Flaux
MOTHER LAND MONGOLIA Tsagaan Munkh-Erdene, Khishigdalai Altankhuu, Ganbataar Enkh-Erdene, Arslankhuu Battulga
IMMORTAL SPIRIT OF ANTIQUITY RUSSIA Alex Sidorov, Stanislav Sidorov, Yevgeniy Savchenko, Ilya Kernitskii
FIGHT MONGOLIA Batmunkh Tserendash, Govisaikhan Baynamunkh, Altanbayar Odgerel, Chantsaldom Lkhaasuren
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OURAY! FOR ICE CLIMBING Every January, climbers from around the world come to this mountain-walled town for the annual Ice Festival
Jeff Mercier of France competes in a speed-climbing race during the Ouray Ice Festival in January, 2014.
A recreational climber nears the rim of the Ouray Ice Park’s 150-foot chasm as other climbers and spectators watch from below.
TEXT & Photos by
Andy Piper
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he tiny town of Ouray lies nestled in a deep bowl on the northern rim of Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. In the southern edge of this bowl, the Uncompahgre River has carved a deep narrow box canyon, shaded from the sun, where snow melt and runoff have always created ice formations during the winter.
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eginning in 1994, some enterprising climbers began “farming” a denser wall of ice by piping water to the chasm rim, where it spilled down the sides, forming walls, pillars and icicles — up to 200 feet in height — in a surreal addition to the natural icescape. Thus began the Ouray Ice Park. In January, 1996, Ouray held its
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Looking into the abyss (opposite) a couple watch the climbing competition from one of the bridges spanning the chasm of the Ouray Ice Park. Ouray (pronounced You-
ray) is nestled in a bowl beneath towering peaks on the northern edge of the San Juan Mountains. Above, a young observer huddles against Ouray’s cold winter winds and snow.
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Ben Schuchard, of Fort Collins, Colorado, climbs alone, dwarfed by the bluegreen icicles and pinnacles of the deepest part of the Ouray Ice Park.
Evergreens and Rocky Mountain stone surround a climber as he speed-climbs in competition.
The 20th Ouray Ice Festival will be held January 8-11, 2015, with the climbing competitions taking place on the weekend of Jan. 10 and 11.
first Ice Festival, and it has been an annual event ever since, featuring both recreational and international competitive climbing.
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ith crampons on their feet, and extremely modified ice axes (now referred to simply as “tools�), climbers from around the world race up the vertical ice walls, facing various technical challenges. In the Hari Berger Speed Climbing Competition (named for the late Austrian climber Harald Berger), competitors race in pairs, straight up two 180-foottall routes, often in less than 30 seconds. To the cheers of spectators on the canyon rim and the two bridges that span the crevasse. n
BELAY THAT! Kendra Strich, above, is caught by her belaying rope as ice crumbles under her climbing tool during the women’s speed climbing competition. She went on to win first place despite the slip.
Opposite: After ringing the cylindrical gong to complete his climb, a male competitor intentionally kicks loose from the ice wall to speed his 80-foot descent to the chasm floor for the next round.
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Durango ice climber Brian Clark, left, coaches his protege, 17-year-old Kai Meyer, through a difficult
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section of the speed climbing course. Meyer, in his first-ever competitive event, took fourth place.
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From right to left, Kendra Strich, Dawn Glanc and Stephanie Maureau took first, second, and third place in Women’s Speed Climbing. Three weeks later, Strich represented the U.S. in a demonstration of ice climbing at the Sochi Olympics. n
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